Join us for an evening of artist talks, performances, art making, and conversation.
See
Battle! Hip-Hop in Armor
5–8 pm
Floor 1, Gallery 371, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Arms and Armor Court
The world of hip-hop dance culture collides with the bygone age of chivalry when freestyle dancers meet knights in armor. Discover the unexpected parallels in this unrivaled series of thrilling dance battles, commissioned by MetLiveArts in collaboration with The Met's Arms and Armor department and the fierce artists from the urban dance organization Dancing in the Streets of the South Bronx. Performances begin at 5 pm, 6 pm, and 7 pm.
Culture and Memory: Selections from the Thomas J. Watson Library
5:30–8 pm
Floor 1, Thomas J. Watson Library
Stop by and view a pop-up display of selections from the Watson Library's collection, featuring artists' books, photo books, and other rare publications from the early 1800s to the present.
Write
(Un)Patterned Art and Poetry
6:30–8:30 pm
Floor 2, Gallery 217, The Astor Court
Join poet Antoinette Cooper-Bumekpor in the serene Astor Court for a meditative art and poetry activity that considers creation, destruction, and reconciliation. Create an original work of art inspired by the patterns in the art and architecture that surround you. Adorn your artwork with gold leaf and found poetry or an original poem. Sessions begin at 6:30 pm and 7:30 pm.
Use the following short poem by Cooper-Bumekpor as your guide:
Let there be breath.
Let there be breath again.
"I Do Not Understand This Object Yet"
6–8 pm
Floor 2, Gallery 917
This writing and looking workshop with poet Farnoosh Fathi expands the definitions of art, prayer, and understanding thorough a series of meditative exercises. Drawing inspiration from Sister Mary Corita Kent's exercise "I Do Not Understand This Object Yet" and Sister Wendy Beckett's teachings on surrendering to art's request for our highest attention, this workshop explores what we see and how we see, meditating on the nature of our own attention as much as the work of art. Sessions begin at 6 pm and 7 pm.
Discuss
Met Perspectives: Art and War
Join Met curators and educators for a series of timely conversations that connect objects in The Met collection to current events. Meet at the locations below.
American Wing
5:30–6 pm
Floor 1, Gallery 700, The Charles Engelhard Court
Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
6–6:30 pm
Floor 1, Gallery 350, The Lester Wunderman Collection of Dogon Art
Medieval Art
6:30–7 pm
Floor 1, Gallery 305
The Destruction of Memory: A Conversation
6–8 pm
Floor 1, The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Join Tim Slade, director of The Destruction of Memory (2016), Maya Alkateb-Chami, Managing Director of the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School, and Azra Akšamija, artist and Associate Professor of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as they share excerpts from the film and discuss the implications of the destruction of ancient and historic monuments during modern conflict.
"If Cairo Were Destroyed": Heritage, Identity, and Permanent Crisis
7–8 pm
Floor 1, Gallery 534, Vélez Blanco Patio
Curator and architectural historian Mohamed Elshahed discusses heritage destruction in times of peace, histories of restoration, policies of willful neglect, practices of ruin making, and how imperial styles, symbols, and architectural motifs are appropriated in the construction of postcolonial societies. Focusing on Cairo, Egypt, Elshahed paints a picture of the permanent identity crisis paradoxically happening in a place with one of the world's most recognizable ancient civilizations.
This event is part of MetFridays: New York's Night Out.
MetFridays programs are made possible in part by Bonnie J. Sacerdote.
