Join musician and visual artist Mark Montgomery French for an intimate viewing of his ambient protest film, Thy Navel is a Goblet That Does Not Lack for Wine, from his album of the same name. This evocative work employs trance-like animations and sensory immersion to explore themes of meditation, resistance, and recovery, reframing Blackness as an origin, an expansion, and a liberation. It sonically draws from across the Diaspora—Javanese gamelan, dub reggae, string quartets, and jazz noir—not just as a style, but as a way to map Blackness across geographies and time. The evening concludes with a Q&A with Mark Montgomery French, offering insights into the album’s themes and creation.

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Ambient musician and visual artist Mark Montgomery French (@mrfr3nch) is an award-winning film composer with the group Spiky Blimp, host of the podcast “All Your Favorite Music is (Probably)…”, and Director of Audio Visual Ministries at Glide Memorial Church. In June 2025, he released his ambient protest album Thy Navel is a Goblet That Does Not Lack for Wine. He’s also a music historian noted for his talks All Your Favorite Music is (Probably) Black, Unsung Women of Music, and Black Ambience Before André 3000. He was formerly the co-leader of the ’90s progressive funk band Endangered Species.

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This program is presented in conjunction with the current exhibition Unbound: Art, Blackness & the Universe, on view October 1, 2025 - August 16, 2026, and with Downtown First Thursdays

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