The Rabkin Interviews

Damien Davis is an artist, educator, and writer whose work explores how power, race, and cultural narratives are constructed and circulated. He is a winner of the 2026 Rabkin Prize. You can read more about Damien on our website.We invited Damien to have a conversation about his work and ideas. The interview is accompanied by a newly commissioned portrait of Damien at his studio in Newark, N.J., by Kevin J Miyazaki.The interview has been gently edited for length and clarity.Mentioned in this episode:* Project for Empty Space* Hrag Vartanian* Why is Everyone Afraid of Successful Black Artists? by Damien Davis (Hyperallergic, May 2025)* Against Default Settings workshop* Against Default Settings by Damien Davis* Why Nefertiti still inspires, 3,300 years after she reigned by Zahra Hankir (CNN,* December 2024)* Artist Fred Wilson* Sun Ra and Afrofuturism* A Subtlety by Kara Walker (Domino Sugar Factory, 2014)* Venice Biennale* Without Its Expert Jury, Venice Biennale Lets the Public Choose Its Prize Winners by Zachary Small (New York Times, May 8, 2026)* It’s Time to Rethink the 50/50 Split With Art Galleries by Damien Davis (Hyperallergic, Aug. 14, 2025)* The Viral Underclass by Steven Thrasher (Celadon Books, August 2022)* The Overseer Class by Steven Thrasher (Amistad, May 2026)This episode of the Rabkin Interviews was produced by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine. The interview was conducted by Mary Louise Schumacher, a journalist and the executive director of the Rabkin Foundation. The portraits were made by artist-photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. The production team includes Cindy Eggert Johnson, producer; Johnathon Olsen, editor; with research and copy editing by Danielle Yovino and Nan Williams.Music is HaHaHa by Ariel Shalom, Present in the Past by Flint, and Sunrise Heartbeat (Instrumental) by NOA. The Rabkin Prize is awarded through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rabkinfoundation.substack.com

Julia Halperin is a critic, editor, investigative data journalist, and co-founder of the Burns Halperin Report, which tracks equity and representation in the art world. She is a winner of the 2026 Rabkin Prize. You can read more about Julia on our website.We invited Julia to have a conversation about her work and ideas. The interview is accompanied by a newly commissioned portrait by Kevin J. Miyazaki of Julia in her Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment with Julia Bland’s “Spine, Wicked Listen: The Kettle Black,” 2017.The interview has been gently edited for length and clarity.Mentioned in this episode:* National Gallery of Art* Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110 by Robert Motherwell (1971)* Artist Kunié Sugiura* A Mega Gallery Shrinks: Pace Cuts 50 Artists, 50 Staff by Robin Pogrebin (The New York Times, June 3, 2026)* The Burns Halperin Report by Julia Halperin and Charlotte Burns* Artnet* Kerry James Marshall: Mastry (The Met Breuer, November 2015)* Columbia Journalism School* Ford Foundation* Mellon Foundation* Terra Foundation* Jessica Morgan Named to Lead Dia Art Foundation (Dia Art Foundation, January 2015)* Writer Judd Tully* New York Review of Architecture* TOTEI* The Gray Market by Tim Schneider* The Appraisal by Julie Brener Davich* The Picture of Little C.N. In a Prospect of Horrors by Bruce Hainley (Artforum, January 2019)* Enemies in Battle Over ‘LOVE’ Artist Bury the Hatchet by Julia Halperin (The New York Times, March, 14, 2025)* Artist Lee Ufan, Who Turns 90 Next Month, Will Change How You Feel About Time by Julia Halperin (Cultured Magazine, May 28, 2026)* Naoshima Island* Archive series 11st : The Claude Monet room in the Chichu Art Museum (Benesse-Artsite, June 2021)* Food writer Helen Rosner* Food writer Ligaya Mishan* Food writer Ruth Reichel* New York Times Cooking* Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson (1970)* Roden Crater by James Turrell (ongoing)* A Vanishing Masterpiece in the Georgia Marshes by Siddhartha Mitter (The New York Times, July 29, 2023)* Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Walt Disney Pictures, 2003)* MoMA* The Metropolitan Museum of Art* The New York Times* The Wall Street Journal* Art: A Sex Book by John Waters and Bruce Hainley (Thames & Hudson, 2003)* Artist Mike Kelley* A Handbook of Latinx Art by Rocío Aranda-Alvarado and Deborah Cullen-Morales (University of California Press, February 2025)This episode of the Rabkin Interviews was produced by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine. The interview was conducted by Mary Louise Schumacher, a journalist and the executive director of the Rabkin Foundation. The portraits were made by artist-photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. The production team includes Cindy Eggert Johnson, producer; Johnathon Olsen, editor; with research and copy editing by Danielle Yovino and Nan Williams.Music is HaHaHa by Ariel Shalom, Present in the Past by Flint, Younger (Instrumental) by DC PINC, and All Over the Place (Instrumental) by Kodie Shane. The Rabkin Prize is awarded through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rabkinfoundation.substack.com

Jan Tumlir is an author, editor, educator, and founding editor of the Los Angeles-based contemporary art journal X-TRA. He is a winner of the 2026 Rabkin Prize. You can read more about Jan on our website.We invited Jan to have a conversation about his work and ideas. The interview is accompanied by a newly commissioned portrait of Jan at his home office in Los Angeles by Kevin J Miyazaki.The interview has been gently edited for length and clarity.Mentioned in this episode:* World Trade Organization* University of California, Los Angeles* California Institute of the Arts* George Schultz (U.S. secretary of state, 1982-1989)* Cultural critic Walter Benjamin* October journal* Writer Rosalind E. Krauss* Art historian Benjamin H.D. Buchloh* Philosopher Martin Heidegger* Artist Michael Asher* The Beatles* Mythologies by Roland Barthes (Editions du Seuil, 1957)* X-TRA Contemporary Art Journal* The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles* Helter Skelter: LA Art in the 1990s exhibit curated by Paul Schimmel (The Museum of Contemporary Art, 1992)* Sunshine & Noir: Art In L.A. 1960–1997 by Max Kozloff (Artforum, November 1997)Los Angeles 1955-1985: The birth of an art capital exhibit (Centre Pompidou, 2006)* Getty museum* PST ART experience* Artist and writer Ellen Birrel* Artist Stephen Berens* Occidental College* LA Weekly* Art Issues magazine (1989–2001)* Writer Gary Kornblau* Artist Ron Athey* Writer Malcolm Gladwell* Artist Mike Kelley* Artist Andy Warhol* Coca-Cola [3] by Andy Warhol (1962)* Made in L.A. 2025 exhibit (Hammer Museum, 2025-2026)* L.A. Artland, Contemporary Art from Los Angeles by Chris Kraus, Jane McFadden, Jan Tumlir, Oriana Fox, and Catherine Grant (Black Dog Publishing, 2005)* Writer Chris Kraus* ArtCenter College of Design* Southern California Institute of Architecture* Artist Lari Pittman* Artist Marcel Duchamp* Archaeological Park of Pompeii* Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola (American Zoetrope, 1979)* On the Animation of the Inorganic: Art, Architecture, and the Extension of Life by Spyros Papapetros (University of Chicago Press, July 2012)* Art historian Aby Warburg* Artist Fernand LégerThis episode of the Rabkin Interviews was produced by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine. The interview was conducted by Mary Louise Schumacher, a journalist and the executive director of the Rabkin Foundation. The portraits were made by artist-photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. The production team includes Cindy Eggert Johnson, producer; Johnathon Olsen, editor; with research and copy editing by Danielle Yovino and Nan Williams.Music is HaHaHa by Ariel Shalom, Present in the Past by Flint, i know (Instrumental) by Flint, and Now That We’re Here by Danny Shields. The Rabkin Prize is awarded through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rabkinfoundation.substack.com

Alicia Inez Guzmán is a critic and award-winning investigative journalist focused on culture and land use. She is a winner of the 2026 Rabkin Prize. You can read more about Alicia on our website.We invited Alicia to have a conversation about her work and ideas. The interview is accompanied by a newly commissioned portrait by Kevin J Miyazaki of Alicia at her home with her dog, Frida, in Chimayo, N.M., surrounded by art, including “Questions,” by Monika Guerra; “Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe,” by Vicente Telles; and “The Frenchman’s House, Ojo Sarco, NM,” by Richard Guzmán.The interview has been gently edited for length and clarity.Mentioned in this episode:* Buried secrets, poisoned bodies by Alicia Inez Guzmán (Searchlight New Mexico, Dec. 20, 2023)* The terrible emptiness of ‘Oppenheimer’ by Alicia Inez Guzmán (Searchlight New Mexico, Aug. 8, 2023)* Artist Joanna Keane Lopez* American Progress by John Gast (1872)* U.S. Homeland Security post (X, July 23, 2025)* Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country exhibit (Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, 2025- Nov. 1, 2026)* O’Keeffe Country was never O’Keeffe’s to begin with by Alicia Inez Guzmán (High Country News, May 29, 2026)* Artist Jason Garcia on Facebook* Portraits of Georgia O’Keeffe (Alfred Stieglitz Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago)* Photographer Alfred Stieglitz* Artist and filmmaker Tara Najd Ahmadi* Unfinished: Art, Film, and Revolution in Iran, 1979 by Tara Najd Ahmadi (University of Rochester, N.Y., 2021)* Machu Picchu* Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (Penguin Random House, 2025)This episode of the Rabkin Interviews was produced by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine. The interview was conducted by Mary Louise Schumacher, a journalist and the executive director of the Rabkin Foundation. The portraits were made by artist-photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. The production team includes Cindy Eggert Johnson, producer; Johnathon Olsen, editor; with research and copy editing by Danielle Yovino and Nan Williams.Music is HaHaHa by Ariel Shalom, Present in the Past by Flint, March the Machine (Instrumental) by Envy, and Lakeside Cafe by WOOLFSON. The Rabkin Prize is awarded through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rabkinfoundation.substack.com

Sarah Lewis is an award-winning author, associate professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and founder of Vision & Justice, an initiative that reveals the role of culture in representational democracy. She is a winner of the 2026 Rabkin Prize. You can read more about Sarah on our website.We invited Sarah to have a conversation about her work and ideas. The interview is accompanied by a newly commissioned portrait of Sarah in the Franklin Street Park of Cambridge, Mass., by Kevin J Miyazaki.The interview has been gently edited for length and clarity.Mentioned in this episode:* If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground exhibit curated by Sarah Lewis in collaboration with Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr. (Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago, fall 2026)* Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr.* If Emmett Till Lived: A Creative Monument edited by Sarah Lewis (DelMonico Books, 2026)* Vision & Justice Initiative* Emmett Till Gets a Bulletproof Memorial by Jasmine Weber (Hyperallergic, Oct. 19, 2019)* Monument Lab* Curator Paul Farber* Civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill on Instagram* Writer Siddhartha Mitter (2024 Rabkin Prize winner)* Writer Vinson Cunningham* Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution* Writer Jeneé Osterheldt* Restorative Justice is Vital: The Ever-Revealing Truths of Emmett Till’s Story by Patrick Weems and Ronald K.L. Collins (Mississippi Free Press, Sept. 26, 2024)* Artist Kenn Cook Jr.* Artist Stephen Marc* The Effects of Stand-Your-Ground Laws (RAND Corp., Jan. 26, 2026)* Artist Hank Willis Thomas* Artist Theaster Gates* Artist Amy Sherald* Castle doctrine* Examining Breonna Taylor’s Death (Academy for Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University)* Understanding Race and History Through Photography by James Estrin, includes an image of musician and artist Shadrach Emmanuel Lee, Sarah Lewis’ (The New York Times, March 24, 2017)* Chatham House Rule* Afternoon of Conversation Sarah Lewis’ interview with actor/director Jodie Foster (Aspen Ideas, June 28, 2026)* Nieman Foundation* Photographer Dorothea Lange* Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson* Photographer Annie Leibovitz* Photographer Carrie Mae Weems* Photographer Dawoud Bey* Pictures and Progress a speech by Frederick Douglass on Dec. 3, 1861* On Photography by Susan Sontag (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977)* Regarding the Pain Of Others by Susan Sontag (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003)* Sarah Lewis takes over Selena Gomez’s Instagram* The Unseen Truth by Sarah Lewis (Harvard University Press, 2024)* Scholar Jennifer Roberts* Visual Analysis worksheet by professor Jennifer Roberts* Could You Spend Three Hours Looking at Just One Work of Art? by Shannon Doyne (The New York Times, Nov. 14, 2025)* The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity by James Baldwin (YouTube,1963)* The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery by Sarah Lewis (Simon & Shuster, 2015)* Harvard University’s Widener Library* Novelist, essayist and Harvard professor emerita Jamaica Kincaid* 14th documentary directed by Ava DuVernay (Netflix, 2026)* The Global Ideas Stage curated and hosted by Sarah Lewis and Nicola Benedettiati, director of the Edinburgh International Festival (August 2026)* Exposing Injustice: Incarceration of Japanese Americans Archives (Dorothea Lange Digital Archive, Oakland Museum of California)* Tule Lake: At This Segregation Center Are 18,000 Japanese Considered Disloyal to U.S. by Carl Mydans (Life Magazine, March 20, 1944)* Maya Angelou, The Art of Fiction No. 119 interviewed by George Plimpton (The Paris Review, Fall 1990)* The Joseph Campbell Foundation* Author Joe Dispenza* Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011)* Photographer and writer Teju Cole* Photographer Lewis Hine* MoMA* Tate Modern* Aperture* Grand Canyon National Park* The Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson (1970)* Yale School of Art* A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit (Penguin Random House, 2006)* EBONY magazine* Chicago Defender’s coverage of Emmett Till’s death and funeral* Journalist Amy Goodman* Democracy Now!* Journalist Christiane Amanpour* Writer Erica L. Green* Writer Audra D.S. Burch* Woodrow Wilson (U.S. president, 1913-1921) and segregation* A Beautiful Resistance column by Jeneé Osterheldt* Gordon Brown (British prime minister, 2007-2010)* Economist Adam Smith* Panmure House* Rosa Parks* Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement by Brandon M. Terry (Harvard University Press, 2025)* Equal Justice Initiative* Bryan Stevenson founder of the Equal Justice Initiative* The Legacy of Slavery exhibit (Edinburgh Playfair Library, 2026)This episode of the Rabkin Interviews was produced by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine. The interview was conducted by Mary Louise Schumacher, a journalist and the executive director of the Rabkin Foundation. The portraits were made by artist-photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. The production team includes Cindy Eggert Johnson, producer; Johnathon Olsen, editor; with research and copy editing by Danielle Yovino and Nan Williams.Music is HaHaHa by Ariel Shalom, Present in the Past by Flint, Forgotten Dreams (Creative Cut) by Aves, and Dream Loop by Ariel Shalom. The Rabkin Prize is awarded through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rabkinfoundation.substack.com

Tyler Green is a critic, author, historian, and longtime host of The Modern Art Notes Podcast. He is a winner of the 2026 Rabkin Prize. You can read more about Tyler on our website.We invited Tyler to have a conversation about his work and ideas. The interview is accompanied by a newly commissioned portrait of Tyler in the Edgar Shannon Library at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va, by Kevin J Miyazaki.The interview has been gently edited for length and clarity.Mentioned in this episode:* The Modern Art Notes Podcast* A Return to Round Top by Tyler Green (Medium, Nov. 10, 2014)* The Yosemite by John Muir (Dover Publications, 2018, reprint of Century Co., 1920)* Artist Juan Gris* Juan Gris exhibit curated by Mark Rosenthal (National Gallery of the Arts, 1983-84)* When Richard Diebenkorn Worked Through Henri Matisse’s Greatest Painting by Tyler Green (Medium, Jan. 15, 2016)* Matisse and Picasso: The Story of Their Rivalry and Friendship by Jack Flam (Basic Books/Hachette Book Group, 2008)* Matisse/Diebenkorn exhibit (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2017)* Artist Robert Colescott* Gerhard Richter: ‘Post-remembering’ the Holocaust in German Contemporary Art by Kris Belden-Adams (European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, 2016)* Uncle Rudi by Gerhard Richter (1965)* Gerhard Richter’s Uncle Rudi: Hidden History talk with René Block and Miloslav Vorlíček (Centre Tchèque Paris, 2026)* No. 769: Remembering Betye Saar The Modern Arts Notes Podcast (July 30, 2026)* Carleton Watkins: Making the West American by Tyler Green (University of California Press, 2020)* Emerson’s ‘Nature’ and the Artists: Idea as Landscape, Landscape as Idea by Tyler Green (Prestel Publishing, 2021)* Photographer Carleton Watkins* Artist Albert Bierstadt* Lewis Hine’s photographs for the National Child Labor Committee Library of Congress* The Ahwahneechees: A Story of the Yosemite Indians by John W. Bingaman (1966)* Fire Over Ahwahnee: John Muir and the Decline of Yosemite by Eric Michael Johnson (Scientific American, Aug. 13, 2014)* Artist Jacob Lawrence* Jacob Lawrence: ‘The American Struggle’ exhibit curated by Randall Griffey and Sylvia Yount (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, fall 2020)* Reckoning with American History in Jacob Lawrence’s ‘The American Struggle,’ abridged interview with historian Carroll Greene (Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art, 1968)* Historian John Hope Franklin (Library of Congress Resource Guide, 2024)* Scholar Gary B. Nash obituary by Clay Risen (The New York Times, Aug. 21, 2021)* Legal scholar Rogers M. Smith* Scholar Benedict Anderson* The Location of Culture by Homi K. Bhabha (Routledge, 1994)* ​​National Parks movement EBSCO Information Services Inc.* No. 387: American art and the Vietnam War The Modern Arts Notes Podcast (April 4, 2019)* Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975 curated by Melissa Ho (Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2019)* Second-wave Environmentalism* Harriet Beecher Stowe* Artist Marguerite Zorach* Photographer Ansel Adams* Artist Kay WalkingStick* New River Gorge National Park & Preserve* Legendary Teamwork of Moran and Jackson Puts Yellowstone on the Map by Christine Gianas Weinheimer (Yellowstone Quarterly, fall 2019)* Photographer George Masa* The Twisted History of the Gateway Arch by Fred Kaplan (Smithsonian Magazine, October 2015)* Yosemite Museum* American Indian Basketry California State Parks* Artist and editor Wilson Butterworth* Archives of American Art, Oral History Program (Smithsonian Institution)* No. 748: Edmonia Lewis (The Modern Arts Notes Podcast, March 5, 2026)Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone exhibit (Peabody Essex Museum, 2026)* No. 615: David Bindman (The Modern Arts Notes Podcast, Aug. 17, 2024)* Frank Day: Memory and Imagination by Abby Wasserman (The Museum of California magazine, Oakland Museum of California, 1997)* Artist Dalbert Castro Autry Museum of the American West* Denver Art Museum* Dawoud Bey: Elegy exhibit (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2023-2024)* Writer Catherine G. Wagley (2019 Rabkin Prize winner)* Writer Carolina A. Miranda (2017 Rabkin Prize winner)* Writer Siddhartha Mitter (2024 Rabkin Prize winner)* Writer Paul Chaat Smith (2025 Rabkin Prize winner)* Will L.A. County Give Its Art the Space It’s Due? by Tyler Green (Los Angeles Times, May 2, 2015)* Trump Is Missing the Entire Point of Arches by Tyler Green (The Atlantic, May 21, 2026)* Artist Kerry James Marshall* No. 86: Kerry James Marshall (The Modern Art Notes Podcast, June 27, 2013)* Professor Saidiya V. Hartman* 1933 International Conference of American States and the Good Neighbor Policy (Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State)* Artist Frederic Edwin Church* Artist Stephanie Syjuco* Inventing Peace by Lawrence Weschler (The New Yorker, Nov. 13, 1995)* No. 754: Vermeer: An interview with Andrew Graham-Dixon and Rachel Burgess (The Modern Art Notes Podcast, April 16, 2026)* Scholar Simon Schama* How Is Trump Targeting Universities, and How Are They Responding? by​​ Alan Blinder (The New York Times, July 1, 2026)* Panorama journal* In The Tower: Kerry James Marshall [and Tyler Green] (The Kojo Nnamdi Show podcast, Oct. 28, 2013)* Art historian and curator Franklin Kelly* Trump orders warning about ‘inaccurate information’ be placed outside D.C. museum by Janet W. Lee (Morning Edition, National Public Radio, July 27, 2026)* Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution Executive Order 14416 (July 24, 2026)* Los Angeles County Museum of Art* Oakland Museum of California* San Francisco Museum of Modern Art* Artist Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller* Henry Luce Foundation* Terra Foundation for American Art* Antebellum art* America’s Moral Volcano by Eleanor James Harvey (The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2013)* Joan Didion Archive* To the American Indian by Lucy Thompson (self-published, 1916)This episode of the Rabkin Interviews was produced by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine. The interview was conducted by Mary Louise Schumacher, a journalist and the executive director of the Rabkin Foundation. The portraits were made by artist-photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. The production team includes Cindy Eggert Johnson, producer; Johnathon Olsen, editor; with research and copy editing by Danielle Yovino and Nan Williams.Music is HaHaHa by Ariel Shalom, Present in the Past by Flint, Oh The Sunset by Just for Kicks, and cinnamonrolls by Out of Flux. The Rabkin Prize is awarded through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rabkinfoundation.substack.com

Kaelen Wilson-Goldie is a journalist and critic with decades of international reporting experience who writes often about the relationship between art and politics. She is a winner of the 2026 Rabkin Prize. You can read more about Kaelen on our website.We invited Kaelen to have a conversation about her work and ideas. The interview is accompanied by a newly commissioned portrait of Kaelen at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, N.Y., by Kevin J Miyazaki.The interview has been gently edited for length and clarity.Mentioned in this episode:* The Boston Globe* Writer Mike Barnicle* University of Virginia* The Cavalier Daily student newspaper* The Declaration student newspaper* C-VILLE Weekly* Writer Allen Ginsberg* BBC America* The Daily Star newspaper on web.archive.org* Writer Lysandra Ohrstrom* American University of Beirut* Beautiful, Gruesome, and True: Artists at Work in the Face of War by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie (Columbia Global Reports, September 2022)* Filmmaker Amar Kanwar* Artist Teresa Margolles* Artist collective Abounaddara* Universal Declaration of Human Rights* abou naddara by Abounaddara* Syrian Film Collective Withdraws from Venice Biennale, Claims Censorship by Hrag Vartanian (Hyperallergic, May 2015)* Major U.S. Museums Criticized for Responses to Ongoing George Floyd Protests by Alex Greenberger and Tessa Solomon (ARTnews, June 2, 2020)* Artforum Fires Top Editor After Its Open Letter on Israel-Hamas War by Zachary Small (The New York Times, Oct. 26, 2023)* Equator* Le Temps newspaper* Tribune de Genève newspaper* Le Courrier newspaper* Writer Jason Farago (2017 Rabkin Prize winner)* Writer Siddhartha Mitter (2024 Rabkin Prize winner)* Writer Emily Labarge* Writer Aruna D’Souza (2021 Rabkin Prize winner)* Writer Travis Diehl (2018 Rabkin Prize winner)* Art Galleries Are Not OK by Marc Spiegler (The New York Times, June 19, 2026)* Break, Learn, and Build by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie (The Public Review, Nov. 16, 2024)* Foreigners Everywhere (Stranieri Ovunque) exhibit curated by Adriano Pedrosa (Venice Biennale, April-November 2024)* The New Yorker* Writer Peter Schjeldahl* The Village Voice* On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century by Cynthia Carr (Wesleyan University Press, August 2008)* Teenarama: Rita Achermann by Peter Schjeldahl (The Village Voice, Jan. 22, 1998; digital reprint on Artnet.com)* Istanbul Biennial* Artist Henri Matisse* Artist Alexander Calder* Fauvism* Stony Brook University* Writer Katie Siegel* Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life exhibit curated by Ruba Katrib (MoMA PS1, 2021)* Curator Ruba Katrib* Writer Jerry Saltz* Burnaway* The Summer I Lay Dying by Jasmine Amussen (Burnaway, May 26, 2026)* Writer William Faulkner* Bidoun magazine* Writer Yasmine El Rashidi* Artist Hassan Khan* Here and Elsewhere exhibit (The New Museum, 2014)* Writer Negar Azimi* My Center is Not in the Solar System: Tributes to Etel Adnan essays by 23 writers, including Kaelen Wilson-Goldie (Bidoun and MACK, May 2026)* Writer Sukhdev Sandhu* Greater New York 2026 exhibit (MoMA PS1, April-August 2026)* Photographer Dean Majd* Mahmoud Khalil photographed by Dean Majd for Dazed magazine (Autumn 2025)* Musician Saint-Lavant (Marwan Abdelhamid) photographed by Dean Majd (GQ Middle East, November 26, 2023)* Whitney Biennial 2026 (Whitney Museum of American Art, March-October 2026)* The Incidental Insurgents multimedia installation by Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme (2012-2015)* Tassili n’Ajjer cave paintings* Artist collective Aouchem* Artist Baya Mahieddine* Venus in Two Acts by Saidiya Hartman (Small Axe, June 2008)* Whose Art Is It? by Jane Kramer (Public Planet Books, October 1994)* Swagger and Tenderness: The South Bronx Portraits by John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres (The Bronx Museum, 2022-2023)* Curator Tom Finkelpearl* Rosorita by Anita Desai (Scribner, January 2025)* Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor (Riverhead Books, October 2025)* Writer Lori WaxmanThis episode of the Rabkin Interviews was produced by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine. The interview was conducted by Mary Louise Schumacher, a journalist and the executive director of the Rabkin Foundation. The portraits were made by artist-photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. The production team includes Cindy Eggert Johnson, producer; Johnathon Olsen, editor; with research and copy editing by Danielle Yovino and Nan Williams.Music is HaHaHa by Ariel Shalom, Present in the Past by Flint, and Silky Tofu by Just for Kicks. The Rabkin Prize is awarded through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rabkinfoundation.substack.com

Melaine Ferdinand-King is a cultural strategist, poet, and writer focused on historical and community narratives, and the inaugural curator of the African American Museum of Rhode Island. She is a winner of the 2026 Rabkin Prize. You can read more about Melaine on our website.We invited Melaine to have a conversation about her work and ideas. The interview is accompanied by a newly commissioned portrait of Melaine in her home by Kevin J Miyazaki.The interview has been gently edited for length and clarity.Mentioned in this episode:* African American Museum of Rhode Island* Navigating by Starlight/PhDs of Practice speech by Melaine Ferdinand-King (Brown University, May 2025)* Reimaging Cultural Frameworks: Afrosurrealism in Practice speech by Melaine Ferdinand-King (Brown University, April 2025)* Sojourner Truth* Activist and writer Angela Davis* Ida B. Wells* Scholar Brian Meeks* Scholar Geri M. Augusto* Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiya Hartman (W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2020)* 1967 Interview between Aimé Césaire and René Depestre originally published in Poesias by Aimé Césaire (Casa de Las Emericas, 1969)* Manifestoes of Surrealism by André Breton, translated by Richard Seaver and Helen Lane (Ann Arbor Paperbacks, University of Michigan Press, 1969)* Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination by Robin D.G. Kelley (Penguin Random House, 2003)* Scholar Barrymore Bogues* Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists Since 1940 curated by María Elena Ortiz (Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 2024)* Artist Kara Walker* Artist Wifredo Lam* 21st Century Ph.D. at Brown University* Antidisciplinary term popularized by Joi Ito (MIT Media Lab, 2014)* Jazz Improvisers Score High on Creativity by Kimber Price (Science News, Jan. 2, 2018)* States of Consciousness: The Layered Life of Donnamaria Bruton by Melaine Ferdinand-King (Boston Art Review, Feb. 3, 2026)* Cade Tompkins Projects* Artist Edward Loper Jr.* Artist Shahzia Sikander* Delaware Art Museum* Black Biennial 2022 co-founded by Melaine Ferdinand-King* Rhode Island School of Design* Artist Bob Dilworth* Scholar Farah Jasmine Griffin* Musician Boots Riley on Instagram* Actress/writer Michaela Coel* Poet Hanif Abdurraqib* Poet Nikki Giovanni* Poet Amiri Baraka* Poet Lucille Clifton* Poet Jayne Cortez* Scholar Michele Faith Wallace* Poet Audre Lorde* Author Toni Cade Bambara* Art critic Jerry Saltz on Instagram* Poet Larry Neal* Black Arts Movement* Singer Donny Hathaway* Poet/musician Aja Monet* Singer Betty Carter* Singer/musician Alice Coltrane* Musician John Coltrane* Singer/musician Nina Simone* Musician Dizzy Gillespie* Art on My Mind: Visual Politics by bell hooks (The New Press, 1995)* Art Papers* Light A Fire Readings at Art Papers Art Writing and Publishing Symposium (2025)* Writer/critic Re’al Christian* Brooklyn Museum* Toward Joy: New Frameworks for American Art exhibit (Brooklyn Museum, October 2024)* Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses exhibit (Brooklyn Museum, 2026)* Artist Iris van Herpen and her Beyoncé design* Boston Art Review* Melaine Ferdinand-King’s work for the Boston Art Review* Mean-Making in the Here and Now: Reflections of an Emerging Curator by Melaine Ferdinand-King (Providence College Galleries, Dec. 19, 2022)* Dark Designs and Visual Culture by Michele Wallace (Duke University Press, 2004)* Designer Zoë PulleyThis episode of the Rabkin Interviews was produced by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine. The interview was conducted by Mary Louise Schumacher, a journalist and the executive director of the Rabkin Foundation. The portraits were made by artist-photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. The production team includes Cindy Eggert Johnson, producer; Johnathon Olsen, editor; with research and copy editing by Danielle Yovino and Nan Williams.Music is HaHaHa by Ariel Shalom, Present in the Past by Flint, and Old Bounce by Jaxon Wild. The Rabkin Prize is awarded through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rabkinfoundation.substack.com

Nicole Martinez is an arts journalist and the deputy director of Fountainhead Arts in Miami. She is a winner of a 2025 Rabkin Prize, and you can read her full bio on our website. We invited Nicole to have a conversation about her work. The interview is accompanied by a newly commissioned portrait of Nicole in her home office in Miami.The interview has been gently edited for length and clarity.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:* Ballet Etudes* “Trump’s Former Pal Plans To Beat Tariffs And The Immigration Crackdown” by Giacomo Tognini (Forbes, June 2025)* Carolina Drake* Artburst Miami* Fountainhead Arts* The Yearbook: 2024, An Annual Survey of Fountainhead Residency Artists by various writers (Fountainhead Arts, 2024)* Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates* Otter.ai app* Laurie Simmons’ Instagram account* “With the help of fellow Floridians and artificial intelligence, a Miami artist imagines a climate-resilient future for his city” by Nicole Martinez (The Art Newspaper, August 2022)* Ragnar Kjartansson’s solo show Las cosas que ves al momento de caer el telón, (The Things You See Before the Curtain Hits the Floor), Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, 2023.* Ragnar Kjartansson, God* Ragnar Kjartansson, The Visitors * Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) * RUNIK by Petrit Halilaj, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2023-2024)* Art on my mind by bell hooks* Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood, edited by Moyra Davey (Seven Stories Press, 2001)This episode of the Rabkin Interviews was produced by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine. The interview was conducted by Mary Louise Schumacher, a journalist and the executive director of the Rabkin Foundation. The portraits were made by artist-photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. The production team for the Rabkin Interviews also includes Cindy Eggert Johnson, producer; Johnathon Olsen, editor; with research and copyediting by Katie Avila Loughmiller and Karen Samelson. Music is by Flint, HaHaHa, Just for Kicks, and Curtis Cole. The Rabkin Prize is awarded through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rabkinfoundation.substack.com

Eva Recinos is an arts and culture journalist, educator, and creative nonfiction writer based in Los Angeles. Her essay collection, Underneath the Palm Trees, is forthcoming in 2027 from Northwestern University Press. She is a winner of a 2025 Rabkin Prize. You can read her full bio at our website.We invited Eva to have a conversation about her work. The interview is accompanied by a newly commissioned portrait of Eva in her home office in Los Angeles.The interview has been gently edited for length and clarity.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:* Mellon Foundation – Poet StoryLabNarrative, Community, and the Transformative Possibilities of Brown Storytelling at Whittier College* Carolina Miranda* KCRW’s Art Insider newsletter* Image Magazine* LA Public Press* Writer and brand strategist Tasbeeh Herwees* Fred Eversley at David Kordansky Gallery* Mona Lisa Smile movie, directed by Mike Newell (Sony Pictures, 2003)* Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays by Durga Chew-Bose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 2017)This episode of the Rabkin Interviews was produced by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine. The interview was conducted by Mary Louise Schumacher, a journalist and the executive director of the Rabkin Foundation. The portraits were made by artist-photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. The production team for the Rabkin Interviews also includes Cindy Eggert Johnson, producer; Johnathon Olsen, editor; with research and copyediting by Katie Avila Loughmiller and Karen Samelson. Music is by Flint, HaHaHa, Yarin Primak, and Out of Flux. The Rabkin Prize is awarded through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rabkinfoundation.substack.com