A new exhibit by Mighty Real / Queer Detroit is exploring the history, artistry and culture of what it means to be Black and Queer. Curated by patrick burton and Wayne Northcross, “In the Life: Black Queerness—Looking Back, Moving Forward” opens Friday at the Carr Center, featuring photography, painting, drawing and multimedia work from more than a dozen artists. It is a satellite exhibition of their Detroit Queer Biennial, which will return in June 2026.
“It’s an exhibition of Black LGBTQ artists who…express themes of intimacy, kinship, desire, survival, protest and, more importantly, the imagination,” Northcross said.
Spanning artists from the past 75 years, the exhibit takes its name from the phrase “in the life,” a coded way of identifying Queerness rooted in Harlem’s Black Queer community from the early 20th century.