Invisible to Whom? | 70 Years of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

Invisible to Whom? | 70 Years of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (EST)

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

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In celebration of the seventieth anniversary of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Cave Canem commissioned Cameron Awkward-Rich, Kadeem Gayle, and Lorelei Williams to compose poems inspired by the novel and Elizabeth Catlett’s sculpture Invisible Man: A Memorial to Ralph Ellison (2003).

In reference to the title of Ellison’s book, Toni Morrison once asked, “But invisible to whom?” This collaboration used this question to center the artistic practices of those committed to making the invisible visible.

Cameron Awkward-Rich  is the author of two collections of poetry—Sympathetic Little Monster  (Ricochet Editions) and Dispatch (Persea Books, 2019)—as well as The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment (Duke University Press). He is an Assistant Professor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Lorelei Williams  is a poet and philanthropic strategist. Her writings have appeared in Essence Magazine, Meridians Journal on Feminism, Race, and Transnationalism, and African Voices. A graduate of Yale and Harvard universities, she is Executive Director of the Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund.

Kadeem Gayle  is a patient advocate, poet, and medical humanist. He is a doctoral candidate at Drew University studying Medical and Health Humanities. Gayle holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Adelphi University and has written for The Republican.

Cave Canem is grateful to our passionate and generous community of individual donors and institutional funders, whose support has made this public program possible.