Friday Nights at NOMA features an exciting lineup of programs in 2019: live music, movies, children’s activities, and more. Regular admission prices apply—NOMA members are FREE—but there is no extra charge for programs or films. All galleries, the Museum Shop, and Café NOMA remain open till 9 pm.

• 5 – 8 pm: Art on the Spot drop-in activity table
• 5:30 – 8:30 pm: Safar musical performance with Mahmoud Chouki, Georgie Petrov, and Sam Dickie
• 6 pm: Gallery Talk with Curator Katie Pfohl on Bodies of Knowledge (Ella West Freeman Gallery)
• 7 pm: Gallery Talk with Curator Mel Buchanan on The Quilts of Gee’s Bend (Decorative Arts Gallery)
• 7:30 pm: Screening of short film While I Yet Live featuring Gee’s Bend quilters (Stern Auditorium)

ABOUT SAFAR WITH MAHMOUD CHOUKI, GEORGIE PETROV, AND SAM DICKIE

Throughout the run of Bodies of Knowledge, Mahmoud Chouki will create a new musical composition and series of site-specific performances for the exhibition,  collectively titled Safar, that explore how music can speak across cultural divides to envision new forms of dialogue between East and West. Chouki will be joined by guitarists Georgie Petrov and Sam Dickie.

Mahmoud Chouki is a master guitarist and multi-instrumentalist and composer living and working in New Orleans. His art draws together music from many different international contexts to consider how music can speak across cultural divides. His own compositions incorporate musical influences from across the globe, ranging from European classical, Andalusian from Southern Spain, Levantine music from the Middle East, Maghrebian music from North Africa, Latin American music, and jazz from the Southern United States. Integrating sounds and rhythms from many different cultures, Chouki combines classical guitar with instruments such as the loutar, a traditional instrument of the Middle Atlas region of Morocco; the sintir, a Sub-Saharan instrument from the Sahel region (Mali); the oud, an oriental lute; the Algerian mandole, a steel-string fretted instrument resembling an elongated mandolin; the Bağlama saz, a Turkish long necked bowl-lute; the banjo, and a variety of percussion instruments. As artistic director of Rencontre Orient-Occident at Chateau Mercier in Sierre, Switzerland, Chouki has brought together a wide range of international musicians to envision new forms of dialogue between East and West, with music often the only common language between performers.

Mahmoud Chouki will conclude the Safar series with an ensemble concert during Friday Nights at NOMA on October 13 from 5:30 – 8:30 pm.

ABOUT BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE

Bodies of Knowledge brings together eleven international contemporary artists to reflect on the role that language plays in archiving and asserting our cultural identities. Working with materials that range from books and silent film to ink, ashes, and musical scores, these artists counter more staid and static ways of representing our collective pasts.

ABOUT THE QUILTS OF GEE’S BEND

Born of resourcefulness and enlivened by improvisation, quilts made by African American women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, are recognized as masterful works of textile art. Five quilts are on view in the Decorative Arts Gallery.

ABOUT WHILE I YET LIVE

This short 14-minute documentary explores the captivating work of five acclaimed African American quilters from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, a rural community that played a pivotal role during the Civil Rights Movement.