Dedicated to documenting the lives, history, and culture of African Americans, the Los Angeles-based Alden and Mary Kimbrough Collection developed over more than forty years of intense collecting and is one of the most important privately held repositories of artifacts on the subject. The collection was inaugurated by the Kimbroughs' father, Dr. Jack Johnson Kimbrough (1908-1992), one of San Diego's first Black dentists and an ardent civil rights activist.

Influenced by their father's wish to make African American material culture available to Black people by organizing exhibits, the Kimbroughs have shared their collection with museums, art centers, college and university galleries, and churches nationally and internationally. Join us for a talk with Alden and Mary Kimbrough about their remarkable collection on display in our current exhibition COLLECTED: Stories of Acquisition and Reclamation.

Free with MoAD Admission.

The various cultural artifacts on display in COLLECTED: Stories of Acquisition and Reclamation encourage reflection on their impact and to look at them with new eyes. We are pleased to present a companion film series made up of features and shorts from earlier eras (1930s-1950's) and from the Hollywood industry, as well as the low budget "race movies" genre made especially for Black audiences. Movie posters from some of the films are displayed as part of the COLLECTED exhibition.

Carmen Jones (105 minutes, 1954)

Set during World War II, the story focuses on Carmen Jones, a vixen who works in a parachute factory in North Carolina. When she is arrested for fighting with a co-worker who reported her for arriving late for work, foreman Sgt. Brown assigns young soldier Joe to deliver her to the authorities, much to the dismay of Joe's fiancée Cindy Lou, who had agreed to marry him during his leave. Stars: Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Dianne Carroll, Joe Adam and Olga James

Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation

Free with MoAD Admission.

This October 16th, Yerba Buena Family Day is downtown San Francisco’s biggest daylong family block party with FREE admission to four leading museums including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Museum of the African Diaspora, and Children’s Creativity Museum (formerly Zeum), plus a huge array of special art activities for kids and free performances on two big stages courtesy of Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Midnight Ramble: Oscar Micheaux and the Story of Race Movies (1994, 60 minutes)

The various cultural artifacts on display in COLLECTED: Stories of Acquisition and Reclamation encourage reflection on their impact and to look at them with new eyes. We are pleased to present a companion film series made up of features and shorts from earlier eras (1930s-1950's) and from the Hollywood industry, as well as the low budget "race movies" genre made especially for Black audiences. Movie posters from some of the films are displayed as part of the COLLECTED exhibition. Following each film by a conversation with the audience led by Cornelius Moore, Co-Director of California Newsreel. California Newsreel is a non-profit film distribution and production organization that specializes in films about African American life and history, race, health and society, and films from Africa. It is one of the oldest independent media distributors in the United States.

Launching the series on Friday, October 21 will be a more recent documentary looking back at these earlier times. Midnight Ramble: Oscar Micheaux and the Story of Race Movies (directors: Pearl Bowser and Bestor Cram, 1994, 60 minutes) examines the genre from 1910-1940.

Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation

Free with MoAD Admission.

This series is designed to bring different scholars to MoAD who will present on a variety of topics related to the African Diaspora. These Member Only events will create a bridge of conversation between scholars and the community. All talks will occur on Saturday mornings 10am -12pm in the Salon. Seating is limited. Sandew Hira presents "Decolonizing the Mind: the Case of the Netherlands." Sandew Hira is the pen-name of economist and historian Dew Baboeram. Hira is one of the leading critics of Dutch historians regarding the colonial past of the Dutch. In his essay "Decolonizing the Mind," he argues that researchers should take up themes that are taboo in Dutch colonial historiography: reparations, racism, the comparison with the Jewish Holocaust and the continuity of oppression and exploitation after the abolition of slavery. He is currently working on a 40-volume Encyclopedia of the Colonial History of Suriname 1848-1954.

Please RSVP to education@moadsf.org

The various cultural artifacts on display in COLLECTED: Stories of Acquisition and Reclamation encourage reflection on their impact and to look at them with new eyes. We are pleased to present a companion film series made up of features and shorts from earlier eras (1930s-1950's) and from the Hollywood industry, as well as the low budget "race movies" genre made especially for Black audiences. Movie posters from some of the films are displayed as part of the COLLECTED exhibition.

Harlem Rides the Range (Western, 56 min. 1939)

Bob Blake (Herb Jeffries) and his sidekick Rusty (Lucius Brooks) are two cowboys riding across the countryside in search of adventure. They come across a ranch where it appears a murder has taken place but they find the victim of the crime, Jim Dennison (Leonard Christmas), still alive. Dennison is hiding in fear of his life after what had taken place at the ranch. Bob sees a picture of the rancher’s daughter Margaret (Artie Young) and falls in love at first sight; he cannot stop talking about how beautiful the girl in the picture is. Bob drops a glove when he leaves the ranch, which causes problems later.

Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation

Free with MoAD Admission.