High Art | Culture | Theatre | Literature | History | Heritage | Dialogue | Discourse | Dance | Democracy
Global Headquarters 1315 Walnut St, Suite 300, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, United States Phone: 267.334.4897
Philadelphia | Paris | Harlem, New York City | Edinburgh | Los Angeles | Chicago | Hartford | Miami | Berlin | Rome
The Brothers’ Network melds artistic, archival, editorial, and curatorial practices to signify, solidify, and sustain the humanity of Black men, globally.
The Brothers’ Network Social Media Links
“The voice of intelligence… is drowned out by the roar of fear. It is ignored by the voice of desire. It is contradicted by the voice of shame. It is biased by hate and extinguished by anger. Most of all it is silenced by ignorance.”
– Dr. Karl A. Menninger
2025/2026 Global Advisory Board
-
Los Angeles, CA
-
Chicago, IL/ Los Angeles, CA
Dwight White, MFA
Contemporary Artist
-
Paris, France
Monique Y. Wells, VMD, MS
-
-
Harlem, New York City, NY
Contemporary Multimedia Artist, Adjunct Instructor of Photography, NYU Tisch School of the Arts
-
London, England, UK and Philadelphia, PA
Oliver St. Clair Franklin CBE
Honorary Consul, British Consulate
Read more about Oliver St. Clair Franklin
London, England, UK and Philadelphia, PA
-
London, UK and Los Angeles, CA
Colman Domingo
Internationally acclaimed actor, director, writer, and producer
Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, and Drama League Award–nominated
Instagram:@kingofbingo
-
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Professor Tommy Curry, PhD
Personal Chair in Africana , Philosophy and Black Male Studies, University of Edinburgh
-
Miami, FL
Marlon Johnson
Emmy Award-Winning Film Director and Producer
Marlon Johnson is a twelve-time Emmy Award-winning producer and director and a valued member of The Brothers’ Network Global Advisory Board. A Miami native, he holds dual degrees in Anthropology and Communications (with a Motion Pictures focus) from the University of Miami. His acclaimed documentary work explores music, culture, and social justice — including Coconut Grove: A Sense of Place (on gentrification), Breaking the Silence (on HIV in the Black American South), and Sunday’s Best (on Black women’s church fashion).
Marlon has served as Head of Production for Plum TV, where he earned his first Emmy. He later co-directed Deep City: The Birth of the Miami Sound, a festival favorite and PBS feature, and Symphony in D, an award-winning look at Detroit through music. In 2016, he received the top South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual Media, recognizing his excellence in visual storytelling.
The Brothers’ Network September 2025 Book Selection: ‘Black Artists in Their Own Words’ Edited by Esteemed Art Historian, Lisa Farrington
What is Black art? No one has thought harder about that question than Black artists, yet their perspectives have been largely ignored. Instead, their stories have been told by intellectuals like W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke, who defined "a school" of Black art in the early twentieth century. For the first time, Black Artists in Their Own Words offers an insightful corrective.
Esteemed art historian Lisa Farrington gathers writing spanning a century across the United States, the Caribbean, and the African continent—including from renowned artists Henry Tanner, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Romare Bearden, Wifredo Lam, Renee Cox, and many more—that reveals both evolutions and equivocations. Many artists, especially during the civil rights era, have embraced Black aesthetics as a source of empowerment. Others prefer to be artists first and Black second, while some have rejected racial identification entirely. Here, Black artists reclaim their work from reductive critical narratives, sharing the motivations underlying their struggles to create in a white-dominated art world.
Black Portraiture[s]: TULSA STORIES
October 3rd, 2025
9:30am - 5:00pm CDT
NYU Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma
700 North Greenwood Ave, Tulsa, OK 74106
Room: Conference Center, Ground Level
In 2013, Black Portraiture[s] became an international conference series when it convened in Paris at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, co-hosted by Dr. Awam Amkpa, Dean of Arts and Humanities NYU Abu Dhabi and Dr. Cheryl Finley, Inaugural Director of the Atlanta University Center Collective for the Study of Art History and Curatorial Studies. Black Portraiture[s] now attracts hundreds of scholars, artists, and activists from around the world; convenings have since taken place in New York, Florence, Toronto, and Johannesburg among other cities.
The next iteration of Black Portraiture[s] will be held at NYU Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma on October 3, 2025. Black Portraiture[s]: TULSA STORIES seeks to continue the robust scholarship and art conversations of our Black Portraiture[s] conferences by convening an intergenerational group of participating scholars, artists, activists, storytellers, educators, gallerists, and photographers to explore cultural memories and resistance. All day programming will include panels with themes such as: “Reimagining Tulsa,” “Black Wall Street,” “The Archive,” and “Art, Writing & Music,” and feature short presentations from a variety of speakers sharing their respective works/practice, moderated conversation, audience Q&A and final wrap-up. Subscribe to the Black Portraiture[s] mailing list to receive more information and updates regarding speakers and conference schedules.
An academic conference committed to the study of African diasporic art and culture, Black Portraiture[s] initially began as a colloquium on African American art at Harvard University convened by Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research; with Dr. Deborah Willis, Chair and Professor at NYU Tisch Department of Photography and Imaging, Founding Director of the Center for Black Visual Culture; and Dr. Manthia Diawara, Professor at NYU Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies and Director of the Institute of African American Affairs from 1992-2018.
‘Thoughts of a Colored Man’
Written by Keenan Scott II
October 3rd and 5th, 2025
Directed and Produced By: Frankie Darcell
Venice Island Performing Arts & Recreation Center
7 Lock St, Philadelphia, PA 19127
The Brothers' Network in conversation with 'Thoughts of a Colored Man' director and producer Frankie Darcell, radio personality WDAS. The Brothers' Network in dialogue about the importance of maintaining Black men center stage. This conversation explores the past, present, and future of theatre and high art and its importance to the worldwide community.
’Thoughts of a Colored Man’ is a play by Keenan Scott that explores the lives of seven Black men in Brooklyn, using slam poetry, prose, and song. The play delves into their hopes, fears, and joys as they navigate a gentrifying neighborhood and the complexities of modern Black manhood. It was the first Broadway show written and directed by Black men, with a Black lead and all-Black production team.
Sphinx Virtuosi
Thursday, October 16, 2025 - 7:30 pm
Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center
Call The Brothers’ Network directly to purchase your discounted tickets at 267-334-4897
Do NOT call the Box Office!
Anthony McGill,
Randall Goosby,
Joshua Mhoon,
Tuesday, December 09, 2025 - 7:30 pm
Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center!
Call The Brothers’ Network directly to purchase your discounted tickets at 267-334-4897
Do NOT call the Box Office!
Isidore Quartet
Friday, March 06, 2026 - 7:30 PM
Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center
Call The Brothers’ Network directly to purchase your discounted tickets at 267-334-4897
Do NOT call the Box Office!
Imani Winds
Tuesday, April 07, 2026 - 7:30 PM
American Philosophical Society
Call The Brothers’ Network directly to purchase your discounted tickets at 267-334-4897
Do NOT call the Box Office!
The Brothers’ Network August 2025 Book Selection: ‘People Like Us’ Written by National Book Award Winner, Jason Mott
The Brothers’ Network has selected ‘People Like Us’ based on the of wide acceptance of Mott's fourth and most critically acclaimed novel, Hell of a Book, was published by E. P. Dutton on June 29, 2021.[5] It is at times an absurdist and metafictional look into the complex and fraught African American experience. On November 17, 2021, the novel was awarded the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.[6] It also received the 2021 Sir Walter Raleigh Prize for Fiction[7] and the 2022 Housatonic Book Award for Fiction.[8] It was shortlisted for the 2022 Chautauqua Prize.[9] It was also longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction,[10] the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize,[11] and the 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize.[12] It was also a finalist for the 2022 Maya Angelou Book Award.[13]
Mott was the recipient of a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Creative Writing.
Please support The Brothers’ Network by making your tax-deductible contribution.
Actors - Prtizker Award Architects- Art Collectors - Artists - Booker Award Authors - Ceramists - James Beard Award Chefs - Choreographers - Coffee Shop Owners - Coffee Shops - Owners - Coffee Shop Proprietors - College Deans - Composers - Classical Composers - Creators - Curators - Cinematographers - Dance Company - Dancers - Data Scientists - Educators - Engineers - Filmmaker CBE RA - Founders - Glass Blowers - Glass Artists - Harpists - Heinz Awards - Hotel Owners - Intellectuals - Jazz Scholars - Jazz Musicians - Journalists - Opera Singers - Painters - Performance Artists - Photographers - Iconic Playwrights - Playwrights - Poets - Poets and Playwrights - BBC Presenters - Professors - Northern Europe Publisher Rep - Readers - Scholars - Sculptors - Shoe Designer - Statistician - Students - Tea Lovers - Teachers - Textile Makers - Theatre Patrons - Thespians - Thinkers - Wine Makers - World Travelers -
Actors - Prtizker Award Architects- Art Collectors - Artists - Booker Award Authors - Ceramists - James Beard Award Chefs - Choreographers - Coffee Shop Owners - Coffee Shops - Owners - Coffee Shop Proprietors - College Deans - Composers - Classical Composers - Creators - Curators - Cinematographers - Dance Company - Dancers - Data Scientists - Educators - Engineers - Filmmaker CBE RA - Founders - Glass Blowers - Glass Artists - Harpists - Heinz Awards - Hotel Owners - Intellectuals - Jazz Scholars - Jazz Musicians - Journalists - Opera Singers - Painters - Performance Artists - Photographers - Iconic Playwrights - Playwrights - Poets - Poets and Playwrights - BBC Presenters - Professors - Northern Europe Publisher Rep - Readers - Scholars - Sculptors - Shoe Designer - Statistician - Students - Tea Lovers - Teachers - Textile Makers - Theatre Patrons - Thespians - Thinkers - Wine Makers - World Travelers -
YOU
Actors - Prtizker Award Architects- Art Collectors - Artists - Booker Award Authors - Ceramists - James Beard Award Chefs - Choreographers - Coffee Shop Owners - Coffee Shops - Owners - Coffee Shop Proprietors - College Deans - Composers - Classical Composers - Creators - Curators - Cinematographers - Dance Company - Dancers - Data Scientists - Educators - Engineers - Filmmaker CBE RA - Founders - Glass Blowers - Glass Artists - Harpists - Heinz Awards - Hotel Owners - Intellectuals - Jazz Scholars - Jazz Musicians - Journalists - Opera Singers - Painters - Performance Artists - Photographers - Iconic Playwrights - Playwrights - Poets - Poets and Playwrights - BBC Presenters - Professors - Northern Europe Publisher Rep - Readers - Scholars - Sculptors - Shoe Designer - Statistician - Students - Tea Lovers - Teachers - Textile Makers - Theatre Patrons - Thespians - Thinkers - Wine Makers - World Travelers - Actors - Prtizker Award Architects- Art Collectors - Artists - Booker Award Authors - Ceramists - James Beard Award Chefs - Choreographers - Coffee Shop Owners - Coffee Shops - Owners - Coffee Shop Proprietors - College Deans - Composers - Classical Composers - Creators - Curators - Cinematographers - Dance Company - Dancers - Data Scientists - Educators - Engineers - Filmmaker CBE RA - Founders - Glass Blowers - Glass Artists - Harpists - Heinz Awards - Hotel Owners - Intellectuals - Jazz Scholars - Jazz Musicians - Journalists - Opera Singers - Painters - Performance Artists - Photographers - Iconic Playwrights - Playwrights - Poets - Poets and Playwrights - BBC Presenters - Professors - Northern Europe Publisher Rep - Readers - Scholars - Sculptors - Shoe Designer - Statistician - Students - Tea Lovers - Teachers - Textile Makers - Theatre Patrons - Thespians - Thinkers - Wine Makers - World Travelers - YOU
The Brothers’ Network is…
Actors | Pritzker Award Architects | Art Collectors | Artists | Ghanian Artist Venice Biennale | Ballet Dancers | Booker Award Authors | Ceramists | CEOs and Presidents | James Beard Award Chefs | Choreographers | Coffee Shop Owners | Coffee Shop Proprietors | College Deans | Conductors | Composers | Conceptual Artists | Contemporary Classical Music Composer | Classical Composer | Creators | Curators | Cinematographer | Dance Company | Dancers | Data Scientists | Dub Poet | Educators | Engineers | Filmmaker CBE RA | Founders | Glass Blowers | Glass Artists | Harpist | Heinz Awards | Hotel Owners | Intellectuals | Jazz Scholars | Jazz Musicians | Journalists | Opera Singers | Painters | Performance Artists | Photographers | Iconic Playwrights | Playwrights | Poets | Poets and Playwrights | BBC Presenters | Professors | Northern Europe Publisher Rep | Readers | Scholar | First Black Sculptor | Sculptors | Shoe Designer | Statistician | Students | Tea Lovers | Teachers | Textile Makers | Theatre Patrons | Thespians | Thinkers | Ugandan Art Collectors | Wine Makers | World Travelers | Writers | YOU
A new play conceived, directed, written, and produced by The Brothers’ Network. Funded in part by Black Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia.
Alain LeRoy Locke is heralded as the “Father of the Harlem Renaissance” for his publication in 1925 of The New Negro—an anthology of poetry, essays, plays, music and portraiture by white and black artists. Locke is best known as a theorist, critic, and interpreter of African-American literature and art. He was also a creative and systematic philosopher who developed theories of value, pluralism and cultural relativism that informed and were reinforced by his work on aesthetics.
