Essex Hemphill: Take care of your blessings
Essex Hemphill (1957–1995) was a prominent Washington, DC, poet, performer, editor, and activist whose work engaged themes of race, gender, sexuality, love, and community during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Take care of your blessings explores the interdisciplinary relationship between Hemphill’s writing—raw, politically charged, and deeply personal—and contemporary visual art. The exhibition presents the work of artists who knew or collaborated with Hemphill during his lifetime, alongside those who found inspiration in his artistic and political vision decades later. The result is in an intergenerational dialogue that spans time, media, and place.
Featured Artists
Sharon Farmer
Lyle Ashton Harris
Sir Isaac Julien
Clifford Prince King
Glenn Ligon
Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Richard Bruce Nugent
Shikeith
Joyce Wellman
Lyle Ashton Harris, Essex, LA Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, 1992, 2015
Diedrick Brackens, the night is my shepherd, 2022
Related Events
This exhibition is organized by The Phillips Collection.
Essex Hemphill: Take care of your blessings is made possible by Teiger Foundation.
Presented with the essential support of the Carolyn Alper Fund for Contemporary Art and The Marion F. Goldin Charitable Fund.
Additional support is provided by Daniel W. Hamilton and an anonymous donor.
IMAGE: Shikeith, Visiting Hours, 2022, Archival inkjet print on Photo Rag Baryta Paper, 49 x 60 in., Courtesy of the artist
Exhibition Catalogue
The exhibition will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue published by The Phillips Collection and designed by Common Name LLC. The catalogue features contributions by exhibition curator Camille Brown, as well as the following noted professors and contemporaries of Hemphill: Brian Freeman, Maleke Glee, Dr. James Smalls, and Ajamu X (FRPS). The exhibition and catalogue also correspond with New Direction’s publication of Love is a Dangerous Word: the Selected Poems of Essex Hemphill, a compilation of selected writing from Hemphill’s only published full-length collection, long out of print. Available soon in the museum shop and online at shopphillipscollection.org.