Curator-in-Residence: Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts 

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Weeksville’s inaugural Curator in Residence, is an acclaimed writer and scholar whose work explores the histories, politics, and imaginative worlds of Black communities. She is the author of Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America—a New York Times Notable Book, National Book Critics Circle finalist, and one of Bookforum’s best books on New York—as well as Jake Makes a World, a children’s book on Jacob Lawrence commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art. 

A 2025 recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, Rhodes-Pitts has contributed to monographs on Simone Leigh, Dawoud Bey, Richard Mayhew, and others, and leads the Black Studies minor as an associate professor of writing at Pratt Institute. Through her platform, The Freedwomen’s Bureau, she organizes collaborative public projects rooted in memory, liberation, and cultural stewardship. 

During her residency at Weeksville, Rhodes-Pitts is developing Homework, a forthcoming exhibition that turns to the domestic sphere as a site of transformation, imagination, and political possibility. Drawing on thinkers such as Sara Ahmed and engaging Weeksville’s legacy as both a historic settlement and an enduring homeplace, homework brings together photography, sculpture, textiles, and video to consider how private interiors shape public worlds. The exhibition will open in February and run through March 2026.