Curated by poet and scholar Joshua Bennett, The Bond of Live Things Everywhere stages Black poetry and performance in the open air, in close proximity to the water and the trees, as well as the live things that evade such proper names.

Inspired in part by “The Clearing”—a green space cut deep in the woods where a free Black community finds grace in Toni Morrison’s Beloved—this installation explores the bond between Black freedom dreams and stewardship of the Earth. We share this combination of poetry and music in pursuit of a collective vision, an electric conviviality, rooted in the Black environmental imagination.

This is a call to The Clearing. An invitation to encounter the planet we call home on new, and more liberating, terms.

This exhibition is presented in partnership with the Poetry Society of America. Support for this project has been provided by The Destina Foundation, The David Rockefeller Fund, and Humanities New York. Additional support provided by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The New York State Council on the Arts.

Curator: Joshua Bennett
Exhibition Design: Morcos Key
Sound Design: Marcus Johnson
Photos and Video: Kaitlin Tyler