A Return: Reflections, Place & Diaspora

Thomas Allen Harris - A week long event celebrating 30+ years of a Black cinematic archive

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Since the mid-1980s, multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker, Thomas Allen Harris Jr (Tahj), has used a wide range of media including video, photography, installations, film, and performance to examine the nuances of Black and queer identity and subjectivity, particularly within the construction of the diaspora and the family model.

Harris has been developing a co-creative and socially engaged practice that re-interprets identity, autobiography, and representation in the digital archive. For over three decades, by interweaving personal biographical material, Harris illuminates the notion of family through the Black queer gaze and pushes the boundaries of documentary filmmaking by creating internal and external dialogues that champion self-actualization and transcend artificial boundaries.

Monday February 17, 2025 - Monday February 24, 2025

In this week-long celebration of Tahj’s body of work, a series of videotapes derived from the artist’s archive from the 1990s, his first feature documentary film Vintage: Families of Value, as well as the PBS broadcast documentary series Family Pictures USA will all be screened at Scribe Video Center.

Through the archive installation, A Return: Reflections, Place & Diaspora we visit Brazil as well as various US cities during the 1990s, diving into various themes of family, spirituality, and self. We find ourselves in conversation with critically acclaimed poet and activist Essex Hemphill and transported back to moments of pre-adolescence, grappling with the concepts of intersectional identities. In these six pieces, Harris uniquely examines diasporic culture, as well as the human condition and Black and queer identity, through the preservation of the present moment, including candid discussion and performance art.

Through this showcase, we pay homage to the dynamic benevolence that is Black and queer identity. Each piece selected for viewing encompasses the multiple dimensions of Tahj’s artistic practice through the exploration of togetherness and individuality.

Tahj’s video archive will be open to the public starting Monday, February 17th until February 24th. All attendees will be given the option to engage with the material through written and/or visual response modules for the course of the exhibition. The two night screening will happen on Thursday, February 20th and Friday, February 21st at 7pm.

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Pop Up Exhibition

Monday February 17, 2025 - Monday February 24, 2025

A Return: Reflections, Place & Diaspora

Curated by Darah Gaines Martin

Splash (1991, 7 min)

Tahj’s 1991 experimental film Splash exemplifies an awareness of race and gender during the time of pre-adolescence. Splash reflects on coming to terms with multiple identities and decentering narratives that disconnect us from ourselves. The film uncovers the family’s role in the creation of sexual repression and gender conformity within a society that encourages the consumption of whiteness and heterosexuality.

A Dance In The Country (1992, 4min)

A Dance In The Country captures an intimate slow dance between queer couple, Alexa & Angela in Upstate New York, in November of 1992.

Thomas + Thomas (1992, 6min)

Thomas captures Thomas, a German man, in an intimate interview discussing self, sex and interracial desire.

Black Body in Brazil (1995, 8min)

In Brazil, Thomas Allen Harris engages his work with various musicians, including performance artist Rui Moreno, as he continues to explore diasporic identity while attending the Black Arts Festival in 1995. In this stage performance piece featuring Morena, Morena engages Thomas Allen Harris’ experimental film “Black Body”, emphasizing the humanity that supersedes the notion of Black identity and subjectivity.

A Conversation with Essex Hemphill (1991, 4min)

In 1991, Thomas Allen Harris attended the OutWrite Gay and Lesbian Conference in Boston, Massachusetts along with artists and activists including Cheryl Dunye, and Essex Hemphill. Captured is a moment with Hemphill in dialogue at the conference as well as internal moments in a hotel room afterwards.

The New Negro (1992, 4min)

In 1992, Thomas Allen Harris and director of The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye, walk the streets of the Lower East Side of New York City with friends, pondering the concept of the “New Negro”.