Project a Black Planet
The Art and Culture of Panafrica

Polymode designed Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, an expansive look at more than a century of Pan-Africanist art and the ways it embodies the movement’s principles and global ambitions. The catalogue and exhibition was edited and curated by Antawan I. Byrd, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Adom Getachew, and Matthew S. Witkovsky and will travel from The Art Institute of Chicago to MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona, Barbican Centre, London, and KANAL–Centre Pompidou, Brussels.

Focusing on its cultural expression, this book presents a rich selection of the visual, sonic, and other creative forms that have emerged throughout Pan-Africanism’s evolution. Among the nearly two hundred artists represented from across the continent and the African diaspora are Beauford Delaney, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Hoyt William Fuller, Wifredo Lam, Simone Leigh, Ernest Mancoba, Zanele Muholi, Kawira Mwirichia, Cauleen Smith, Alma Thomas, and George Albert Yon.

Reflecting Pan-Africanism’s ideals of diversity and dialogue as well as its aspirations to egalitarianism, essays from more than a dozen scholars, artists, and practitioners speak to a range of themes and places, while discussing works in all media made or circulated outside the infrastructure of fine art, including LP albums, illustrated magazines, and manifestos.