Newcomb Art Museum invites Tulane students, staff, and faculty to explore the exhibition Bmike Odums: NOT Supposed 2 BE Here during the final “open” Saturday, November 14, before Thanksgiving and the end of the fall semester.

To mark the upcoming close of NOT Supposed 2-BE Here, the Newcomb Art Museum is turning its regular Tulane open hours into a special poetry-infused Saturday! Students, staff, and faculty can register to visit the museum via their EventBrite page. Tickets are free but limited to 15 individuals at a time (30 minute slots); a valid splash ID number is needed for entry and masks will be required with social distancing rules followed at all times (in accordance to Tulane and the museum’s COVID safety protocols).

In partnership with New Horizons, a new BIPOC Arts Collective at Tulane, the afternoon at the museum will consist of self-guided tours, and curated conversations with student poets and artists based on the themes in Bmike’s work, with Cubs the Poet creating new poetry for students, staff, and faculty to take home with them – each inspired by visitor interactions. 

Tulanians are invited to immerse themselves in the artwork in the exhibition's galleries – each examining four different takes on inclusion and identity drawn across notions of art, race, place, and accessibility – while student poets share their own work influenced by the exhibition and their own lives and experiences. Inspired by the words of others and the artwork of BMike –the museum invites visitors to write their own poem, remark, word of encouragement answering the question where we do go from here? and leave it on the collective/collected conversation board at the front of the museum.

NOT Supposed 2-BE Here, the first solo show for Bmike in a museum setting, addresses the idea of who or what kind of art belongs in a museum. The works presented wrestle with themes of heroism, cultural identity, and Blackness, as well as our region’s present-day ecological reality. Part retrospective and part futurescape,  NOT Supposed 2-BE Here features bold histories –and even bolder futures– as Bmike explores the notion of art as alchemy. We encourage students to sign up with their friends and take advantage of an art-filled, thought-provoking activity on campus. Spots are limited, register for your free visit to the museum today!