Necessary Means: Adreinne Waheed on Gathering & Power Exhibition

Necessary Means: Adreinne Waheed on Gathering & Power, an exhibition examining the dynamism, beauty, and political force of collective Black life across the African Diaspora through the photography of Adreinne Waheed.

Presented through a collaboration between the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University Gallery of Art, and Art Bridges, the exhibition opens October 14 at the Howard University Museum in Founders Library.

Necessary Means brings together Waheed’s documentary street photography with selections from the Waheed Photo Archive, her extensive collection of found portraits documenting African American life from the Civil War to the present. The exhibition traces the relationship between Waheed’s formative experiences at Howard University and a photographic practice centered on protest, joy, community, and collective action.

Curated by Kathryn Coney-Ali, executive director of the Howard University Gallery of Art, and Dr. Melanee C. Harvey-Fryar, associate professor of art history in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, the exhibition takes its title from traditions of anti-colonial and Black liberation thought that call upon communities to harness the tools necessary to confront systems of oppression. Within that framework, Waheed’s camera becomes a means of documenting not only resistance, but the relationships, cultural traditions, and everyday expressions through which Black communities create and sustain power.

Monday-Thursday: 8:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.

Friday: 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Saturday: 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

Sunday: 1:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m.