March 2025 Studio Updates!
Bismillah. We begin everything with the name of Allah. We say Bismillah to initiate an act to acknowledge the intention and the ethics we carry with all that follows Bismillah.
Read more about the newsletter rhythm here.
☺️ Hello!
Table of Contents:
👋🏽 Hello and Ramadan Mubarak!
⚙️ Project Updates
🖼️ Exhibitions
🌳 Prompts + Public Art
🗣️ Public Programming
📖 Teaching
1. 👋🏽 Hello and Ramaḍān Mubarak!
In early February, I soft-launched my talk show at Becoming NEW: Artists on Change and Transformation at the Great Hall at Cooper Union for the New Museum. It was really cute, and I had a lot of fun. More episodes are coming soon! Thank you, Morgan, for encouraging me to take myself seriously enough to make this happen. I have always wanted a short-run talk show, and 2025 is the year I do all the weird stuff I want to do, which is why I have also been designing kurtas and bookcases, making terrible drawings, and playing really terrible music. I have always believed that I needed to be an artist with a clear trajectory of doing one thing only, but the way my neurology is set up, I do the the things that bring me joy regardless of their prestige or visibility. As my 40th birthday approaches, my only goal is to be more fully myself which in so many ways is freeform and enthusiatic and easily overtaken by small interesting things … like that time a few weeks ago when I feel in love with Pick’s Theorem.
In the past few weeks, I have spent some time in Vancouver and Montreal installing and giving talks. I was able to reconnect with an old friend I hadn’t spoken to in over six years, and it was quite the ride to try to squeeze in all of our life updates into a lunch meal! Thank you to Dark Opacities Lab (hi Balbir!!!!) for having Maryam Kashani and me in February! Despite our very emotional conversation about death, grief, surveillance, and accountability, it was so much fun to be in such a warm space. Concordia, bring me back to Montreal!
In two weeks, it will be the second anniversary of my nan’s death. I hope that lady is doing well. She is now with her two daughters and husband and there is some relief in knowing that. In January, during the LA fires, which Alhamdulillah, my nan’s South Central home was saved from, my mother and I began to clean out her room. My mom found a bunch of family reunion booklets with addresses, photographs, family mottos, and recipes. With that new information, I have built up this speculative family tree of over 400 people going as far back as Scotland, the origin of my paternal family’s enslavers. I also got my hands on two thick books about this family and am looking forward to traveling to Anne Arundel in the winter to look at city records and visit their mansions.
I am also looking for a geneaologist, so holler if you know someone. My fourth great-grandmother is listed as “Unknown free black woman of unproven record,” and I have been chasing this ghost for some time. I so deeply want to know her name. I found several gravesites of other family members and the church they likely attended, which is still up and running. When I visit at the top of next year, inshaAllah someone remembers them and I can gain some clarity.
It is the holy month!!! Check out the 2023 Ramadan Newsletter for background on this month, some memes, and some reminders. The ease with which I get to experience this month is not lost on me. I am thinking of the Muslims worldwide fasting during this holy month amid genocide, starvation, and consistent assault. I pray for ease. I pray for justice.
This is yet another season when I am unable to fast. Right before the month began, I was hit with two weeks of intense migraines, low blood sugar, and hives, so I had to sit it out. I look forward to rejoining this holy month's fasting part soon, insha’Allah. For the last two weeks, I have been getting at least nine hours of sleep, which has done wonders. I feel like a new woman, plus magnesium and a steady supplement regimen!
Also...
It is Ramadan. May this month unite everyone against oppressors and bring the wicked to their knees insha’Allah! Promoting art right now feels icky, but here I am.
It was nice to be honored as a member of the Eames Institute’s inaugural Curious 100 “in celebration of one hundred courageous leaders and creative minds across the United States who are harnessing the transformative power of curiosity to solve today’s most pressing problems—whether it’s combating climate change, advancing racial justice, addressing the housing crisis, or tackling food insecurity.”
2. ⚙️ Project Updates
+ Orange Tangent Study has been busy this season!
We collaborated with the Re:Arc team as a curriculum specialist and provided support for the launch of the Center for Planetary Pedagogies. The center hosts nine courses facilitated by fellows on topics ranging from loud reading to feminist architectural practices!
A new round of grantees was announced! Congratulations, Yoshie, Wyatt, and the Book Arts Solidarity Network. Since 2021, we have dispersed over 10,000 USD to artists, collectives, and organizations on the cusp of new ideas. If you’d like to help grow the grant pool, email me at hello@orangetangent.study to learn how to donate.
For the second year in a row, we are one of several sponsors for the Black Zine Fair organized by Sojourners for Justice Press, which was founded by Mariame Kaba in 2020 and is co-directed by Neta Bomani.
As we close our collaborations in May, we look forward to working with new teams in late 2025/early 2026. We like to take reflective breaks to ensure we can be the best for our collaborators, so no new projects can begin before September. Please email me at hello@orangetangent.study! We have a new team member specializing in boutique systems design. We are most excited about fun learning opportunities, so let us know what you are working on!
+ The Little Octopus School
The Little Octopus School is a roaming learning environment for radical play and improvisation.
We completed our first course offering, Clarice Lispector:
“It’s Not Literature. It’s Witchcraft”* in late January. Each class of students creates a gift for the public. The students in the Lispector class created a series of scores and writing prompts!
Our new website and offerings will be launched in mid-April! We look forward to a filmmaking camp for elementary school students, the infodumpers club, and other cute things like a lo-fi game subscription service (we send you fun analog paper-based games in the mail)!
As we gather all of the pieces, please take a moment to learn more about our school anthem Never Too Much (Luther Vandross, 1981)
Also, learn more about our patron saints: Octavia Estelle Butler (1947 - 2006) and Lucille Clifton (1936-2010).
3. 🖼️ Exhibitions
← CURRENTLY →
[Group]
Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UCSB (Santa Barbara, CA)
Public Texts: A Californian Visual Language
18 Jan 2025 – 27 Apr 2025
(More Information)[Group]
International Center for Photography (New York, NY)
To Conjure: New Archives in Recent Photography
23 Jan 2025 – 4 Apr 2025
(More Information)[Group]
University of Albany - Art Museum (Albany, NY)
History Lessons
27 Jan 2025 – 4 Apr 2025
(More Information)[Group]
Artspeak, (Vancouver, Canada)
___a lineage of transgression___
30 Jan 2025 – 30 Apr 2025
(More Information)[Group]
NOME Gallery (Berlin, DE)
Are We There Yet?
14 February 2025 – 12 April 2025
(More Information)[Group]
Express Newark (Newark, NJ)
Powers of the Unseen
25 February 2025 – 31 July 2025
(More Information)
UPCOMING → → →
[Group]
Vitra Design Museum (Rhein, DE)
The Shakers: A World in the Making
6 July 2025 – 28 September 2025
(More Information)[Solo]
Henry Art Gallery (Seattle, WA)
Untitled
23 August 2025 – 26 April 2026
(More Information)[Group]
Print Center New York (New York, NY)
Data Consciousness: Reimagining Du Bois’ Data Portraits in the 21st Century
18 September 2025 – 13 December 2025
(More Information)[Group + Solo]
Group Exhibition at National Museum in Cardiff; Solo Shows at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth; Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea; MOSTYN, Llandudno; National Museum Cardiff; and Chapter, Cardiff.
Artes Mundi 11
17 October 2025 to 22 February 2026
(More Information)
4. 🌳 Prompts + Public Art
[FERAL SEEDS 01]: Lines of Transmission Posted in public spaces outside The Kitchen at Westbeth and throughout surrounding areas determined by overlaying isolated design notations found in The Kitchen Archives on a map of Lower Manhattan
WILL Y0U HELP ME FIND NEW WORDS? my words are growing lonely and they desire the company of others. Other than these words I am writing to you now, I seem to have lost all my words. During each cycle, I will use the words you have gifted me to create new sentences.
Cycle #1:Published on 23 January 2024 (gift requests made digitally via social media)Cycle #2:Published on 1 May 2025 (gift requests made via physical tear-off flier posted on campus bulletin boards as part of Public Texts: A Californian Visual Language on view at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UCSB until 27 Apr 2025)
5. 🗣️ Public Programming
At Louis Place: Artist Publishing Practicum - Keynote: Publishing is Ours!
At Louis Place (online)
(Saturday) 22 March 2025
1pmBlack Earth Study Club: Speculative Diagramming Workshop with Kameelah Janan Rasheed
Swiss Institute
(Saturday) 15 March 2025
2pmHistory Lessons Artist Talk Featuring Kameelah Janan Rasheed
University of Albany - Art Museum
(Wednesday) 12 March 2025
4:30pmDark Opacities Lab's 2024-2026: Nazar, Capture, Liberation: Maryam Kashani x Kameelah Janan Rasheed
Concordia University
(Thursday) 20 February 2025
5pmLang Arts Spring Welcome - Kameelah Janan Rasheed: Learning, Play, and Curiosity
The New School
(Wednesday) 12 February 2025
6:30pm
6. 📖 Teaching
I am just about to wrap up my first year full-time at Yale in the School of Art’s MFA Sculpture Program. I have been so lucky to have so many amazing students. See my student’s thesis show! The first one has already passed, but another is coming up!
Thank you for reading. All the best, always,
Kameelah 👽
Finally, while I do not organize my finances around paid newsletter subscriptions, wouldn’t it be cool if this little newsletter could allow me to take quarterly self-imposed writing retreats? Consider getting a one-year membership at USD 70 :)
How to cite this newsletter: Rasheed, K. (Year, Month Day). Newsletter Title. I Will (?) Figure This All Out Later. URL
Each new letter I find myself gagged mid-way through from just seeing how much you accomplish. You inspire me vividly, sweet friend! I need to be far more open and spread out my interests and curiosities. Excited to learn more about your talk show! That’s such a surprise!