BALTIMORE, MD – The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) has named multi-disciplinary artist, musician, and poet abdu mongo ali as its inaugural Alice and Franklin Cooley Composer in Residence. Ali will respond to a creative prompt using the museum’s collection and exhibitions as a site of exploration and inspiration. The residency began in September and will culminate on Thursday, January 22 with a performance of ali’s completed work, between every breath, there is atmosphere. This sonic and visual performance considers how Maryland’s southern Atlantic atmospheric and ecological conditions affect contemporary Black Baltimoreans. The title is derived from a collection of ali’s poems that speak to the interconnectedness of Blackness, gay life, and the afterlives of slavery.
Throughout cultural history, writers and composers have drawn creative inspiration from the visual arts. Whether Keats’ poetic praise of a Grecian urn, or Beyonce’s powerful encounter with Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, these cross-disciplinary connections resonate across audiences and provide a lens to see art from a new perspective. As a catalyst and creative incubator for these transdisciplinary connections, the BMA’s prompt centers around ecology, the study of the relationships between living beings, as part of the museum’s Turn Again to the Earth initiative focusing on art and the environment.
“I was prompted to create this residency as a result of some of the cross-disciplinary artistic presentations that have inspired me the most,” said Asma Naeem, BMA Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “Baltimore has a rich artistic community that both connects and transcends traditionally defined genres, and I could think of no one more fitting to be our inaugural Composer in Residence than abdu ali, whose life and work creatively crosses boundaries of all kinds.”
More information: https://artbma.org/
