Question Bridge: Black Males
Question Bridge: Black Males is a collaborative, transmedia project that complicates traditional views of identity by exploring the full spectrum of what it means to be “black” and “male” in America. In video-mediated exchanges, 150 black men of different social, economic, political, and generational backgrounds from across America respond to questions posed by one another about issues that unite, divide, and puzzle them. Framed as an internal conversation within a group too often defined externally, Question Bridge uses candid discussion to expose the diversity of thought and identity among black males, challenging monochromatic views of “blackness.” The wide-ranging conversation touches on family, love, masculinity, discrimination, community, education, violence, and the past and future of black men in society.
The public is invited to engage with the Question Bridge: Black Males project in a variety of ways. In addition to the five-channel video installation in the main gallery, the project includes an installation at the Corcoran’s Community Gallery at THEARC in Southeast D.C., a website, custom tablet application, educational curriculum, and roundtable conversations with members of the local community.
Question Bridge: Black Males was created by Chris Johnson, Hank Willis Thomas, Bayeté Ross Smith, and Kamal Sinclair. The Executive Producers are Delroy Lindo, Deborah Willis, and Jesse Williams.
Question Bridge: Black Males is a fiscally sponsored project of the Bay Area Video Coalition (a 501c3 notforprofit organization) and supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Institute: Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Ford Foundation, The California Endowment, The Tribeca Film Institute, the LEF Foundation, The Center for Cultural Innovation, and the California College of the Arts. The project was supported by the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Story Lab.
Media sponsorship for Question Bridge: Black Males is provided by
Morton Fine Art: curator's notes 