Art
New Minneapolis Mural Imagines Black and Indigenous Futures Among the Stars
MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER — Visual artist Leslie Barlow’s new mural, “Belonging to the Entire Universe,” was unveiled at the McKnight Foundation’s Minneapolis headquarters. The 66-by-33-foot installation, named after a quote from astronaut Mae Jemison, weaves together constellations, textiles from Barlow’s travels to Tanzania, and native plants.
Belonging to the Entire Universe: Leslie Barlow’s New Mural Reimagines Community and Cosmos
Callisto Martinez reports on visual artist Leslie Barlow’s new mural, “Belonging to the Entire Universe,” a 66-by-33-foot installation unveiled at the McKnight Foundation’s Minneapolis headquarters. Named for a quote from astronaut Mae Jemison, the piece weaves constellations, textiles from Barlow’s travels to Tanzania, and native plants into what she calls an “artistic roadmap” for sustained community care, painted in part during the height of Operation Metro Surge.
Growing up, visual artist Leslie Barlow wanted to be an astronaut. Now, her mural Belonging to the Entire Universe, titled in reference to a quote from astronaut Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to travel into space, brings Barlow’s vision of a future universe to downtown Minneapolis.
Unveiled on June 12, the 66-by-33-foot installation faces the U.S. Bank Stadium and is displayed on the Minneapolis headquarters of the McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based foundation dedicated to advancing climate solutions, combatting housing instability and confronting other issues impacting Minnesotans.
“What I would love people to take away from it is this reminder of our relationship to the land, to each other, to our ancestors’ lineage, and then, of course, as the title says, to the entire universe,” said Barlow, a 2025 McKnight Visual Artist Fellow.
Barlow has long admired Jemison, enough to dress up as her for Halloween a few years ago, but the piece was not titled after Jemison until it was already finished. Barlow’s initial inspiration for the piece came directly from McKnight’s mission to “advance a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and [the] planet thrive.”
“With the words ‘just,’ ‘creative,’ and ‘abundant,’ I was thinking of something that showed a large amount of space, something that was really colorful and vibrant, definitely something that had plant life and spoke to the environment and the planet, so that’s where the cosmic imagery came in,” Barlow said. “I wanted it to feel like it flowed between different images to encompass people and [the] planet.”
Barlow’s piece began with digital sketches that she presented to a committee of McKnight staff and board members, who gave feedback on the design and unanimously selected her from a pool of applicants.
Barlow began rendering her drafts into a 7-foot-wide and 3.5-foot-tall oil painting in February, when Operation Metro Surge was in full force.
“It was actually very difficult for me to start painting because of the way that we were pulled toward mutual aid and on-the-ground efforts,” Barlow said. “It was a very dark time where so many of us were grieving and a lot of people were scared, rightly so, and still are. But at that time, I was also wanting to create an image that felt really hopeful and felt like another world was possible.”
Barlow describes the painting as an “artistic roadmap” that considers “if these aren’t just moments that our communities come together, but we are continually caring for each other and supporting each other, what society could look like.”
Constellations, textiles, native plants and the cosmic reconstruction of the Mississippi River function as “visual moments that could allude to multiple narratives, deeper meanings,” according to Barlow.
Much of the mural’s plant life was photographed outside the McKnight headquarters. The floral details grew out of McKnight’s photo library, inspired by the foundation’s work with local farmers of color.
Similarly, the textiles embedded within the mural “allude to a quilting of ideas, or histories, or stories” together, Barlow explained. Their designs primarily draw from Barlow’s personal collection, which she has grown since she began working with textiles in 2016.
“The textile that’s the biggest, which looks almost like DNA, which I really love, is both organic and geometric in shape,” Barlow said. “Those pieces, I actually purchased from Tanzania on my very first trip to the African continent. … That trip was very meaningful for me as a Black person, and so I wanted that one to be central in the space.”
While grounded in the local landscape, the symbols also draw from Afrofuturism and Indigenous futurisms. Barlow sees Afrofuturism and Black and Indigenous solidarity as parts of herself that she brought to the piece, given their significance in her work outside visual art. In 2023, she founded ConFluence, a two-day sci-fi convention in Northeast Minneapolis that centers Black people, Indigenous people and people of color.
Though the symbolism is personal for Barlow, she encourages viewers to form their own interpretations and connections to their own lives. The central image of three women from different generations standing together, each wearing a matching turquoise motif in a different way, was also created with this hope in mind.
“I wanted people to be able to see themselves in these people,” Barlow explained. “They are painted as individuals, but they are also kind of symbols.”
For Tonya Allen, president of the McKnight Foundation, each viewer’s personal connection with Belonging to the Entire Universe also encourages connection with others.
“This mural is both a reflection and a call,” Allen said. “Rooted in the history, cultures, and landscapes that shape Minnesota, Leslie’s work honors what has shaped us while inviting us to imagine what’s possible. It reminds us that a more just and hopeful future is something we must create together.”
Belonging to the Entire Universe is the inaugural installation in McKnight’s public art series, which will feature a different piece every three years. It is displayed at the McKnight Foundation’s Minneapolis headquarters, located at 921 Washington Ave. S.
For more information, visit https://www.mcknight.org/news-ideas/mcknight-unveils-new-public-mural-by-leslie-barlow-launching-rotating-public-art-series/.
Callisto Martinez is a recent Macalester graduate and contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. They welcome reader responses at martinezcallisto@gmail.com.
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Callisto Martinez
Callisto Martinez is a recent Macalester graduate and contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. More by Callisto Martinez
Based on reporting by Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.
Art
BLACspace Cooperative Invites Bay Area to Experience Oakland’s Black Cultural Ecosystem Through a BLAC Map Tour + Party
BLACspace Cooperative invites the Bay Area to experience Oakland’s Black cultural ecosystem through its BLAC Map Tour + Party on October 2. Presented as part of the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week, the event offers a guided field trip through creative and cultural spaces, followed by a celebration. Guests will explore the people and places shaping Black arts and culture across Oakland. The tour highlights BLACspace’s interactive guide to spaces stewarded by its members. Read more to learn about this unique event.
Presented as part of MoAD’s Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week, the October 2 experience takes guests inside the spaces, practices, and relationships that keep Black arts and culture rooted in Oakland
What does Oakland’s Black cultural ecosystem look like from the inside?
On Friday, October 2, BLACspace Cooperative will bring its BLAC Map to life with The BLAC Map Tour + Party, a two-part experience connecting artists, cultural workers, community partners, funders, and arts lovers with the people and places shaping Black arts and culture across Oakland and the greater Bay Area.
Presented as part of the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week, the day begins at MoAD at 685 Mission St. at 12 noon with a guided field trip through creative and cultural spaces connected to the BLACspace ecosystem.
Guests will travel together by bus from San Francisco to Oakland, stepping inside studios, cultural hubs, creative businesses, and gathering places while experiencing artist talks, exhibitions, film, music, movement, ancestral practice, and opportunities for conversation.
The Tour is an extension of The BLAC Map of Oakland, BLACspace’s interactive guide to creative and cultural spaces stewarded by members of its ecosystem. The map makes visible a network of people and places working to keep Black culture rooted in a city where displacement, rising costs, and shrinking arts funding continue to threaten cultural permanence.
“We call this work Cultural Reforestation,” said Zakiya Harris, Vision and Leadership steward of BLACspace Cooperative. “It’s about repairing, replenishing, and rooting Black arts and culture where it has been displaced, and creating the conditions for our cultural ecosystem to remain for generations to come.”
The Tour will move through several Bay Area cultural spaces, including Minnesota Street Project, The Barn, B-Love’s Guest House, Koo Labs Production & Design Center, BAM House, and BlaQyard, with experiences featuring members and collaborators across the BLACspace ecosystem.
At 5 p.m., the field trip gives way to The BLAC Map Party, a celebration of the ecosystem the Tour spent the day exploring. The evening invites the wider community to gather for music, food, art, cultural activations, an opening Ring Shout ceremony, and connection among Black artists, cultural workers, organizations, and the people who support their work.
The experience reflects BLACspace’s larger belief that the future of Black arts and culture requires cooperation.
As a Black arts and culture-promoting cooperative, BLACspace brings together artists, cultural workers, creative businesses, and organizations to share resources, relationships, knowledge, and stewardship.
Through membership, holistic business coaching, mutual aid, consulting, storytelling, and advocacy for cultural spaces, the cooperative is building infrastructure intended to strengthen Oakland’s Black cultural economy for the long term.
EVENT INFORMATION
The BLAC Map Tour + Party
Friday, Oct. 2
BLAC Map Tour: 12–5 p.m.
Begins at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD)
685 Mission St., San Francisco
BLAC Map Party: 5–8 p.m.
Oakland, California
Party location provided to confirmed RSVP guests.
Tickets, RSVP information, and additional event details are available through BLACspace Cooperative at ABOUT BLACSPACE COOPERATIVE
About BLACspace Cooperative:
BLACspace Cooperative connects and cultivates an ecosystem of artists, cultural workers, creative businesses, and organizations shaping Black arts and culture. Through holistic business coaching, values-aligned consulting, shared stewardship, and advocacy for cultural spaces, BLACspace works to create the conditions for its ecosystem to remain rooted and thrive.
Its work is grounded in Cultural Reforestation: strengthening what is here, restoring what has been displaced, and building toward cultural permanence in Oakland and beyond for the next 100 years.
Adéniké Amin is the storytelling steward for BLACspace Cooperative. For media and other information, please reach out to adenike@blacspace.coop
Art
Misty Copeland Shapes Ballet’s Tomorrow
THE POSITIVE COMMUNITY — Misty Copeland will curate the 2026 Joyce Ballet Festival, a two-week event in New York City from August 4-16. This role allows her to influence the future of ballet by showcasing a wide range of dancers, choreographers, and companies. The festival will present both established and contemporary works, blending classical traditions with new artistic expressions.
This summer, Misty Copeland will step into a different kind of spotlight. Instead of taking center stage as a dancer, she will help determine what audiences see onstage as curator of the 2026 Joyce Ballet Festival. Taking place August 4 through August 16 at The Joyce Theater in New York City, the two-week celebration will bring together dancers, choreographers and companies representing a broad spectrum of ballet. The festival gives Copeland an opportunity to share not only her appreciation for ballet’s traditions, but also her vision for its future.
Copeland understands better than most how powerful a ballet stage can be. Her historic career with American Ballet Theatre changed the conversation about representation in one of the world’s most traditional performing arts. When she became the company’s first Black woman to reach the rank of principal dancer, her achievement carried significance far beyond a personal milestone. It gave young dancers of color a new image of what was possible and challenged the industry to reconsider who belonged at the center of ballet.
That history informs the perspective she brings to the festival. Copeland has spent much of her career moving between performance, mentorship, advocacy and storytelling. Her curatorial role allows her to bring those interests together by creating a program that does not treat ballet as a museum piece. Instead, the festival presents dance as an evolving language capable of carrying classical traditions into new cultural and artistic territory.
Audiences will encounter a mixture of established works and contemporary creations during the festival. Classical ballet vocabulary will share space with choreography that pushes dancers toward different physical, emotional and theatrical possibilities. The result is intended to give audiences a broader understanding of the art form while demonstrating that tradition and innovation do not have to be competing forces.
The lineup also provides an opportunity to see dancers from different artistic environments. Performers connected to organizations including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Houston Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Complexions Contemporary Ballet are among those represented in the festival. Each company carries its own history and artistic identity, making their participation part of a larger conversation about the many ways ballet can be performed and interpreted.
The presence of Dance Theatre of Harlem is particularly meaningful within the larger story of Copeland’s career and the evolution of Black representation in ballet. Founded during a period when opportunities for Black dancers were severely limited, the company helped demonstrate that excellence and classical training could flourish in a Black cultural environment. Its legacy continues to influence dancers and audiences, making its connection to a festival curated by Copeland especially resonant.
The program also reaches beyond a single definition of contemporary ballet. Choreographers with different backgrounds and artistic philosophies contribute to an evening that can move from recognizable classical structures to works shaped by modern dance, theater, popular culture and new approaches to movement. That diversity reflects a generation of artists who increasingly see ballet not as a rigid vocabulary but as a foundation from which they can explore.
For New York audiences, the festival offers something that is increasingly valuable: the opportunity to experience outstanding dancers in an intimate setting. The Joyce is known for presenting dance in a theater where audiences can see movement and artistry up close. That environment can make a familiar ballet work feel newly personal while allowing experimental pieces to communicate with unusual immediacy.
Copeland’s role as curator also sends a message about the importance of artistic leadership. The people who select performers and choreography help determine which stories receive attention and which artists receive opportunities. By bringing a range of voices into the festival, Copeland is using that responsibility to broaden the conversation around ballet. Her choices can introduce audiences to artists they may not otherwise encounter while encouraging longtime ballet followers to look at the form from a different perspective.
The 2026 Joyce Ballet Festival ultimately arrives at an important moment for the art form. Ballet is carrying centuries of tradition into an era defined by changing audiences, broader representation and increasingly adventurous choreography. Copeland’s festival reflects that transition. For two weeks in August, The Joyce will become a meeting place for the familiar and the unexpected—a celebration of where ballet came from and a preview of where it may be going. And with Misty Copeland helping shape the conversation, the future of ballet promises to be as expansive as the dancers who are defining it.
Based on reporting by The Positive Community.
Art
BOOK REVIEW: Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl: Essays
Growing up in North Carolina, she Black Girled her hair her entire life. Her grandma made her sit for box braids when she was small, telling Brown that she was “tenderheaded.” Later, Brown had relaxed hair until she “went broke” and couldn’t afford the process anymore. That was when she got acquainted with her natural hair – although she returned to box braids at least once, and loved them all over again.
Author: Amena Brown, Copyright: c.2026, Publisher: Tiny Rep Books, SRP: $30.00, Page Count: 320 pages
Some things can really make you cross.
People telling you your business, for instance. People asking questions they have no reason to know the answers to. Folks who criticize your hair or clothes or life. These things would set anyone off; they’d be the last straw for anybody. As in the new book, “Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl” by Amena Brown, some folks just cross the line.
In a way, it’s a matter of grammar.
Depending on how you say it, “Black Girl is a noun and a verb,” says Brown. A Black Girl can be a Black Girl… and she can Black Girl. Brown herself has done it “in six countries.”
Growing up in North Carolina, she Black Girled her hair her entire life. Her grandma made her sit for box braids when she was small, telling Brown that she was “tenderheaded.” Later, Brown had relaxed hair until she “went broke” and couldn’t afford the process anymore. That was when she got acquainted with her natural hair – although she returned to box braids at least once, and loved them all over again.
As the child of a strict Pentecostal mother, Brown was a “late bloomer.” She didn’t drink alcohol until she was in her twenties. She was chaste while dating and a better church girl than a party girl. After she left the church, she began experimenting with wine first, then cocktails. She learned to cook, reasoning that the path to finding love started in a kitchen, one that happened to be her grandmother’s. And yes, love did eventually come in the form of a red-headed White man who was her friend before he became her boyfriend — and before he became her mother-sanctioned, grandma-approved husband.
Overall, says Brown, there is no single right method for doing this.
“There are so many ways to Black Girl, which means the way you Black Girl is beautiful, and the way I Black Girl is beautiful too.”
Looking for a collection of addictive, can’t-read-just-one essays that’ll make you laugh but that also feel like author Amena Brown is peeking at your life? Want a book that speaks to every corner of your existence?
Yeah, then you want “Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl.”
You know how it is when you spot something so profound, so right, that you just have to call your friends and read it out loud to them? That’s what you’ll find here: truth told with humor that’s also oozing with warmth. Add honesty that’s smart and bold and practically begging for a “Heck, YES!” and you’ve got your new favorite book.
The essays here are short enough to read in a few minutes, but compelling enough to make you want more, so give yourself room.
This is a book for twenty- and thirty-somethings, but also for their mothers and grandmas who can handle respectful irreverence and surefooted playfulness. Can men enjoy “Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl”? Sure, but it’s more for women, cross your heart.
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