Public Program
Self-Reflections: An Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop
Thursday
March 19, 2026
7 - 8:30 pm
Hostetter Gallery and Bertucci Education Studio
Experience Persona: Photography and the Re-Imagined Self through ekphrasis, the practice of creating poetry in response to a work of visual art. Participants will spend time in the exhibition and be guided by poet Precious Musa to engage closely with the art, cultivating reflection and conversation before ultimately penning their own response to the works that resonate with them.
Space is limited: 20 spots available - free with Admission
Artists
Photo courtesy of the artists
Precious Chika Musa, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, is a poet, storyteller, visual artist, and essayist whose creative work navigates grief, Home, and the experience of living in a body. Musa’s poetry and prose appear in Tupelo Quarterly, where her experimental play-poem, “Elegy for the Still Living,” was selected as a finalist for its Prose Open Prize; The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), West Trestle Review, Black Perspectives, and elsewhere. In partnership with the St. Louis-based Griot Museum of Black History, Musa launched her debut curatorial exhibit, Listen, Look: A Reconciliatory Journey Through Black Grief and Joy, which showcased the visual art, dance, poetry, and vocals of St. Louis artists unpacking grief and joy in Black life. In 2021, Musa earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University in St. Louis. When she’s not dreaming about an Afro-futurist landscape, Musa volunteers for the Reparative Justice Coalition of St. Louis where she moves forward projects commemorating histories of racial violence in the Midwest.
Social Media:
Website: preciouschikamusa.com
Substack: https://substack.com/@pcmusa,
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thats_so_presh
Persona: Photography and the Re-Imagined Self is supported in part by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, the Barbara Lee Program Fund, Fredericka and Howard Stevenson, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
The Artist-in-Residence program is supported in part by Lizbeth and George Krupp and The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc., and directed by Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art. Funding is also provided for site-specific installations of new work on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade on Evans Way.
