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Emily Wells and Hanif Abdurraqib in Conversation

Diversities in Practice

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Collage featuring photos of the two speakers

Drop by our Film/Video Theater or tune in online as renowned musician, singer, and songwriter Emily Wells and acclaimed Columbus author Hanif Abdurraqib illuminate their writing practices.

Wells, an innovative composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, and Abdurraqib, music critic and author of several publications including A Little Devil in America, describe personal “canons” of content that inform and inspire their work.

In conversation with Abdurraqib, Wells also shares insights into her creative process, what she’s passionate about, and her questions for our society—questions she’ll explore in Mershon Auditorium November 4 as she and her ensemble perform songs from her new album, Regards to the End. Learn more about the performance.

A Q&A moderated by Abdurraqib follows the talk. Can’t make it in person? The event also streams on this page, and online viewers can text a question via the Wex hotline at (614) 813-3416.

IMAGE CAPTION
Left to right: Emily Wells, photo: Rachel Stern; Hanif Abdurraqib, photo: Megan Leigh Barnard.

More about Diversities in Practice

Diversities in Practice is a collaboration between Ohio State’s Wexner Center for the Arts, Department of Art, and Living Culture Initiative. This series includes talks and moderated discussions featuring a range of artists, thinkers, and practitioners engaged in compelling and critical work, centering projects that examine, shape, and push both material and ideological boundaries. These presentations will be available online throughout the year.

More about the speakers

Emily Wells chevron-down chevron-up

Composer, producer, and video artist Emily Wells’s evocative music (described as “visionary” by NPR) and performances (called “quietly transfixing” by the New York Times) impel listeners to be attuned. Her latest release, Regards to the End, which explores environmental collapse, the AIDS crisis, and her lived experience as a queer musician, is a work of radical empathy that foregrounds the power of art, critique, and care to connect and perhaps redeem us. Read more on the artist’s website.

Hanif Abdurraqib chevron-down chevron-up

A poet, essayist, cultural critic, and recent MacArthur Fellow from Columbus, Ohio, Hanif Abdurraqib has been published in the New York Times, New Yorker, FADER, and Pitchfork, among other publications. His first full-length poetry collection, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (Button Poetry, 2016), was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award and nominated for a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and his second collection, A Fortune for Your Disaster (Tin House, 2019), won the 2020 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Abdurraqib’s first collection of essays, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us (Two Dollar Radio, 2017), was named a book of the year by NPR, Oprah Magazine, Los Angeles Review, and Chicago Tribune, among others. His critically acclaimed Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest (University of Texas, 2019) quickly became a New York Times bestseller and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. In 2021, he released the book A Little Devil in America with Random House. Read more on the author’s website.

Cosponsored by Ohio State's Department of Art Visiting Artists Program.

LEARNING & PUBLIC PRACTICE PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
American Electric Power Foundation
Huntington
Big Lots Foundation

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
The Ohio State University Office of Outreach & Engagement
Ohio Arts Council
Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation

Martha Holden Jennings Foundation
State Farm

SUPPORT FOR LEARNING & PUBLIC PRACTICE RESIDENCIES PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
National Endowment for the Arts
Ohio Arts Council
L Brands Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Nationwide Foundation
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane
Axium Packaging
CampusParc
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
President Kristina M. Johnson and Mrs. Veronica Meinhard
Nancy Kramer
Larry and Donna James
Lisa Barton
Johanna DeStefano
Jones Day
Alex and Renée Shumate

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Past Talks & More

Emily Wells and Hanif Abdurraqib in Conversation