Body of Work: Thomas Allen Harris
Body of Work: Thomas Allen Harris
A Queer Black Body: Thomas Allen Harris
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 a pop-up archival exhibition, A Return: Reflections, Place & Diaspora, curated by Darah Gaines Martin, 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. In Vintage: Families of Value, Thomas captures three Black families through the eyes of gay and lesbian siblings including Harris and his brother Lyle Ashton Harris. The film examines the family model around themes of sexuality and identity. In addition to Vintage, Cass Arrington, a former student of Tahj and Philadelphia native, will screen their short film, The World Before Me, about multi-generational experiences of growing up queer across two generations of family history. Family Pictures USA journeys through a rapidly changing landscape where the hallmarks of a familiar and idealized “America” are being transformed. In America’s comeback city, “Detroit”, the series reveals the city’s rise and fall and rise again through personal photos and stories of the city’s proud inhabitants. Through Family Pictures USA, the family photo album becomes actualized as a tool for collective social and cultural healing.
Each piece selected for viewing encompasses the multiple dimensions of Tahj’s artistic practice through the exploration of togetherness and individuality. Through this showcase, an homage is paid to the dynamic benevolence that is Black and queer identity. "A Queer Black Body” honors influences across the diaspora as well as place and cultural spaces, leaders and artists that have, in some way shape or form, led us to come together presently at The Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia.
Tahj’s body of work 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.
The Films
Thursday, February 20th at 7:00pm
The World Before Me
(2022, 6 min)
This essay film follows Cass Arrington’s journey to explore the experiences of growing up queer across multiple generations of shared family history, through reconnecting with a distant aunt from North Philadelphia.
Vintage: Families of Value
(1995, 71 min)
Friday, February 21st at 7:00pm
Family Pictures USA: Detroit
(2019, 60 min)
In America’s comeback city, “Detroit”, the series introduces descendants of both Native Americans and slaves whose ancestors helped build the city. Thomas visits the oldest hat store in the U.S. and learns about a border wall paid for by the U.S. government that was constructed to separate Black and white neighborhoods. One of America’s most prosperous cities in 1960, Detroit’s rise and fall and rise again is revealed through personal photos and stories of the city’s proud inhabitants. The enormous influence of the auto industry, the rise of labor unions, cultural touchstones like the Motown sound, the devastating impacts of the 1967 riots and the city’s renaissance today are all explored via family narratives and memories, expanding our understanding of Detroit and its multilayered story.
Director Thomas Allen Harris, is expected to be joined by Cass Arrington, Darah Gaines Martin and Donald Perry for post-screening discussions on Thursday and Friday. Conversations will be moderated by special guest programmer Denise A. Greene.
Pop Up Exhibition
A Return: Reflections, Place & Diaspora
Curated by Darah Gaines Martin
Monday February 17, 2025 - Monday February 24, 2025
Splash (1991, 7min)
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, 3min)
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”.
_______________________________
Thomas Allen Harris is a critically acclaimed filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist and Professor in the Practice at Yale University in African American Studies and Film & Media Studies. His work explores family, identity, and spirituality. Drawing from the rich canon of African American and African Diaspora literature and arts, he utilizes a wide range of media including video, photography, installations, film, and performance, as well as curation and written texts, to draw audiences into internal and external dialogues that transcend the artificial barriers – personal and social – which separate people from each other and themselves.
Denise A. Greene is the Director of Programs at Black Public Media, where she oversees the organization's key funding, acquisition and distribution initiatives for traditional media projects. In this role, Denise directs the creative vision for BPM's long-standing episodic broadcast series, AfroPop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, as well as the newest productions, Be Heard and AfroPop Digital Shorts.
View the trailer for Family Pictures USA here.
Scribe Video Center