FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 27, 2026
MEDIA CONTACT:
Melvin McCray III
Media Genesis Solutions LLC
Email: melvinmccray@gmail.com
Phone: (917) 748-4122
MELVIN McCRAY III CLOSES LANDMARK EXHIBITION WITH ARTIST TALK
Photographer and Filmmaker to Preview Forthcoming Book Black Women Who Changed the World on Final Day of Women of Color: Long Journey Forward, and Still We Rise at Kenkeleba House
NEW YORK, N.Y., March 27, 2026 — Photographer, filmmaker, and journalist Melvin McCray III will deliver an Artist Talk on Saturday, March 28, 2026, from 3:00 to 5:00 PM at the Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba House, 219 East Second Street, New York, NY 10009. The event marks the final day of the landmark group exhibition Women of Color: Long Journey Forward, and Still We Rise, in which eight of McCray’s photographs are featured alongside 227 images by 72 Black photographers, representing six decades of Black womanhood documented on its own terms.
At the Artist Talk, McCray will speak to the personal histories and circumstances behind each of his photographs — images of women he has encountered, documented, and learned from across four decades. His subjects include Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, Katherine Dunham, Viola Plummer, Iesha Sekou, Adelaide Sanford, Letitia James, and the Maasai Women’s Circle of Onsinyai Village, Tanzania, at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro.
McCray will share the story of a four-hour encounter with Katherine Dunham in Haiti, the lived presence behind the legacies of Angela Davis and Kathleen Cleaver, the community leadership reshaping Harlem from within, and the ongoing crisis facing the Maasai women he documented in Tanzania. “These are not just portraits,” McCray says. “They are testimonies.”
The Maasai Women’s Circle: A Story Still Unfolding
The women McCray photographed in Onsinyai Village are confronting the immediate effects of prolonged drought, shrinking land, and accelerating climate change. Proceeds from McCray’s photographs in the exhibition directly support the Maasai Women’s Circle through Nyayo Tours.
Forthcoming Book: Black Women Who Changed the World
McCray’s forthcoming book, Black Women Who Changed the World, scheduled for publication on May 1, 2026, expands each portrait into a deeply reported, narrative-driven chapter pairing lived encounters with historical context. Attendees of the Artist Talk will have the opportunity to learn more about the book, sign up for updates, and register for pre-orders.
EVENT DETAILS
Event: Melvin McCray III Artist Talk
Date: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Time: 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Location: Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba House
Address: 219 East Second Street, New York, NY 10009
Admission: Free and open to the public
About Melvin McCray III
Melvin McCray III is an Emmy, Peabody, and Alfred I. duPont–Columbia Award–winning documentary filmmaker, photographer, and journalist. He spent 28 years as an editor at ABC World News Tonight and taught for 12 years at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is Director of the Digital Media Training Program at the Board for the Education of People of African Ancestry (BEPAA), President of Media Genesis Solutions LLC, and a Princeton University alumnus, Class of 1974. His work centers on cultural preservation and the self-authored histories of Black communities.
About Kenkeleba House
Kenkeleba House is a nonprofit arts organization and gallery in New York City’s East Village dedicated to the exhibition and preservation of work by artists of African, Asian, Latino, and Native American heritage. The Wilmer Jennings Gallery is its primary exhibition space.
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