Conversation and Virtual Toast with Elizabeth Alexander and Jason Moran, for "Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue"

On occasion of the exhibition "Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue," we were pleased to welcome Elizabeth Alexander and Jason Moran in the gallery for a conversation and virtual toast. The event was held on Thursday evening, September 10, and streamed "live" on Zoom.

During the conversation, Alexander and Moran discussed Ghebreyesus's creative pursuits alongside his journey as an Eritrean native settling in New Haven, Connecticut; interweaving personal stories with the artist's painting practice. The speakers also brought the online audience of friends and family on an exhibition tour, stopping to share their thoughts at selected paintings.

Find out more about the exhibition: https://www.galerielelong.com/exhibitions/ficre-ghebreyesus-gate-to-the-blue2

About the speakers

Elizabeth Alexander – poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, and cultural advocate – is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in arts and culture, and humanities in higher education. Dr. Alexander has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for 15 years and chaired the African American Studies Department. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, serves on the Pulitzer Prize Board, and co-designed the Art for Justice Fund. Notably, Alexander composed and delivered “Praise Song for the Day” for the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009, and is author or co-author of fourteen books. Her book of poems, American Sublime, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2006, and her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 2015.

Jason Moran

Pianist, composer, and artist Jason Moran hails from Houston, Texas. He studied with Jaki Byard at the Manhattan School of Music and with Andrew Hill and Muhal Richard Abrams upon graduation. Moran’s 18-year relationship with Blue Note Records produced 9 highly acclaimed recordings. His groundbreaking trio, The Bandwagon (with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits) is currently celebrating their 20th anniversary. Recent awards and fellowships include the MacArthur Foundation, US Artists; Doris Duke Foundation; and Ford Foundation. Moran collaborated with his wife, the mezzo-soprano/composer Alicia Hall Moran, as named artists in the 2012 Whitney Biennial (BLEED); 2015 Venice Biennial (Work Songs); and at the Carnegie Hall (Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration). Since his first album, he has produced fourteen additional albums, created scores for Ava DuVernay’s films Selma and 13th, and author Ta-Nehisi Coates’ staged and upcoming film adaptation of Between the World and Me. In 2018, Moran’s first solo museum exhibition opened at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Moran is currently the Artistic Director for Jazz at The Kennedy Center, teaches at New England Conservatory and curates the Artist’s Studio series for Park Avenue Armory in New York City.