Image: Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, New York
The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts has opened 'Pitch Black: Haiti and Congo Revisited,' an exhibition that uses the 1974 World Cup as a lens on Black diasporan identity and the relationship between Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire. The show is on view from June 12 through October 11, 2026, at MoCADA Culture Lab II in Brooklyn.
According to the museum, the exhibition looks at a pivotal year for both national teams, when Haiti and Zaire each qualified for the global soccer tournament. MoCADA frames that moment not only as a sporting milestone, but also as a point from which to consider Caribbean and African nationalism, shared histories shaped by the TransAtlantic Slave Trade, and the pressures of imperial power and authoritarian leadership. The exhibition’s central question is: “Fight or Flight?”
MoCADA says the project brings together works by a range of artists alongside archival photographs from the 1974 World Cup games. Featured 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. On the exhibition page, the museum also identifies a selected work by Nic[o] Brierre Aziz, 'Maroon, Mawòn (2 Sides II A Book),' a 2023 diptych made with collage, graduation tassel fibers, cowrie shells, Dogon Tribe beads, and silkscreen on American Target Company shooting range target posters and colonial maple pine.
The exhibition is curated by Amy Andrieux, with the MoCADA curatorial team and support from Run P., Ean Norwood, Tunde Kwantu, Devin Finley, Branden Jerez, Nilton Cesar, and Thinkbox. The soundscape is designed by Run P. The museum has also noted that the exhibition was made possible with support from the NYC Coalition of Theaters of Color and NYC Cultural Immigrant Fund, in collaboration with the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and NYC Council, as well as A Better New York, New York State Council on the Arts, and Article 15 Gallery.
MoCADA’s presentation is part of a larger World Cup 2026 program at Culture Lab II, where the institution describes itself as Brooklyn’s official World Cup 2026 hub. That separate schedule includes watch parties, a film preview and conversation with soccer legend Clyde Best and NASL player Patrick Horne on July 8, and other soccer-related events. Those programs are listed separately from the exhibition itself, which remains on view through October 11.
The museum’s project page situates 'Pitch Black: Haiti + Congo Revisited' within MoCADA’s broader focus on art, education, and social justice through the lens of Africa and the diaspora. At the same time, the show’s archive-and-art format keeps the focus on two countries whose histories are presented here as intertwined through sport, migration, and memory, with the exhibition continuing at 10 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn through October 11, 2026.
