Tertulia Nights: Networks of Care in David Driskell's Legacy

Born in Miami, Florida of a Bahamian heritage, Charles Humes Jr. is a visual fine artist whose work reflects the state and character of a people. Humes early expressions found a voice championing the plight of the homeless, urban conditions and stereotypes predicated on socio-political, educational, and economic prejudices and bigotry. Humes recent awards include an SFCC Grant in 2025 and a Visual Arts Scholar Award from the University of Miami’s Division of Global Black Studies (2022-2023). He has held artist residencies through the AIRIE Residency at Everglades National Park (2023-2025) and the Charles Deering Estate Artist-in-Residence (AIR) Program in 2025. Humes has created acclaimed multi-media site-specific mosaics and murals for Arts in Public Places across Florida. Humes’ art has been exhibited in galleries and universities throughout the U.S. with recent solo exhibitions at AIRIE Nest Gallery (2025-2026) and at the Ormond Memorial Art Museum & Gardens (2024-2025).

Christopher M. Norwood, J.D., is a Miami-based civic and cultural strategist, curator, and public policy consultant whose work operates at the intersection of community development, cultural practice, and public life. He is the Principal Consultant of The Norwood Consulting Group (TNCG), a firm he founded in 2002 to support public, private, and nonprofit institutions. Norwood is the Founder and Curator of Hampton Art Lovers, an initiative dedicated to presenting museum-quality exhibitions centering African American art, cultural memory, and the role of visual culture as a tool for education and public dialogue. His curatorial projects include “Silhouettes: Image and Word in the Harlem Renaissance” at the The Wolfsonian–FIU. He is also the steward of the Historic Ward Rooming House Gallery & Gardens in Overtown, Miami, where he develops exhibitions and public programs.

Jordana Moore Saggese is Professor of Modern and Contemporary American Art at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Director of the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora. A leading scholar of contemporary American art, she centers her research on questions of race, identity, and visual culture, with particular expertise in the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Since assuming the directorship of The Driskell Center in 2023, Saggese has dramatically expanded its archival holdings and deepened its commitment to collecting and preservation that foregrounds diasporic consciousness and the cultural production of African American and African Diaspora communities.

Dr. Shawn Anthony Christian is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English at Florida International University, an affiliate faculty member in African and African Diaspora and Women’s and Gender Studies, and a Faculty Lead for the Mellon Foundation-funded Humanities Edge program. A specialist in twentieth-century African American literary and print culture, he is the author of The Harlem Renaissance and the Idea of a New Negro Reader (2016). He has held curatorial and consulting roles for Reveal the Beauty: The Art and Literature of the Harlem Renaissance, with Christopher Norwood (Broward County African American Research Library and Cultural Center, 2025); Silhouettes: Image and Word in the Harlem Renaissance, with Christopher Norwood (The Wolfsonian–FIU, 2023–24); and “The Harlem Renaissance: Origins, Influences, Currents,” with Nathaniel Cadle (The Wolfsonian–FIU and Google Arts and Culture).