Thursday, October 6th & 7th, liquid blackness—a research project on blackness and aesthetics—and CENCIA (Center for Collaborative and International Arts, Georgia State University) present a public screening and symposium dedicated to award-winning LA-based filmmaker, installation artist, and hip-hop video director, Kahlil Joseph. The screening will showcase his work with Kendrick Lamar, FKA Twigs, Flying Lotus, and Beyoncé's Lemonade.

Kahlil Joseph is the Emmy-nominated director of Beyoncé’s Lemonade (together with Beyoncé herself). He has made surreal and arrestingly beautiful short films in collaboration with some of the most respected, politically engaged and forward-thinking hip-hop artists of our time: Kendrick Lamar, FKA Twigs, Flying Lotus in “Until the Quiet Comes” (2012 Sundance winner), and is considered one of the most important hip-hop video directors.

The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place in three parts: the screening of selected works by and Q&A with Kahlil Joseph takes place in the Kopleff Recital Hall on Thursday, October 6 at 7pm.

Friday, October 7th at 2pm, the Creative Media Industries Institute hosts Holding Blackness in Suspension: The Films of Kahlil Joseph—a symposium focused on Joseph's use of hip-hop as a dynamic exploration of race, space, and movement in the context of an experimental film practice that fluidly moves from the gallery space to the Vimeo page.

Through the idea of “suspension,” the Symposium will address both the peculiar quality of Joseph’s surreal visual landscapes and the way bodies move within them to attend to the rich texture and affectively pregnant quality of what he describes as a “new kind of music film.” “Suspension” also expresses the liquid blackness commitment to “holding” blackness in the middle of our collective conversations and ethical concerns.

Then at 7pm October 7th, enjoy a reception featuring video projection of highlights from previous liquid blackness projects, hosted by Gallery 72.