Great Stair Hall
Main Building
Explore the themes of The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure—Double Consciousness, Past and Presence, Our Aliveness—with guest speakers. Experts lead visitors on “detours” that bring their unique voices to an exhibition steeped in diverse artistic perspectives. The speakers will reprise their detours for the culminating event of the exhibition, the Black History Month Celebration on February 7, 2025.
Detour on Past and Presence:
Speaker: Morgan Lloyd
November 30, 2:30-3:30 p.m. – SOLD OUT
January 4, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
February 7, 7:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m. – SOLD OUT
Detour on Double Consciousness:
Speaker: Li Sumpter
November 30, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
December 7, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
January 26, 2:30-3:30 p.m. – SOLD OUT
February 7, 5:30-6:00 p.m. – SOLD OUT
Detour on Our Aliveness:
Speaker: Vashti Dubois and Michael Clemmons
November 17, 2:30-3:30 p.m. – SOLD OUT
December 15, 2:30-3:30 p.m. – SOLD OUT
January 18, 2:30-3:30 p.m. – SOLD OUT
February 7, 6:30-7:00 p.m. – SOLD OUT
About the speakers:
Vashti Dubois is the founder and Executive Director of The Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia, PA. She is a social practice artist, creative scholar, and institution-builder with over thirty years of experience in the nonprofit sector. The Colored Girls Museum (TCGM) is a grassroots, "place-based" memoir museum that focuses on black girlhood and honors the experiences of women and girls of the African Diaspora. It is the first of its kind and represents a unique approach to museum curation, with objects submitted by the Colored Girl herself, representing an aspect of her story and personal history that she finds meaningful. The museum is equal parts sanctuary, research facility, exhibition space, gathering place, and think tank.
In recognition of her work, Vashti was inducted as a 2022 honoree at the Germantown Hall of Fame and was a 2022 Fellow at Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts. She was also named a Philadelphia Cultural Treasures Fellow in 2023. Vashti is a graduate of Wesleyan University and is currently writing a book about the making of The Colored Girls Museum.
Vashti is a proud parent of three adult children and two grandchildren, all of whom live in Philadelphia.
Morgan Lloyd is a public historian, educator, activist, and artist whose work centers on a holistic and decolonial recentering of Black, Brown, and American Indigenous histories, with a particular focus on the 18th and 19th centuries. She serves as the Co-founder and President of 1838 Black Metropolis, a research-based educational nonprofit extension of the National Park Reconstruction Network.
Lloyd's expertise has been recognized through numerous professional and civic awards,including the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance 2024 Award, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society's 2024 Award, The Library Company's 2023 Biennial Innovation Award, the Black Hero in Health Equity Award from the University of Pennsylvania's Pair Center, and a Mellon Curatorial Fellowship at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Lloyd is also a proud Afro-Indigenous descendant of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape tribe and is actively engaged in the Southern Lenape (Unami) language revitalization movement in Pennsylvania.
In addition to these accomplishments, she currently serves as the interim Public Programming head and Lead Interpreter at the African American Museum in Philadelphia.
Li Sumpter, Ph.D. is a mythologist and multidisciplinary artist who applies strategies of worldbuilding and mythic design toward building better, more resilient communities of the future.
Li holds an MA in Arts and Humanities Education from NYU with a focus on critical pedagogy and visual and media literacy. She teaches adult courses on Afrofuturism, Special Exhibitions, Myth and Cinema, and various workshop topics for local and national arts institutions including The Barnes, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Fleisher Arts Memorial.
Li is the Director of MythMedia Studios and the Escape Artist Initiative and explores the art of survival and sustainability through immersive stories of change and diverse ecologies impacting communities of color. Recent projects of note include The Time Bandit -- Legacy Reclaimed: A 7th Ward Tribute, The Village Oracle, and Illadelph Dreams. Li has served on the African American Collections Committee at the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 2012 and remains an active member of the PMA community.
Michael Clemmons is the co-founder of The Colored Girls Museum and serves as its curator. He is also a visual artist with 30 years of experience in community engagement and project development. Previously, he was the acting director of Temple University’s Center for Community Partnerships and Development. Clemmons creates mixed-media paintings, ceramic sculptures, and installations that draw inspiration from timeless landscapes, West African culture, and personal iconography. He received his education from the University of the Arts, Temple University, and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia. His artwork is featured in collections worldwide.