Chief Artsy Friend

Friday, February 15th | 6pm - 8pm

Maya Freelon is an award-winning visual artist whose work was described by the late poet Maya Angelou as "visualizing the truth about the vulnerability and power of the human being."

Friday, June 21st | 6pm - 8pm

William Paul Thomas makes images to record his life experiences and observations with an approach that defies traditional documentary practices. Heavily focused on intimate oil portraits of Black subjects, he chooses certain models as a way of recognizing their significance in his life’s path. He draws on his immediate social network to offer complex representations that counter the simplified stereotypes found in popular media.

Friday, March 15th | 6pm - 8pm

Saba Taj is a Pakistani-American artist and activist native to North Carolina. Drawing from her identity as a queer Muslim in the American South, her work challenges racism and xenophobia through empowered representations of people of color. Through interdisciplinary practices, Taj explores hybrid identities, inherited trauma, and revolution.

Friday, August 16th | 6pm - 8pm

Originally from Durham, NC; Expert Sculptor,Instructor, and Award Winning Artist Stephen Hayes has a deeply rooted passion for visual art. Hayes has a successful record of teaching, art conservation, and professional individual and group exhibitions. With his advanced knowledge of sculpture, fabrication, ceramics, metal working, blacksmithing, and instillation, Hayes prefers to be known as a “creator” and not as just an artist.

Friday, April 19th | 6pm - 8pm

Derrick Beasley is a visual artist from Durham, NC. He uses installation, photography, graphic design, woodwork, cultural space-making, and community organizing as mediums for his creative work. While taking on a multitude of mediums, his work seeks to reconcile the past with the present and the future. Derrick’s art is a pursuit of boundlessness and abundance largely in service of his own healing, hoping his truths will resonate with others. Everythang is a selfie. 

Friday, October 25th  | 6pm - 8pm

Victoria L. Scott-Miller is the founder of Liberation’s Station, a children’s pop-up bookstore that offers "over 500 thoughtfully curated titles that are center focused to represent African-American children and with access to over 10,000 titles for distribution." Victoria is also a collector of literature and will share with us about the importance of collecting this medium of art and how to collect. She will also share her journey with a collectable connected to a very important person in American history.