Second Fridays through October 

The Art Center’s signature evening series returns with eclectic art and activities. In among three floors of open artists’ studios, find gallery receptions, stimulating artist talks, pop-up performances, hands-on projects, lively music, and more. 

Celebrate the U.S.A.’s 245th birthday and Alexandria’s 272nd birthday with conversation, music, and art activities at the Late Shift’s “America Then and Now.” Solo exhibition artist Omolara Williams McCallister provides a performance on the Waterfront at sunset as an extension of the artist’s “We, Too, Sing America” exhibition in the Target Gallery. Reception for the New Project Studio’s 2021 AIA Virginia Student Prize Exhibition in the interim studio (#9) on the first floor, along with a conversation on the future of Alexandria’s community remembrance project. Artist Nicole Wandera creates a collaborative art piece in the Grand Hall reflecting on racial healing and America. DJ Kalo provides music throughout the entire night. 

Virtual streams of select portions of the night, including Omolara’s performance, will be available to view on Facebook.com/torpedofactory
 

Masks are required for non-vaccinated visitors and unaccompanied minors. Entrance and exit is via sliding doors on Union Street and the Waterfront. 

RSVPs requested. This event is free and open to the public. 

RSVP Now 

Lead photo by Reese Bland.

SCHEDULE

WATERFRONT (OUTSIDE)

• 9 – 10: Omalara Williams McCallister Live Performance

 GRAND HALL (INSIDE) 

• 7:30 – 8:30: AIA 2021 Design Exhibition Reception and Talk in New Project Studio
• 7 – 10: Collaborative Art Project with Nicole Wandera
• 7 – 10: Live Music with DJ Kalo

EXHIBITIONS & ARTIST PROJECTS  

TARGET GALLERY
WE, TOO, SING AMERICA 
7 – 10 P.M.

Target Gallery’s 2021 solo exhibition recipient is artist Ọmọlará Williams McCallister (pronouns: O/love/beloved) who will be presenting a multisensory installation, We, Too, Sing America, which will include visual, sound, and interactive elements including durational performance. The installation is a continuation of  the artist’s ongoing fiber-based series Domestic Work, which confronts the extraction of emotional labor, caretaking and other domestic work from Black women that is expected, depended upon, normalized and then erased in public and private spaces. 

“We, Too, Sing America will be a memorial to the small everyday acts that we have undertaken to support ourselves and each other as we have collectively moved towards building a better future and weathered the storms of COVID, of white supremacist anti-Black terror, of all of the intersecting forms of oppression that we face/d over these past many months. In this work I will use accumulation and repetition of ritual acts, art objects, images, and sound to explore the relationship of the individual act, individual person, individual moment to the collective, and to collective world building.” 

— Ọmọlará Williams McCallister 

WATERFRONT PERFORMANCE: OMALARA WILLIAMS MCCALLISTER
9 – 10 P.M.

Join visitors on the Waterfront entrance to experience a live performance as part of a series by Ọmọlará Williams McCallister (pronouns: O/love/beloved).  

Over the course of the installation in the Target Gallery, Omolara has conducted a series of 24 durational performances, occurring daily through July 18 as an interactive portion of “We, Too, Sing America.” 

O is recording performances and layering the previous recordings along with the new performance of that day. 

The 24 is representative of the 24 hours in a day and the unending physical, mental, and emotional labor black women and femmes endure, but is subject to erasure in our societal consciousness.

Performance begins at 9 P.M. at sundown and is estimated to run one hour.  

Untitled by Ryan Burnett, Virginia Tech

NEW PROJECT STUDIO (Studio 9)
RECEPTION AND TALK: 2021 AIA VIRGINIA STUDENT PRIZE EXHIBITION 
7:30 – 8:30 P.M. 

 From June until early August, the New Project Studio will host an exhibition of the 2021 AIA Virginia Prize competition. The competition — which took place over the weekend of Jan. 22–25, 2021 — was inspired by the Equal Justice Initiative’s Community Remembrance Project and challenged students to design a pillar installation for the City of Alexandria’s Market Square. 

Conducted simultaneously at Hampton University, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center, the competition engaged students at all of the accredited schools of architecture in Virginia. Students were given the competition program on a Friday afternoon and had until the following Monday to submit their designs. Each school’s faculty reviewed the submissions and sent up to 10 finalists for final consideration by the jury. 

Join us for a reception and talk with AIA representatives and jurors to learn more about the inspiration for the project, as well as the history of Alexandria and how you can get involved in Alexandria’s future through such initiatives like the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project, a city-wide effort dedicated to helping Alexandria understand its history of racial terror hate crimes and to work toward creating a welcoming community bound by equity and inclusion. Thanks to the Art Center’s partners in the Office of Historic Alexandria and through the Alexandria Black History Museum for their dedicated work on this initiative through lectures, community meetings, and remembrances. 

 SOUTH HALL 
HANDS-ON PROJECT: AMERICA THEN AND NOW COLLABORATIVE ART PROJECT
NICOLE WANDERA
7–10 p.m.

Join artist Nicole Wandera for an interactive art project in the Grand Hall to create and reflect on the social conversations of the past year in the United States. This is a collaborative healing space and time for reflection and renewal.

Nicole is an artist and activist from Nairobi, Kenya, based in Northern Virginia. She studied at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she earned her BFA in Communication Arts. Her African heritage is a vital source of inspiration, and she uses acrylic or digital mediums to capture the richness of her culture. Her work revolves around social justice and equality. She uses art as a form of catharsis to express her frustrations with oppression she faces as a black woman. Her goal is to create a visual dialogue around social justice, equality, and a future where we all prosper regardless of our race, ethnicity, whom we love, religious beliefs, and economic status. She believes in activism through creative expression. 

 “My art is a reaction to the world I live in; thus, my work revolves around social justice and the black experience. My work reflects how I feel, and right now, I am angry. Angry for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and all the many victims of police brutality. Black people, especially black women, are the most disrespected and discriminated against group in our country. It is a daunting task trying to depict this pain through art, and it will take a lifetime to truly capture the collective trauma my people have faced and the resilience we have gained. However, I hope to try because I am tired of living in a world that uses my identity against me. The work will represent how it feels to wake up every morning with the weight of trauma from a society built to oppress you. The anxiety of the uncertainties around having children with black skin. How does a mother protect their child in a world where their identity makes them a target? I do not know the answer to that question just yet, but I know it begins by creating spaces to tell these stories and working together towards a solution.” 

— Nicole Wandera 

 LIVE MUSIC: DJ KALO
7 – 10 P.M.

Karl-Eric Lerebours aka DJ Kalo was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As a boy, he used to listen to the local DJs mixing on the radio, he was captivated by their abilities to mash 2-3 songs at the same time. Karl-Eric began his DJ dream mixing reggae, hip hop, reggaeton and rap for friends that used to come to his house. He has landed various shows in places such as Port-au-Prince, Washington D.C. & New York City. Aside from DJing at various DC clubs and parties, he also makes bootlegs and launched a monthly podcast on his Soundcloud account.