On this episode, we hear from artist Jefferson Pinder about his performance art piece “THIS IS NOT A DRILL” performed at The Source on 14th Street in mid June 2019. Jefferson Pinder is an artist whose work provides evocative commentary on race and forms of struggle, aiming to investigate aspects of personal identity through the materials of neon, found objects, performance, and video. Pinder is joined in conversation with Dr. Jordana Moore Sa- jay -say to discuss Pinder’s new work and its inspirational ties to The Red Summer of 1919.

Jefferson Pinder’s work has been featured across the globe in group and solo exhibitions at a number of institutions, including: The Studio Museum in Harlem; The Phillips Collection; and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. ; and his work is a part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture.

Dr. Jordana Moore Sa-jay-say is Associate Professor of American Art at the University of Maryland, College Park and Editor-in-Chief of the College Art Association’s Art Journal. Her work centers on modern and contemporary American visual culture with an emphasis on expressions and theorizations of blackness. Her writing has appeared in Exposure: The Journal of the Society for Photographic Education, The Journal of Contemporary African Art, and Art Journal. Her first book Reading Basquiat: Exploring Ambivalence in American Art received the PEN Center USA Award for Exceptional First Book in 2015.