Artists Space

Carolyn Lazard with Loretta J. Ross

Conversation
April 11, 2025, 7pm

Friday, April 11th
7pm
RSVP required, please RSVP here
This event will be live-streamed on zoom here
ASL interpretation will be provided along with live captioning on zoom

Join us for a conversation with artist Carolyn Lazard and celebrated scholar and activist Loretta J. Ross whose pioneering feminist and anti-racist work continues to shape the ground of social justice movements past and present. Co-founder of The SistersSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, she is one of the founders of the transformative framework of reproductive justice.

This conversation is a part of a two-part program series—conceived in conjunction with Carolyn Lazard: Two-Way—where broader conversations on debility, care, and black reproduction can unfold and extend beyond the exhibition.

A black woman sits behind a large table and looks off to the side. Behind her is a blue background.
Portrait of Loretta J. Ross. [A black woman sits behind a large table and looks off to the side. Behind her is a blue background.]

Carolyn Lazard is an artist based in Philadelphia and New York. Their work has been exhibited in several institutions including Museum Für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Their work was included in the 2019 and 2024 Whitney Biennial and the 2022 Venice Biennale. Lazard is a 2020 Disability Futures Fellow, a 2021 United States Artists Fellow, and a 2023 Macarthur Fellow. They hold a BA from Bard College and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Loretta J. Ross is an activist, professor, and public intellectual. In her five decades in the human rights movement, she’s deprogramed white supremacists, taught convicted rapists the principles of feminism, and, as National Co-Director, organized the second-largest march on Washington (in April 25, 2004, March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C., surpassed in size only by the 2017 Women’s March).

A cofounder of the National Center for Human Rights Education and the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, her many accolades and honors include a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship and a 2024 induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Today, Ross is an associate professor at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and is the founder of LoRossta Consulting, with which she runs “Calling In” training sessions online and for organizations around the country.

Public program support for Carolyn Lazard: Two-way is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

    Close-up of a black person leaning over a black birthing mannequin laying on a hospital bed in a patient room.
    Still from Fiction Contract, 2025. [Close-up of a black person leaning over a black birthing mannequin laying on a hospital bed in a patient room.]