Image: Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, New York
The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts will host artist Francks F. Deceus for a conversation on migration, home and Haitian identity in Brooklyn on Saturday, September 26, 2026. The program, titled ‘Artist Talk: Francks Deceus + Haitian Art Walking Tour,’ will run from 3 to 5 p.m. at MoCADA’s Ubuntu Botanical Garden, at 48 Lafayette Avenue.
Deceus’s work is presented by MoCADA as a reflection on the immigrant experience in the United States and on the movement of Black bodies across borders. The discussion will address home, the emotional and social effects of immigration, and what it means to be a Haitian artist in the present moment. Deceus will be joined by Régine M. Roumain, executive director of Haiti Cultural Exchange.
The event centers on Deceus’s work ‘Carib-Import #1,’ which MoCADA describes as encapsulating his Haitian-American experience. The museum’s event announcement places the work within a context of rising xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment, and refers to more than 300,000 Haitians who, according to the announcement, lost Temporary Protected Status and faced the prospect of deportation.
Following the talk, attendees will take part in a walking tour to Haiti Cultural Exchange. The tour will introduce the organization’s forthcoming exhibition, being developed in collaboration with the Archive of Alan Lomax. The event materials describe Lomax as a pioneering ethnomusicologist who traveled to Haiti, at the urging of African American anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston, to record Haitian music and rituals on behalf of the US Library of Congress.
The program forms part of MoCADA’s wider focus on art, education and social justice through the lens of Africa and the African diaspora. The institution says it supports contemporary African art through exhibitions, artists’ projects, commissions, installations and public-space programs. The museum is also presenting the exhibition ‘Pitch Black: Haiti and Congo Revisited’ at MoCADA Culture Lab II, 10 Lafayette Avenue, from June 12 through October 11, 2026.
Curated by Amy Andrieux, ‘Pitch Black: Haiti and Congo Revisited’ examines connections between Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo through the 1974 World Cup. Its participating artists include Eddy Ekete, Esther Mido, Fabiola Jean-Louis, Lafleur & Bogaert, Moke Fils, Moonshine collective, Monsengo Shula, Nic[o] Brierre Aziz, Nicolas Premier and Vladimir Cybil Charlier. Deceus’s talk and walking tour extend MoCADA’s programming around Haitian art and diasporan identity beyond the exhibition space.
The September 26 event is scheduled to begin at the Ubuntu Botanical Garden. In case of rain, MoCADA says it will originate at the Culture Lab II Café, 10 Lafayette Avenue, on the second floor. RSVP is required, with limited seats available.
