Poetry in the Garden: Camae Ayewa

Performance in Poetry in the Garden series
A photo with a soft filter of a woman with long black dreadlocks in a bun on top of her head

Camae Ayewa

Photo: Ebru Yildiz

Apr 23, 2025

2pm

Getty Center

Central Garden

This is a past event.

About

Join us for a unique series of live readings set among the Getty Center’s Central Garden, featuring poetry inspired by the Getty Research Institute exhibition What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843–1999. Each week, words will float through the landscape, encouraging guests to create their own experiences: rest on a bench, lay on a blanket on the lawn, admire the view, or wander the pathways among the blooming spring plants as poetry vibrates through the air!

Series speakers:
April 16, 2025: Mia Moretti
April 23, 2025: Camae Ayewa with V.C.R on violin
April 30, 2025: Solange Aguilar

Visit the Getty Research Institute's Exhibitions and Events page for more free programs.

    1. Camae Ayewa

      Poet & Musician

      Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother) is a national and international touring musician, poet, visual artist, and professor of composition at the USC Thornton School of Music. Her work speaks to many genres, from electronic to free jazz and classical music. Through the lens and practice of Black Quantum Futurism, the art she makes is a statement for the future as well as a way to honor the present and its historic connections to a multitude of past realities and future outcomes. Her book of poems, American Equations in Black Classical Music: Counting the Beat Blues Time & Temporary Alchemy (2024), is published with Hat and Beard Press.

    2. V.C.R

      Musician

      Veronica C. Ratliff (V.C.R) is a multidisciplinary recording artist, composer, writer, and violinist based in Los Angeles, working at the intersection of music and literature. Classically trained in violin and gospel choir, her album The Chronicles of a Caterpillar: The Egg was released in 2022 on Leaving Records. Her first publication, The Creative Black Woman’s Playbook, was released in 2019. She was featured on Andrew 3000’s debut solo record New Blue Sun (2023, Epic Records).

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