Curator Walkthrough: Asilah Oui: Robert Blackburn in Morocco with Imani Congdon

Saturday, October 10, 2–3 PM

Imani Congdon is a researcher and archivist whose work focuses on the communal, political, and organizational functions of the print shop as a site of artistic innovation and cultural exchange. She is the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Print Collection Archivist and curator of Asilah Oui: Robert Blackburn in Morocco.

Through a selection of prints, photographs, and archival materials, Congdon will discuss the exhibition's research, the featured artists, and the lasting impact of Robert Blackburn's vision of collaboration, cultural exchange, and international printmaking. Following the walkthrough, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage in conversation about the exhibition and its themes.

RSVP here

Book Launch
Sunday, October 25, 2pm

Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground
Edited by Amina Ahmed and Jenna Hamed

The Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA)
Location: 225 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011

PREORDER here

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays from the co-curators alongside Dr. Bayan Abubakr, Sudanese historian at Yale University; Omar Berrada, writer, curator, and Director of Dar al-Ma'mûn, Marrakech; Amir ElSaffar, composer, jazz trumpeter, and vocalist; Jennifer Farrell, Jordan Schnitzer Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Tumelo Mosaka, Curator in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University; Navina Najat Haidar, Curator of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Ben Rejali, Editor of Khabar Keslan; Olivia Shao, Curator at the Drawing Center and Khalil’s former student; Ksenia Nouril, Assistant Director of the International Program at the Museum of Modern Art; Sumesh Sharma, Curator and Founder of the Clark House Initiative, Mumbai; including his family and friends.

ASILAH OUI: MELEHI + A THOUSAND AND ONE BERBER NIGHTS

This screening – presented on the occasion of the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop’s exhibition “Asilah Oui: Robert Blackburn in Morocco” – pairs two films that explore the links between Morocco and New York: Shalom Gorewitz’s MELEHI (1984) and Hisham Aïdi’s A THOUSAND AND ONE BERBER NIGHTS (2023), which together examine two pioneers of Moroccan art in the twentieth century.

Commissioned as part of his 1984 solo exhibition at the Bronx Museum, MELEHI documents the work and life of renowned Moroccan painter and Asilah Cultural Moussem founder Mohamed Melehi through his projects as a teacher, painter, and modernist. Forty years after its production, MELEHI provides a career snapshot of the artist contextualized by his influences across the Moroccan landscape, placing him in the larger history of Morocco and its visual culture.

A THOUSAND AND ONE BERBER NIGHTS delves into the transatlantic career of dancer, actor, and choreographer Hassan Ouakrim. In the late 1950s, Ouakrim was a young dancer and actor in Morocco. Little did he know that he would soon become the protegé of La Mama Theatre founder Ellen Stewart, performing across America, forming friendships with the likes of jazz virtuosos Ornette Coleman and Randy Weston, and becoming a pioneer in spreading Berber dance and music in North America.

“Asilah Oui: Robert Blackburn in Morocco” at the Blackburn Study Center, September 15-December 12, 2026, focuses on the first decade of the Asilah Cultural Moussem. Established in 1978, this international festival brought together printmakers, musicians, intellectuals, and poets from around the globe to create, as founders Mohamed Benaissa and Mohamad Melehi described it, “a permanent center for cultural diffusion, rich in authenticity and steeped in heritage.” The exhibition illuminates how Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop served as a conduit in connecting the Moussem’s international artists.

This screening is organized by the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and co-presented with the Bronx Museum. For more info about the exhibition, visit: https://www.rbpmw-efanyc.org/asilah-oui 

Poetry Reading | Youmna Chlala and Megan Fernandes | Organized by Omar Berrada

in conjunction with Asilah Oui: Robert Blackburn in Morocco