PROSPECT5 NEW ORLEANS YESTERDAY WE SAID

The catalog accompanying the must-see triennial exhibition based in New Orleans—opening in October 2021—that art-world insiders consider an essential platform to see the pressing art of our moment.



Prospect New Orleans is a citywide contemporary art triennial that was conceived in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Emphasizing collaborative partnerships and site-specificity, Prospect presents artwork by local, national, and international artists in both traditional and highly unexpected environments. In the 2021 iteration of this major exhibition, artistic directors Naima J. Keith and Diana Nawi bring together 51 artists to engage New Orleans as context as they reconsider the concept of history, both global and local. Through many artistic strategies, architectural interventions, and public activations, the exhibition explores current social and political conditions that ask for a reconsideration of the past.
 

The accompanying catalog—a rich collection of contributions from curators, poets, artists, and cultural critics—considers several key themes that animate the ambitious artist projects: history and haunting; landscape and the natural world; performance, ritual, and the public sphere; and intimacy, life, and death. The remarkable group of voices contributing to the catalogue includes:

Essayists: Jeffery U. Darensbourg, Amber Rose Johnson and Meg Onli, Naima J. Keith, Thomas J. Lax, Diana Nawi, Kristina Kay Robinson. Photo Essayist: L. Kasimu Harris. Poet: Robin Coste Lewis. Contributors: Carlos Agredano, Taylor Renee Aldridge, Jordan Amirkhani, Bryan Barcena, Andrew Blackley, Jessica Bell Brown, Olivia Butera, Taylor Bythewood-Porter, Grace Deveney, Faye Gleisser, Ann Hackett, Essence Harden, Ryan Inouye, Andy Johnson, Bana Kattan, Dana Kopel, Simone Krug, Christy LeMaster, Nancy Lim, Lucia Olubunmi Momoh, fari nzinga, Ade J. Omotosho, Georgie Payne, Jared Quinton, Jared C. B. Richardson, Nicole Smythe-Johnson, Charlie Tatum, Susan Thompson, Emily Wilkerson, Allison Young
 

Naima J. Keith is vice president of education and public programs at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).  Diana Nawi is an independent curator based in Los Angeles.