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Black Women Artists Navigating Identity, Culture,
Artist Talk: The Work Against the World
Wednesday, September 23, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
D.C.-based Afrodescendant artists, Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell and Maria-Lana Queen, discuss what it takes to build a career in a world that rarely centers them. With Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Robin Givhan as moderator, their conversation goes beyond biography to examine what it means to be identified as a Black women artist; how artists navigate audiences, markets, and political moments; and paths to success. The practices of artists Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell and Maria-Lana Queen span collage, mixed-media painting, and more. Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Robin Givhan moderates this conversation, which goes beyond biography to examine what it means to be identified as a Black women artist. Together they will discuss what it takes to build a career in an art world that rarely centers them, even as they produce work with national and international reach.
The event is created in partnership with the Darryl Chappell Foundation, a D.C. charity dedicated to empowering Afrodescendant artists to build sustainable careers through community, mentorship, and market access.
Free. Registration required.
A reception follows at Eaton DC (1201 K Street NW) to celebrate the Darryl Chappell Foundation’s seventh anniversary. Please RSVP for the anniversary reception separately.
About the Artists
Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and educator based in Washington, DC, who creates collaged paintings and art installations examining Black culture and American history. She received an MFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has been featured at the Phillips Collection (Washington, DC), Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum (Annapolis, MD), National Liberty Museum (Philadelphia), the US Embassy in Côte d’Ivoire, SCOPE Art Fair (Miami), and more.
Maria-Lana Queen is a self-taught Washington, DC-based abstract and mixed-media artist, painting multi-faceted emotions deeply rooted in African American history and culture, advocacy, faith, relationships, grief, and love. Her artistic journey spans more than 25 years. Her work has been exhibited at the 2024 Venice Biennale (Italy), 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (New York City), SCOPE Art Fair (Miami), Rice University (Houston), the US Embassy in Jamaica, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, among others.
About the Moderator
Robin Givhan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic and former Washington Post senior critic-at-large. She now contributes opinion essays to the New York Times on fashion, culture, politics, and race. Givhan is the author of books including The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History (Flatiron Books, 2016) and Make it Ours: Crashing the Gate of Culture with Virgil Abloh (Crown, 2025). She offers incisive perspectives on art and identity. In 2024, she received the Rabkin Prize for arts writing.
About The Darryl Chappell Foundation
This talk is presented in partnership with the Darryl Chappell Foundation, a Washington, DC, public charity dedicated to empowering Afrodescendant artists to build sustainable careers through community, mentorship, and market access.
