Sights and Sounds of the Revolution

What do you think of when you hear the word “revolution?”

Perhaps it’s protests and picket signs, courts and constitutional amendments, moving speeches and massive marches. Sometimes revolution is asserting the right to pleasure and leisure–quiet moments of reverie, moving freely without harassment, an affectionate embrace. Getty’s newest exhibition Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 brings together works by over 100 activists, photographers, painters, graphic designers, and multimedia artists; it celebrates Black history, identity, and beauty, and shows the myriad ways that photography both fostered and propelled social change.

Music, too, has always been woven into the fabric of revolution. We caught up with Novena Carmel, host of KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, DJ, and overall music person, to discuss the relationship between art, music, and activism. And we asked her to make an exhibition-inspired playlist, of course. Carmel’s pedigree includes work with the Hollywood Bowl, Amoeba Records, multiple Los Angeles museums, and a love for music inspired by her mother’s record collection and her father, Sly Stone.

Which photographs from the exhibition stood out to you the most?

Novena Carmel: One that really stood out to me was Fannie Lou Hamer as captured by Louis Draper. When I saw it, I didn’t know that it was Fannie Lou Hamer, who was a voting and women’s rights activist. I was really captured by the image because of the expression on her face; it looks like it could be anywhere, any time. Her clothes, her hair, and the setting look timeless to me.

This timelessness also reminds us that even with the passing of years, our concerns are still the same. Our needs, our wants, our struggles have remained fairly unchanged.

I love John Simmons’s Love on the Bus. It’s romantic and also charged with the energy of the time: two lovers in each other’s arms sitting in the back of a public space with a socially charged history.

With Miles Davis captured mid-performance by Gordon Parks in 1981, I first noticed the date; it wasn’t necessarily the peak of Davis’s career. In fact, he had been on hiatus/retirement for a few years before that. And not only that, it wasn’t a sabbatical where he was on a beach somewhere; he was holed up in a dirty apartment and almost died.

Then in 1981, he released The Man with the Horn. In this image, he is the man with the horn in this very vulnerable time of his life, bent over while performing on stage in a very literally vulnerable position.

How do you feel the activism of today compares to the activism of the past?

NC: I’ve heard about lunch counter sit-ins many times, almost to the point where the weight is taken out of them. But then I was looking at [this photo] like, would I be brave enough to just sit at a lunch counter where people are spitting at you and making you feel unwelcome?

Today is actually Rosa Parks Day (December 1). Many people protested before her, but once she was arrested, the ensuing bus boycotts were massive. Civil rights protestors organized a whole transportation network outside of buses, all before cell phones and social media. Today, despite it being easier to communicate device-wise, it seems much more challenging to organize. It’s a different world.

Who today is creating art that reflects our current times?

NC: I think Aja Monet is one of the greatest poets of our time. Her foundation comes from a lot of the poets of the Black Arts Movement. I love the range of topics that she covers.

I’m not overly into spoken word; she calls her style “surrealist blues.” It’s much more like poetry done to music.

Recently I discovered this artist named Cleo Reed who has a new album called Cuntry. They’ll tell you these songs are about labor, and what it means to labor as a Queer Black artist. “Always the Horse, Never the Jockey” is a song they have that really speaks to that experience.

If you could pick a modern song that’s representative of revolution, what would it be?

NC: Brian Jackson plays the flute and the keys and played with Gil Scott-Heron for a long time and wrote a number of songs with him. He has a new album that’s reimagined versions of those songs. One of them is “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” but this time the verses are done by Black Thought of The Roots.

He modernizes the song with lyrics like, “The revolution will not be covered on Fox News… It’s not preoccupied with whether you stand, sit, stoop, dance, or take a knee during the national anthem.”

DJs are artists in their own right. Similarly to the artists featured in the exhibition, do you ever DJ with a larger goal or message in mind?

NC: Always. I always want people’s imaginations to be tickled and for them to be inspired. Usually, I hope to leave them with a joyful feeling.

I also immerse myself into the experience. If you see me DJing, you’re going to most likely see me dancing. Not just because I think it’s joyful to see other people having a good time, but also I’m hoping that it will show people that it’s okay to just be free and dance and be silly. If you hear me on the radio, then I’m going to always have a smile on my face, and I want listeners to feel like I’m talking to them.

I also try to be present to the vibration of the moment. It could be a micro moment, like a wedding. But it could also be a moment in society or a moment in the city that we’re in. The Dodgers just won the World Series, or this incredible artist just passed away—let’s honor them. Or if a really crazy election just happened, let’s speak to that moment through music that carries us through the heaviness of it.

It’s not all “don’t worry, be happy.” It’s helping people to hold their emotions without telling people how to feel. You’re just trying to guide them through, kind of like a therapist.

Check out Novena Carmel’s playlist, inspired by Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985, below!

Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 is on view at the Getty Center from February 24 to June 14, 2026.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.