A Lineage of (F)Light: A Collaborative Performance by Patrisse Cullors and Rashida Bumbray
Part of How Healing Happens

ADMISSION:
Admission is free. RSVP at the links below beginning Monday, December 1, at 10 a.m.

DESCRIPTION:
Through movement, voice, ritual, and sonic textures, A Lineage of (F)Light weaves the threads of past and present to illuminate Biddy Mason’s radical legacy. The first-ever collaborative performance between groundbreaking artists Patrisse Cullors and Rashida Bumbray will incorporate a multi-hyphenate performance—part procession, part invocation, part resistance. Grounded in Black feminist traditions of care, survival, and remembrance, it calls forth the names of Black women who have built cities, healed nations, and dreamed freedom into being, yet remain unrecognized in dominant histories.

The performance is part of How Healing Happens, a three-event series that highlights emergent perspectives on how artistic practices can nurture personal and collective well-being and provide space for reflection and connection. The events will be preceded by workshops for USC students, staff, and faculty.

Bios:

Rashida Bumbray is a curator and choreographer. In 2022, she curated Loophole of Retreat: Venice, a three-day global symposium focused on Black women’s intellectual and creative labor as part of Simone Leigh’s exhibition Sovereignty at the American Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale. As Director of Culture and Art at the Open Society Foundations from 2015 to 2022, Bumbray spearheaded the development of the foundations’ first global program dedicated to advancing diverse artistic practices and strengthening locally led cultural spaces globally.

Patrisse Cullors is an artist and abolitionist from Los Angeles who has long been drawn to the unseen and is inspired by the beauty of freedom found in different planes and dimensions. A graduate of the USC Roski School of Art and Design’s MFA program, Cullors draws from her background as a visual and performing artist to leverage the power of art and community organizing to catalyze social change. As a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and founder of The Center For Art and Abolition, she has popularized a new phrase for artists and cultural workers: abolitionist aesthetics.

Related Events:
Somatic Grounding Workshop with Staci K. Haines
Wednesday, January 21, 2026, at 12 p.m.
Watt Hall 108
For more info, click HERE.

The Intersection of Art and Care: Patrisse Cullors and Prentis Hemphill in Conversation, Moderated by Rashida Bumbray
Wednesday, January 21, 2026, at 6:30 p.m.
Gin D. Wong Hall, HAR 101
For more info, click HERE.

Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Organized by Sherin Guirguis (Professor of Practice, Art and Design). Co-sponsored by the USC Roski School of Art and Design.