We be the luminous blues…
Photo: Olympia Shannon Studio.
About the Exhibition
Tuesday, September 8, 2026–Sunday, March 14, 2027
Lenfest Center Lobby
On view daily 10 AM–6PM, and whenever public events are taking place at the Lenfest Center. Closed on University Holidays (November 3, 26, and 27; December 24, 25, and 31; January 1 and 18).
Columbia University School of the Arts is proud to present We be the luminous blues… by acclaimed artist, alum, and Assistant Professor Adama Delphine Fawundu '18.
We invite you to view Fawundu's eleven banners installed in the lobby of the Lenfest Center for the Arts. Open to the public, the exhibition celebrates ancestors and alumni of Columbia University who transformed the world in remarkable ways: anthropologist Ruth Benedict; biochemist Marie Maynard Daly; dentist Annie Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany and her sister, educator Sarah Louise "Sadie" Delany; cultural preservationist Ella Cara Deloria; folklorist, novelist, and writer Zora Neale Hurston; minister and suffragist Mabel Ping-Hua Lee; organizer and social worker Antonia Pantoja; actor and singer Paul Robeson; attorney and advocate Frederick Wells; and Jamaica, Cuffy, Prida, Caesar, Jenny, Betsy, Pompey, and Richard Jenkins—all of whom were enslaved by Samuel Bard and his family—as well as James, who escaped in 1776.
In Fawundu's stunning collages, these pathbreaking individuals appear alongside sacred geometric symbols inspired by Yoruba, Bakongo, Mende, Navajo and Lenni-Lenape traditions; using her process, Kpoto Patchwok, Fawundu mines and regenerates her expanding image archive of her body, textiles, hair, and various water bodies into new forms.
Producer: Gavin Browning
Production team: Ethan Caso, Dawn Clements, Philip Estrera, Julia Hahn, Holly Ko, Dave Park, Shelby Ann Parlade, Zack Tinkelman, and Lauren Weigel.
Graphic Design: Bernardo E. Garcia Valencia
Thank you to Adama Delphine Fawundu, Eddie José Bartolomei, Alison Brashaw, Thomas Carrol III, Nicole Saldarriaga Coggins, Angeline Dimambro, Joseph Gonzalez, Ron Gregg, Betti-Sue Hertz, Laumont Photographics, Dorothea Lasky, Larry Leith Jr., Kelly Lilly, Maribel Lopez, Esther Marte, Sebastian Musovski, Roxanne Rajapa, Robert Ramos, Michael Santini, Elena Saviano, Karen Sendler, Olympia Shannon, Melissa Smey, Gustavo Vargas, and Jana Wright.