The City Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship (Detroit ACE) will partner with veteran Detroit creative Sabrina Nelson, the Charles Wright Museum of African American History and the Detroit Public Library on a celebration of the 100th birthday of the late American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin,

The exhibition opens on August 2 with an invite-only VIP reception and a public reception. The exhibition will be on display until February 28, 2025. To register for the exhibition, visit: https://www.thewright.org/exhibitions/frontline-prophet-james-baldwin.

The “Frontline Prophet: James Baldwin” exhibition was created by Nelson and co-curated by Ashara Ekundayo and Omo Misha. Ekundayo, is an interdisciplinary, independent curator, culture worker, artist and founder of Artist As First Responder. Omo Misha is a Detroit and New York-based curator and arts administrator, who has served numerous New York institutions, including the United Nations, CHRISTIE’S and City College Center for the Arts, while operating Detroit’s Irwin House Gallery as a place for the development of emerging talent and the strengthening of connection between the creative communities of Detroit and Harlem. 

Nelson, a professional interdisciplinary artist for more than 37 years, kicked off a year-long celebration of Baldwin by launching the Frontline Prophet: James Baldwin in New York’s Harlem neighborhood in 2023. The exhibition highlights the artist’s deeply personal perspectives on the iconic writer and includes works from a seven-year sketchbook study as well as works on paper and canvas and projected video installations.  Nelson, in more than 40 unique depictions of Baldwin and his contemporaries, presents imagery and text culled from the lectures, writings, and social-political themes that were highlights of Baldwin’s work on critical culture, identity, race and sexuality.

In her nearly four years of creating, Nelson has exhibited across the Midwest and in Florida, New York, Louisiana, California and Paris, France. She uses multiple styles – from painting, drawing and sculpture, to performance art.

Nelson also is a lecturer and ‘artivist,’ which means she uses her art as a medium for activism. She has worked for Detroit’s College for Creative Studies for 27 years, teaching African American Art History. She also has served on the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp faculty and been a guest curator for the Carr Center and the Detroit Music Hall Performing Arts Center. She earned her BFA in Fine Arts from CCS in 1991. She was 2021-2022 Kresge Arts Fellow, and her work was featured on PBS in 2020 & 2022.