As a curator in the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art and a Ph.D. candidate in art history at Columbia, Oluremi C. Onabanjo fits as many exhibitions and lectures as possible into an already busy schedule.
“I tend to absorb lots of images, texts and sounds in a day,” she said. A New Yorker for 12 years, she previously lived in Kano, Nigeria; Lagos; Johannesburg; Fair Lawn, New Jersey; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. “Living in New York gave me a political education,” she said, “taught me to look and think with artists, and made me sensitive to the ways in which the forces of history structures the contemporary conditions of social life.”
Onabanjo recounted a few days of her cultural life, noting some of the books, music and conversations that inspired her. These are edited excerpts from telephone and email interviews.
Wednesday
Right now, my days start at 5 a.m. I am currently ABD (All But Dissertation), which means I am in the home stretch. With a full-time job, this requires being resourceful with my time: waking up early to write two hours of pages each morning before heading to the office, so that I can hopefully finish a full draft of my thesis by December. It was slow at first because I’m not a natural morning person, but the words come more easily as the months go by, especially as the sun rises earlier to keep me company.
While reading: “O Defeito de Cor” by Ana Maria Gonçalves, “Slave Rebellion in Brazil” by João José Reis. Listen: “Don’t Touch My Hair” by Solange, “Green Grasshopper” by Marcia Griffiths.
THURSDAY
We recently concluded a year-long display of Ernest Cole’s work on the fourth floor of the museum. We took Cole’s 1967 photo book, “House of Servitude,” as the starting point for an exhibition on the structures of settler colonialism and apartheid in South Africa, as well as their echoes in the United States . Aperture has reissued this book, as well as a new one, “Ernest Cole: The True America,” which covers his photographic production in the United States – the subject of an upcoming documentary directed by Raoul Peck.
While reading: “Towards our land” by Mahmoud Darwish, “The cry of the absence of the black world” by Panashe Chigumadzi. Listen: “Mannenberg” by Abdullah Ibrahim, “Strasbourg / Saint-Denis” by Roy Hargrove.
Friday
I rarely have the opportunity to discuss the politics of curatorial practice with colleagues in the field. This is what made “The Radical Practice of Black Curation” so special. Organized by Tina Campt at Princeton University and Tavia Nyong’o at the Park Avenue Armory over two days, an international group of curators gathered to reflect on the status of Black conservation work in an era of “racial reckoning “. This was a valuable convention for me, dedicated to thinking out loud alongside the brilliant curators Gabi Ngcobo and Legacy Russell, both directors of crucial experimental art centers.
While reading: “Discourse on colonialism” by Aimé Césaire, “No roses in my mouth” by Stella Nyanzi. Listen: “Help” by Duval Timothy, “Carmen” by Olivia Dean.
SATURDAY
On Saturdays I spend most of my time researching and reading. Regularly browsing the city’s galleries and museums, I find moments to read on the subway or during a stop for coffee and a pastry. The motley crew of art shows currently populating my favorites list includes Francesca Woodman at Gagosian, “Melissa Cody: Webbed Skies” at MoMA PS1 (which I loved at its first stop at MASP in São Paulo) , Sonia Delaunay at the Bard Graduate Center, Counter Histories at the Magnum Foundation and Arthur Jafa at 52 Walker. No matter who’s on, I stop at Artists Space.
While reading: “Great Expectations” by Vinson Cunningham, Substack by Momtaza Mehri. Listen: “Dangerookipawaa Freestyle” by Ab-Soul, “Get Close” by Ari Lennox.
Sunday
I often joke that one of the reasons I’m still in New York is because I live uptown. I have never resided below 110th Street and have no desire to change that anytime soon. One of my favorite places in Harlem is Revolution Books, an independent bookstore. I have witnessed some of the most nuanced conversations about politics and culture, theory and criticism inside and outside this bookstore. On a good day, I pick up a used book from one of their carrels out front and cross the street for a bottle of Pompette wine. The owners are nice people and have just opened a great wine bar next door, Musette.
While reading: Hammer & Hope Spring 2024 issue, “The Rebel’s Clinic” by Adam Shatz. Listen: “When Poems Do What They Do” by Aja Monet, “I See You” by Little Simz.
Monday
I spend a lot of time with our collections of studio portraits from West and Central Africa, thinking about how these images fueled notions of Pan-African subjectivity and solidarity during decolonization and the civil rights period. After work, I stop at Harlem Yoga Studio for an evening vinyasa class before heading home.
While reading: “Portrait and place” by Giulia Paoletti, “The invention of Africa” by VY Mudimbe. Listen: WKCR 89.9FM NY, voice notes from my oldest friend, Yvette Dickson-Tetteh.
Tuesday
I spent much of the day processing photographs and research notes collected during a research trip on the Afro-Atlantic future with my colleague and friend Thomas J. Lax, curator of media and performance at MoMA, and André Lepecki, professor of performance studies. at NYU For two weeks last December, we visited Afro-Brazilian quilombos (maroon societies) and autonomous art spaces in São Paulo, Piauí, and Rio de Janeiro.
Once a month, I make it a point to listen to music around town. I’m open to all kinds of genres, but there’s nothing like seeing jazz live, especially with scenes like the Village Vanguard still around. When our schedules align, my friend Gabrielle Davenport (music and performance programmer and co-founder of BEM Books) joins me. Tonight we saw pianist Gerald Clayton and his band. They filled our senses and soothed my mind. A true feat and an exquisite gift, in a city like this.