Black History Month

February 14 to 28 

We are collaborating with Detroit-based interdisciplinary artist Ackeem Salmon to present his work at FEU in celebration of Black History Month. Working across photography, painting, performance, and installation, Salmon explores identity, cultural memory, and postcolonial experience through deeply personal and socially engaged practices. The exhibition highlights his approach to connecting histories and communities between Detroit and Paris, foregrounding art as a space for empathy, dialogue, and shared cultural inheritance.

Thursday, February 12 at 7:00 PM

Collaborating with Detroit-based interdisciplinary artist Ackeem Salmon, the FEU present his work in celebration of Black History Month. Working across photography, painting, performance, and installation, Salmon explores identity, cultural memory, and postcolonial experience through deeply personal and socially engaged practices. The exhibition highlights his approach to connecting histories and communities between Detroit and Paris, foregrounding art as a space for empathy, dialogue, and shared cultural inheritance.

Sunday, February 22 at 4:00 PM

In collaboration with Banlieues Bleues and hosted by Byron Keaton alongside commentator Vinii Revlon, two international figures of the ballroom scene, the event celebrates transmission, creativity, and the futures of Black and queer communities in Paris, in a spirit of openness, respect, and shared exchange.

Born within Black and Latino queer communities in Harlem during the 20th century, ballroom culture emerged as a space for expression, resistance, and the celebration of identities. Through houses, categories, and performance, ballroom highlights bodies, styles, and narratives long marginalized. Black Queer Futures Kiki Ball – Part 2 is rooted in this history while projecting it into contemporary Paris. Hosted as part of the Black History Month Series at the Fondation des États-Unis, this second edition, curated by Khalid McGhee, creates a dialogue between the Afro-American legacies of the ballroom scene and the contemporary dynamics of queer communities in Europe.

Thursday, February 28 at 7:00 PM

Songs Between Two Rivers is a cabaret evening tracing a musical journey from the Mississippi River to the Seine. FEU artist-in-residence Khalid McGhee is joined by fellow artists from St. Louis—Adrianna Jones, De-Rance Blaylock, and Amber Rose—for a vibrant program celebrating the musical heritage of Black America. Moving through soul, jazz, Black Broadway, and gospel before returning to the blues and spirituals, the program sketches a transatlantic itinerary—one that might also be followed in the footsteps of Josephine Baker—connecting history, place, and musical storytelling within an intimate and dynamic performance.