In conjunction with the exhibition “Museum as Hub: Steffani Jemison and Jamal Cyrus: Alpha’s Bet Is Not Over Yet,” Jemison and Cyrus have invited guests to read and interpret their favorite selections from the periodicals on display. These public readings will take place in the 5th floor Museum as Hub gallery space and are free and open to the public.

Jamal Cyrus is an artist whose work draws upon the various uses of the disciplines of History and Sound as found in Aframerica, Cyrus is a member of Otabenga Jones & Associates, a pedagogical organization founded in 2002 by Otabenga Jones and whose members include artists Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Kenya Evans, and Robert A. Pruitt. Using strategies that include text-based projects, actions, and installations, the organization studies the tradition of Black radical political thought and activity to examine untold, overlooked, or misrepresented moments in history. As an individual artist and member of Otabenga Jones & Associates, Cyrus has participated in exhibitions at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; The Kitchen, New York; Menil Collection, Houston; Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington D.C.; Office Baroque Gallery, Antwerp; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He was the recipient of a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2009) and has participated in the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2005). Cyrus holds a BA from the University of Houston and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania.