Events
The Black Madonna + Other Sacred Spaces
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When: July 2026 - August 2026
Where: The Urban Arts Space during gallery hours
The Black Madonna & Other Sacred Spaces is a multidisciplinary exhibition and cultural experience that centers healing, ancestral memory, and sacred creative practice within Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.
Through visual art, installation, and public programming, the exhibition explores the Black Madonna as both symbol and portal, an archetype of protection, resilience, divinity, and maternal power across time and geography. Artists are invited to interpret “sacred spaces” expansively: as physical environments, interior landscapes, spiritual inheritances, and sites of resistance, rest, and restoration.
Presented by The Sacred Spaces Collective in collaboration with community partners like The Urban Arts Space, Wexner Center for the Arts, The Pollen Patch Columbus, and Straight Through, the exhibition will transform the gallery and community spaces into an immersive, reflective environment that prioritizes care, accessibility, and collective storytelling. Programming will include workshops, artist talks, and healing-centered gatherings that deepen engagement beyond the visual experience.
This inaugural exhibition marks the beginning of a larger vision: to build sustainable platforms, resources, and physical spaces that support artists and communities in creating, preserving, and experiencing sacred work.
A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde
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When: Tuesday, July 21, 7:00 PM
Where: The Wexner Center for the Arts Film & Video Theater
1871 N High St, Columbus, OH 43210https://wexarts.org/film-video
A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde (Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson, 1996)
A Litany for Survival chronicles the remarkable life of Black lesbian, poet, teacher, and activist Audre Lorde, from her childhood in Harlem to her 14-year battle with breast cancer.
A champion of civil rights, the women’s movement, and gay and lesbian rights, Lorde “narrates” the film through recordings of her poetry, prose, and interviews conducted during the final years of her life. Reflections from her children, students, and contemporaries—including Adrienne Rich, Essex Hemphill, and Sonia Sanchez—add to this incredibly rich portrait of one of 20th century’s most influential writers. Sacred Spaces Collective Curator Keya Crenshaw and Poet Tyiesha Radford-Shorts lead a discussion following the screening. (90 mins., digital video)
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Black Madonna & Other Sacred Spaces, organized by the Sacred Spaces Collective at the Urban Arts Space.
The exhibition runs July – August 2026. Visit https://uas.osu.edu/ for more information.
The Listening Room x Straight Through
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When: Wednesday, July 22, 7:00 PM
Where: TBD
Vinyl: TBD
In partnership with Sista Rhythm aka Dr. Adrienne Kennedy, Straight Through is a live, immersive sound experience that collapses time through deep listening. Rooted in Black sonic traditions and experimental practice, this offering invites audiences into a shared auditory ritual—where past, present, and future converge.
Curated by The Sacred Spaces Collective, Atemporal: The Listening Room centers sound as a site of memory, healing, and transcendence. This event is guided by the visionary work of Sista Rhythm and Straight Through.
Artist Commune: Mystic Sticks (A Hand-Rolled Incense Making Workshop)
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When: Friday, July 31, 6:30–8:30 PM
Where: The Urban Arts Space
50 W. Town St. 43215In partnership with Sheena Hanscel of the Pollen Patch Columbus, Mystic Sticks is a hands-on incense-making workshop rooted in ancestral knowledge and sensory ritual. Participants will learn to blend, bind, and roll their own incense while exploring the spiritual and cultural significance of scent across diasporic traditions.
As part of The Urban Arts Space Artist Commune series and in collaboration with the Sacred Spaces Collective, these offerings nurture creativity, embodiment, and communal care through intentional making.
The Care Studio: Interactive Rituals for Skin, Body, and Self Love
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When: Friday, August 7, 6:30–8:30 PM
Where: Urban Arts Space
In partnership with Sheena Hanscel of the Pollen Patch Columbus The Care Studio is an interactive wellness experience centered on ritual, touch, and self-devotion.
Through guided practices and plant-based care techniques, participants engage in embodied rituals for skin, body, and spirit. Grounded in traditions of holistic healing, this offering expands care as both a personal and collective practice—inviting restoration, reflection, and reconnection.
The Listening Room x Straight Through
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When: Saturday, August 15, 2:00 PM
Where: The King Arts Complex Elijah Pierce Gallery 835 Mt Vernon Ave., Columbus, OH 43203
Vinyl: TBD
In partnership with Sista Rhythm aka Dr. Adrienne Kennedy, Straight Through is a live, immersive sound experience that collapses time through deep listening. Rooted in Black sonic traditions and experimental practice, this offering invites audiences into a shared auditory ritual—where past, present, and future converge.
Curated by The Sacred Spaces Collective, Atemporal: The Listening Room centers sound as a site of memory, healing, and transcendence. This event is guided by the visionary work of Sista Rhythm and Straight Through.