In Atlantica, The Gilda Region, interdisciplinary artist April Bey creates an immersive installation that taps into Black Americans’ historical embrace of space travel and extraterrestrial visioning—a cultural movement dating back to the late 1960s and later termed Afrofuturism. Through this Afrofuturist lens, Bey reflects on subjects such as queerness, feminism, and internet culture in vibrant tableaux that combine plants, video, music, photography, and oversized mixed-media paintings and textiles.

In the exhibition, Bey positions herself as an alien from the planet “Atlantica,” where her mission on Earth is to observe and report as an undercover agent. This imagined world and her general interest in storytelling come from her father, who would relate childhood tales using alien narratives to illustrate how Black people were othered in the United States and The Bahamas. In contrast to the racial oppression and exploitation rampant on Earth, Atlantica offers a beautiful diasporic world in which Black people thrive and flourish.

A visual artist and art educator, Bey was raised in The Bahamas (New Providence) and now lives and works in Los Angeles, where she teaches at Glendale Community College.

April Bey: Atlantica, The Gilda Region is organized by the California African American Museum in Los Angeles.

As a benefit of membership, active Museum members are invited to view the fall lineup of exhibitions, including a last-chance-look at the feature exhibition Janna Ireland on the Architectural Legacy of Paul Revere Williams. Enjoy extended gallery hours, live music by the rocksteady/ska band Keyser Soze in the Nightingale Sky Room and cocktails on the Mathewson Sky Plaza. Galleries will host local DJ Fox&Buck. Drop in on the 3rd floor for a pop-up collage workshop and contribute to a future edition of Fallen Fruit’s collective zine. Drinks and small bites menu available for purchase.  

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Jimmy López Bellido, a world-renowned, Finnish-trained, Peruvian-American composer, was invited by Laura Jackson, Music Director of the Reno Philharmonic, to work with curators at the Nevada Museum of Art to select photographs from the Museum’s Carol Franc Buck Altered Landscape Photography Collection to inspire his brand-new composition, Symphony No. 3: Altered Landscape.

The symphony explores the dynamic interconnectedness of humans and the Earth and envisions a hypothetical future where people exist in harmony with the natural environment.

Join us for a discussion with Jimmy López Bellido, Laura Jackson and Director of the Center for Art + Environment, William L. Fox. For tickets to the world premiere symphony, please visit renophil.com

In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary—part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was largely forgotten–until now. Summer of Soul shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The feature includes concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more.

Summer of Soul is presented in partnership with Northern Nevada Black Cultural Awareness Society. 

Run time: 1 hour 57 minutes

Free. Advanced registration is required.

The Reno Philharmonic, together with the Museum, explores the marriage of art and music with a new symphony by Jimmy López Bellido. Inspired by The Altered Landscape: Carole Franc Buck Collection, the composition studies the dynamic interconnectedness of humans and the Earth and envisions a hypothetical future where we exist in harmony with our natural environment. Listeners discover an art museum in Mussorgsky’s mind, as he imagines walking from one picture to the next, characterizing each painting through sound.

This program is hosted at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts.

Loud As Folk celebrates their eleven years history highlighting songwriters in Reno with live performances by internationally acclaimed cellist Third Seven, Eric Andersen, Grace Hayes and Whitney Myer. Hosted by Spike McGuire.

Doors open at 6 pm with cash bar.

Presented as part of “UPSTAGE: A Literary and Performing Art Series” supported by the Nightingale Family Foundation and the Williams Foundation.

In 1906, Goldfield was Nevada’s largest and most prosperous city and the epicenter of America’s last great gold rush. On September 3rd of that year, Baltimore’s Joe Gans, the first African American champion, defended his lightweight crown against Oscar “Battling” Nelson, a white brawler, in a fight that had no scheduled duration. It was a fight to the finish.

In this film, documentary filmmaker Ted Faye introduces the story by exploring Goldfield at its boom, the impact, and importance of the fight, and the way in which residents have memorialized its history.

Film is approximately 30 minutes in length. A panel discussion will follow the screening and includes Kenny Dalton, President, Our Story, Inc., Dr. Elisabeth Raymond, Professor of History, Emerita, UNR, Mike Martino, Nevada Boxing Consultant, and filmmaker, Ted Faye.

Produced in association with Our Story, Inc. with support from Nevada Humanities.

Dr. Brett M. Van Hoesen, Associate Professor and Area Head of Art History at the University of Nevada, Reno, explores three key lessons in conjunction with Picasso’s ceramics: the importance of playfulness, the necessity for experimentation, and the culture of collaboration.