Artist Steffani Jemison, whose work appears in the New Museum's "New Humans" exhibition, shares five books from her shelf in an interview with ARTnews. She discusses John Keene's "Counternarratives" and Kevin Quashie's "Black Aliveness," among others, explaining how these texts inform her practice, which moves between writing and visual art and explores alternative literacies, historical gaps, and Black world-making.
This article matters because it offers rare insight into the intellectual influences of a contemporary artist whose work bridges literature and visual art, highlighting how literary theory and Black feminist poetics shape artistic production. It also underscores the growing recognition of artists who engage deeply with textual and historical research, reflecting broader trends in contemporary art toward interdisciplinary and conceptually rigorous practices.