Essex Hemphill: Take care of your blessings
May 17-August 31, 2025
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
