In commemoration of AIDS Awareness Month, we celebrate the life and legacy of the late filmmaker and activist, Marlon Riggs.
About this EventIN PERSONThis AIDS Awareness Month, we honor the life and legacy of the late filmmaker, poet, and activist Marlon Riggs. The influential filmmaker used the camera to document Black gay life and address the urgency of the AIDS crisis within Black gay communities throughout the late 20th century. This program is presented in collaboration with Creative Time, an arts organization that has worked with artists to realize ambitious public art projects across New York City and beyond since 1974.
"Black on Screen: Honoring Marlon Riggs" begins with a screening of Riggs's 1993 short, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regrets) which takes an intimate look at five HIV-positive gay Black men as they discuss their experiences living with AIDS and confront the stigmatization of the illness at the height of the epidemic. The film was commissioned with support by Creative Time in 1992 as part of the ongoing Fear of Disclosure Project — a series of short films and video installations that explored the psychological and social aftermath of revealing an HIV-positive diagnosis. The film will be followed by a conversation on Marlon Riggs's legacy and the role of experimental art within the history of AIDS resistance and awareness. Dr. Gervais Marsh, Associate Curator at Creative Time, and writer, curator, and archivist Sur Rodney (Sur) will lead the discussion.
Runtime: 38 minutes
Dr. Gervais Marsh is Associate Curator at Creative Time. Their practice as a curator, writer and scholar meditates on questions of relation, intimacy, and the difficulties of reconciliation. They are guided by a desire to foster emotional resonances through public art and programming, exhibition making, and essays, thinking alongside artists across all mediums. They seek to ignite ongoing reflection rather than definitive answers. At Creative Time, they focus on public art commissions, CTHQ programming, the Summit, and the R&D Fellowship.
They received a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and are an alumna of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. Marsh’s writing has been published widely in artist monographs, exhibition catalogs and arts journals, including Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, The Financial Times, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, and ARTS.BLACK. They teach courses at the intersections of Black Feminisms, Performance Studies, Queer Studies and Visual Culture. They grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, which shapes their understanding of self and relationship to the world.
Sur Rodney (Sur) is a Canadian-born writer, curator, and archivist who works collaboratively, drawing variously on performance, his writing, and community archives. Renowned for his partnership with art dealer Gracie Mansion in the early 1980s, Sur left his gallery adventure in 1988 to work with artist friends affected by the growing AIDS pandemic. He would be invited to serve on the board of Visual AIDS, helping to establish Visual AIDS Archive Project a web-based resource for curators, educators, and researchers interested in utilizing art to provoke dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over. Sur is currently editing a collection of writings on his experiences in the New York art world while continuing his work with artists archives and legacy concerns.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
ACCESSIBLILITYAccessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].
ABOUT BLACK ON SCREENBlack on Screen: A Century of Radical Visual Culture continues to amplify 100 years of local and transnational Black movement work and artistic evolution on film. Sourced from The Schomburg’s collection and others, it takes a kaleidoscopic look at Black life and expression across diasporas, rendering a range of storytelling traditions that incite and inspire Black world-building. The Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division (MIRS, pronounced “meers”) at the Schomburg Center collects and preserves audio and moving image (AMI) materials related to the experiences of people of African descent. The division has amassed nearly 400 collections, approximately 5,000 square feet, in a variety of formats, which captures the gestures and sounds of major historical, artistic and cultural moments and influencers. While the strength is the Black American holdings there is considerable Caribbean and African representation in the collection.
ABOUT CREATIVE TIMESince 1974, Creative Time has commissioned and presented over 350 ambitious public art projects in partnership with thousands of artists and organizations throughout New York City, across the country, around the world—and even in outer space. Its work is guided by three core values: art matters, artists’ voices are important in shaping society, and public spaces are places for creative and free expression.
Creative Time is acclaimed for the innovative and meaningful projects it has commissioned, from , (2002), the twin beacons of light that illuminate lower Manhattan annually on the anniversary of 9/11, to Kara Walker’s powerful sugar-sphinx, , at the Domino Sugar Factory (2014), Pedro Reyes’s (2016), a theatrical haunted house of political nightmares at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, Chloë Bass’s (2025), a sound work in MTA subway stations throughout NYC, and so much more. Though based in New York City, Creative Time touches millions, both nationally and internationally, through initiatives like the Creative Time Summit, which has been presented in a variety of locations including Venice, Stockholm, Washington, D.C., and Miami. Creative Time is committed to presenting important art for our times and engaging broad audiences that transcend geographic, racial, and socioeconomic barriers.
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FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED Events are free and open to all, but due to space constraints registration is requested. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early. We generally overbook to ensure a full house.
GUESTS Please note that holding seats in the Langston Hughes Auditorium is strictly prohibited and there is no food or drinks allowed anywhere in the Schomburg Center.
ACCESSIBLILITY Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].
E-TRANSPORTATION NYPL policy prohibits electric transportation devices (e.g., motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards) from being brought into or stored at library sites for any length of time, as this is the best way to keep our spaces & people safe.
AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.
PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected].
Please note that personal and professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.
