Aug 27, 2025 - Culture

Frame Work: Past and future Black queer perspectives

Annalise Frank

Left: an abstract portrait of a person with yellow paint stripes overlaying their face and torso. Right: a blue-toned person with long hair stands amid large green leaves on a gradient background. — Alanna Fields' "Kiss Me, Make My World Fade Away," 2023 (left) and April Bey's "I'm Something Like Stormy Weather, But I'm Also the Sunlight that Shines Shortly After," 2022. Photos: Courtesy of In the Life

A new exhibition at the Carr Center downtown takes its name from "in the life," a code for queerness without being explicit that dates back to 1920s Harlem amid underground drag balls and cabarets.

The big picture: The fall exhibition titled "In the Life: Black Queerness — Looking Back, Moving Forward" features a wide-spanning chronicle of Black LGBTQ+ experience.

The exhibition uses historical context as it showcases how art is central to resistance and freedom for self-expression in LGBTQ+ communities.

The show's presenter is Mighty Real/Queer Detroit, which also runs a biennial Pride Month art show slated next for 2026. Patrick Burton and Wayne Northcross curated.

Zoom in: The list of around a dozen artists includes April Bey, John Edmonds, Alanna Fields and LeRoy Foster.

Foster was a leading, openly gay painter who died in 1993 and was known for his "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass" mural at the library's Douglass Branch.

If you go: The show runs from Sept. 5 to Oct. 11 at 15 E. Kirby St., kicking off with a public opening ceremony from 6-8pm on Sept. 5.

Meet the artists and curators at an event Sept. 6 at 2pm, and watch a selection of LGBTQ+ short films at 7pm on Sept. 20.

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Frame Work: Past and future Black queer perspectives

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