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Program

In Conversation: Asmaa Walton of Detroit’s Black Art Library, OlaRonke Akinmowo of The Free Black Woman’s Library with Myron Beasley, Scholar, Curator and Performance Artist

August 22, 2026, 4:00pm – 6:00pm

Pope.L, Portrait a.k.a. The American Dream Is to Be Able to Think, 1989–90. Acrylic, oil pastel, marker, pencil, and tape on craft paper with pushpins in artist's frame, 42 x 30 3/4 inches (106.7 x 78.1 cm). Collection of Darby English. Photo: Christopher Burke Studio © The Estate of Pope.L

Pope.L, Failure Drawing #208, 1.29.05, 2.16.05, 4.10.05, And The Sky…, 2005. Ink, ballpoint pen, acrylic, stains, mixed media, and glue on plastic coated paper, 11 3/16 x 16 1/8 inches (28.4 x 41.0 cm). Courtesy the Estate of Pope.L and Gladstone. Photo: Alexis Salas © The Estate of Pope.L

Pope.L, Title unknown, 2000. Collage, photocopy, pen, and paint on paper, 17 x 11 inches (43.2 x 27.9 cm). Collection of Jill & Peter Kraus. Photo: Kunning Huang © The Estate of Pope.L

Pope.L, Portrait a.k.a. The American Dream Is to Be Able to Think, 1989–90. Acrylic, oil pastel, marker, pencil, and tape on craft paper with pushpins in artist's frame, 42 x 30 3/4 inches (106.7 x 78.1 cm). Collection of Darby English. Photo: Christopher Burke Studio © The Estate of Pope.L

Pope.L, Failure Drawing #208, 1.29.05, 2.16.05, 4.10.05, And The Sky…, 2005. Ink, ballpoint pen, acrylic, stains, mixed media, and glue on plastic coated paper, 11 3/16 x 16 1/8 inches (28.4 x 41.0 cm). Courtesy the Estate of Pope.L and Gladstone. Photo: Alexis Salas © The Estate of Pope.L

Pope.L, Title unknown, 2000. Collage, photocopy, pen, and paint on paper, 17 x 11 inches (43.2 x 27.9 cm). Collection of Jill & Peter Kraus. Photo: Kunning Huang © The Estate of Pope.L

On the occasion of The Drawing Center's current exhibition Certainly An Act: Works on Paper by Pope L., join us for a special conversation and book swap during the residency of Detroit's Black Art Library in our bookshop.

Asmaa Walton of Black Art Library will be joined by OlaRonke Akinmowo of The Free Black Woman’s Library and Myron M. Beasley, PhD. Associate Professor of American Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Bates College for a conversation on the role of libraries in the African American Community as spaces for refuge and restoration, power and purpose.

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People

Lead support for Certainly an Act: Works on Paper by Pope.L is provided by Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis. Generous funding is provided by Jill and Peter Kraus, Sarah Arison, and Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg. Additional support is provided by Gladstone; Hilary and Peter Hatch, Bernard Lumpkin and Carmine Boccuzzi, Modern Art, London, Adam Pendleton and Karsten Ch'ien, Vielmetter, Los Angeles, Timur Galen and Linda Genereux, the Hudgins Family, and Ann and Mel Schaffer.

Special thanks to the Estate of Pope.L and Mitchell-Innes & Nash.

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