AFTERSHOCKS: In Conversation
Long known for her exquisite landscapes and innovative techniques in photography and video, JoAnn Verburg questions how to continue making beautiful art amid the devastating reality of world events–a series of destructive earthquakes in Spoleto, Italy, in 2016 paired with profound global challenges and cultural unrest in the following years. Beneath the surface of the mesmerizing images of nature in “Aftershocks,” on view in Mia’s Harrison Photography Gallery, the question lingers, as she explores loss, dread, and the healing power of art in a time of worldwide change and upheaval.
Hosted in the Harrison Photography Gallery alongside the work, this program brings together poets and authors who will join Verburg for an afternoon of readings and conversation about finding inspiration and balance in an increasingly troubled and chaotic world.
Marvin Heiferman organizes exhibitions, online projects, and publications about photography and visual culture for institutions that have included the Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution, International Center of Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, and MoMA PS1. His writings have appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Artforum, Aperture, Art in America, and BOMB. He is the author of fifteen books, including Photography Changes Everything (2012) and Seeing Science (2019), which explores the intertwining of science, photography, and visual culture. Heiferman maintains multiple social media projects, collectively called Why We Look.
Jim Moore is a writer and author of seven books of poetry, including Prognosis (Graywolf Press, 2021). His poems have appeared in three Pushcart Prize Editions as well as numerous magazines, including the New Yorker, Paris Review, Nation, American Poetry Review, Harper’s, Kenyon Review, and The New York Review of Books. Moore has performed his poetry in readings across the country and is the recipient of grants from the Bush Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. He has been accorded the Loft McKnight Award, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Poetry, and four Minnesota Book Awards.
G.E. Patterson is a poly-disciplinary artist, writer, and educator whose work across media centers on social practice, public art, and community. He serves as a guest dramaturg for Tanztheater Munster. Patterson is the author of two acclaimed books of poetry, To and From (Ahsahta Press, 2008) and Tug (Graywolf Press, 1999), which received the Minnesota Book Award. He is currently at work on a series of essays on art and culture for Places Journal, where he is a contributing writer. Patterson is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem, the Djerassi Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, and New York City’s Fund for Poetry.
Danez Smith is the author of four collections including Don’t Call Us Dead, Homie, and, most recently, Bluff. They are also the curator of Blues In Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes. For their work, Danez has won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and have been a finalist for the NAACP Image Award in Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, as well as an array of grants, fellowships, and residencies including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Princeton Arts Fellowship. Smith teaches at the Randolph College MFA program and the Black Youth Healing Arts Center in St. Paul, and lives in Minneapolis with their people.