Black Atlas

Black Atlas
Edward George; conversation with Fred Moten

Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Be the Media Workshop — 5:00 PM
Screening — 7:00 PM
Sanctuary for Independent Media (Troy, NY)

Commissioned by The Warburg Institute (London), Edward George’s Black Atlas explores the 'Image of the Black' archive — a collection of over 30,000 images documenting representations of people of African descent from antiquity through the civil rights era. The American premiere is presented in partnership with The Sanctuary for Independent Media and RPI Arts Department’s iEAR Presents.

Drawing from the archive, George creates a new film that reanimates historical imagery through narration, sound, and montage. Accompanied by a score by Seymour Wright and Crystabel Efemena Riley, Black Atlas unfolds as a meditation on time, place, and presence — considering art as a medium of transcendence, a technology of power, and an affirmation of a humanist, anti-racist project.

The film approaches the archive as both a site of cultural memory and a tool for speculative thinking: What might it mean to encounter the archive not as a fixed record of the past, but as a living structure through which histories can be reimagined?

The screening will be followed by a conversation between Edward George and author and NYU professor Fred Moten.

More info on the Be the Media workshop at the Sanctuary is forthcoming.

Tickets and registration:
- Both events are included with the Festival Pass. Festival Passes go on sale June 15, 2026.
- Festival Pass holders do not need to purchase separate tickets for events at The Sanctuary. To reserve a place for the workshop and screening, register at mediasanctuary.org using the code TOPOS2026, which will ensure free entry.
- While Sanctuary tickets are offered on a sliding scale from $0+, TOPOS Festival Pass holders may attend at no additional cost.