From Queen Elizabeth I to Harry Styles the legacy of pearls is a story about self-fashioning. Pearls feature prominently in many pictures of celebrated figures from the past. Worn as jewelry—as embellishments of the body and apparel, or embedded in the settings of precious objects—pearls illuminate ideas about beauty, power, and style.
European artists of the 17th through 19th centuries often depicted Black figures wearing pearl ornaments. The dialogue between racial and chromatic blackness paired visually with pearly luminescence resulted in a contrast that evoked notions of luxury, distant lands, and exoticized portrayals of Black bodies. Art historian and curator Adrienne Childs explores the complexities of the Black body that was subjugated and enslaved in one context yet used to showcase luxuries in another.
Join us for free food and music as we welcome the 2024 recipients to campus! Free food from the Big Green Truck Pizza, Pitaziki, Taqueria Tlaxcala, and Sweet Cupcasions. Music by Yale’s own DJ VNA.
Please visit windhamcampbell.org for detailed event descriptions and updates.
Shining Light on Truth presents evidence of the essential role of enslaved and free Black people in New Haven and at Yale. It celebrates Black resistance and community building. And it illuminates knowledge kept alive in archives and memory for more than three centuries—even when the dominant culture chose to ignore, bury, or forget.
This event marks the opening of the new exhibit, “Copying Sacred Scriptures: A Spiritual Practice,” now on view in the Hanke Gallery in Sterling Memorial Library. The event will include an introductory lecture and live Sagyŏng demonstration from Master Dagil Kim Kyeong-ho. A reception will follow at 6:00 p.m.
Master Kim is a poet, calligrapher, and artist who has devoted himself to the continuation of the rare art and technique of Sagyŏng (Buddhist sutra transcription) for the last 30 years.
In an increasingly secular world, one might question the relevance of illuminated, handwritten religious manuscripts. This exhibition invites you to explore the deep wisdom woven into this age-old tradition—a wisdom that opens doors to imaginative ways of incorporating spirituality into hectic daily routines.
FINZI-CONTINI LECTURE
Michael Willrich, Leff Families Professor of History at Brandeis University, will present on his new book “American Anarchy: The Epic Struggle between Immigrant Radicals and the US Government at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century.”
The 2024 Windham-Campbell Prize recipients will be in residence on Yale’s campus from September 17-20 for a multi-day international literary festival during which they will share their work, engage in conversation on a range of subjects, and celebrate reading and the written word with the New Haven community.
The full schedule of talks, discussions, and readings will be available at windhamcampbell.org in mid-August 2024.
In concerts across Europe in the 1780s, the young Viennese virtuosa Maria Theresia Paradis made blindness visible, even audible. Her performances invited listeners and viewers primed by horror ballads and literary romance to experience her story of trauma and misfortune within the frame of fictional narratives of doomed innocence and victimized Gothic heroines.
