Conversation with Kara Walker at NPL

Next week the Newark Public Library is hosting an event with Kara Walker and Nell Painter. Kara Walker's artwork is being displayed on the main library's 2nd floor reference room. After it was first installed in November, the drawing created quite a stir by library staff who found it inappropriate. It was later covered up with a cloth. See article on NJ.com.

For those that haven't visited it - it is pictured above. The drawing shows the horrors many blacks faced during reconstruction and includes a white man holding a black woman at his crotch (on the lower right side).

Dr. Clement A. Price was quoted by the Huffington Post, "The library should be a safe harbor for controversies of all types, and those controversies can be dealt with in the context of what is known about art, about literature, democracy and freedom. There's no better venue in Newark where such a powerful and potential controversial drawing should be mounted."

The drawing has since been revealed. On March 7th, Nell Painter will speak with Kara Walker herself at the Newark Public Library at 6pm.