USI annual Berger Lecture to explore complexities of Blackness

The University of Southern Indiana Art and Design Department and the College of Liberal Arts will welcome Jamaal Barber, artist and printmaker, as presenter of the 2023 Sydney Berger Lecture. The lecture will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 16 in the USI Performance Center. The event is open to the public at no charge. 

Barber will be on campus all week prior to his presentation, working with students in printmaking classes and performing portfolio reviews.  

“Jamaal Barber is a printmaker, podcaster and professor who deals with identity and about all aspects of black life in contemporary American culture,” says Dr. Greg Blair, Assistant Professor of Art and Design and event organizer. “His lectures and workshops with our students will be a powerful and important experience for them as they develop their own voices as creative professionals.” 

Barber's talk will explore the complexities of Blackness as an identity, as a cultural phenomenon and as the energy that connects the experiences of melanated people across time and space. Barber recently completed his MFA in Printmaking at Georgia State University. Before school, he worked as a full-time artist doing exhibitions and commissions for companies across the country. His work has been published by Twitter, The New York Times, Penguin Random House, Black Art in America and Emory University. Barber’s work has also been included in the Decatur Arts Festival, Atlanta Print Biennial Show Print Austin and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking.  

For more information, visit USI.edu/berger.