CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/5/2024

'Dream in the Rhythm' via the poetic vision of Grace Wales Bonner

“I think of the solo instrumentalist, who paints a dream in the sky—a singular guide whose roaming sound opens space for collective experience, who may even offer some connection to the divine, the portal of a free harmony.” ⁠So writes Grace Wales Bonner in the introduction to Dream in the Rhythm: Visions of Sound and Spirit in the MoMA Collection, the London-based fashion designer’s deeply personal meditation on and around modern Black expression, published to accompany the exhibition on view now at MoMA. An “archive of soulful expression,” this is a book whose visual poetry itself speaks volumes. “Beyond the immaculate individual expression, I hear an enthralling symphony," Wales Bonner concludes her essay. “It is a call to leap into this wider consciousness. To constellate here is to be part of something complete and yet unfolding in the moment. More magnificent than seeing is to dream in the rhythm.” Featured here is a 1990 photograph by Beuford Smith, founder of Cesaire Photo Agency and a founder and chief photo editor of the Black Photographers Annual. It is titled “Kiane Zawadi/Euphonium Player, Brooklyn, NY.” ⁠