Tyree Boyd-Pates 8/31/25 Tyree Boyd-Pates 8/31/25

Curating for Black Audiences: NOMMO’s Chief Curator Featured in Getty’s Balthazar Publication

There’s a special pride in walking into a library, heading to the art section, and seeing a book you authored on the shelf. For NOMMO’s chief curator, Tyree Boyd-Pates, that moment happened on the second floor of the Los Angeles Public Library when he picked up Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art (Getty Publications, 2023) to read his essay and contributions.

Featuring historians like Henry Louis Gates, Andrea Achi, Kristin Collins, and Bryan Keene, this book is more than just a publication; it is a tangible result of the museum’s consultation work for the 2019 Getty Museum exhibition of the same name. His contributions included fact-checking the historicity and contemporary cultural relevance, shaping the narrative, narrating the exhibition’s audio tour, and being featured in the museum's blog.

*The Adoration of the Magi*, from a book of hours (text in Latin), Provence, France, about 1480–90, Georges Trubert. The J. Paul Getty Museum

Holding this book in a local library represents more than authorship; it embodies the effort to provide accessible, accurate, and reframed historical narratives for the public, especially Black audiences.

Los Angeles Central Library, August 2025

In his essay in the book’s afterword, "Curating Black History with Black Audiences in Mind," our chief curator emphasizes the importance of centering Black viewers in museums and exhibitions. Too often, Black audiences encounter narratives that do not align with their understanding of their own political history and education, excluding them from their own historical narrative.

Exhibitions like Balthazar are essential in reclaiming space and elevating Black audiences from the margins to the center of their own narratives, affirming their role in global art history. Balthazar also ties into broader cultural moments, such as 2022’s Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s Renaissance album and world tour, which celebrate Black contributions during the same period. Similar to Beyoncé’s album and world tour, the exhibition, book, and essay above highlight the notable absence of Black figures during the medieval and Renaissance eras, repositioning and reclaiming them to be the heart of cultural rebirths and artistic renaissances periods.

*Beyonce’s Renaissance Album Cover, 2022. For select vinyl releases, the artwork features Luca Giordano's 1690 painting La Conversion de Saint Paul behind Beyoncé atop a disco ball horse.*

Making scholarship like this accessible in local libraries allows emerging art lovers, students, and historians to engage with the truth of Black presence in global history, a mission aligned with NOMMO’s core values: amplifying Black and African diasporic voices and ensuring they are seen, centered, and celebrated in cultural spaces. For our chief curator and NOMMO alike, seeing this book on the library shelf is more than recognition; it’s a reminder that representation in history and art is not just necessary, it’s transformative.

For a deeper understanding of Black Magi within the exhibit, read the exhibition checklist and accompanying text.

Tyree Boyd-Pates 8/15/25 Tyree Boyd-Pates 8/15/25

NOMMO’s Tyree Boyd-Pates on Civic Media, Black History, Museums, and Communicating Afrofuturist Imaginings.

Today marks an exciting milestone for NOMMO Cultural Strategies: our founder, Tyree Boyd-Pates, is a featured contributor in We Are Civic Media: The Book, published by Northwestern University Press.

This groundbreaking volume serves as a collective manifesto for the field of civic media, one that refuses to separate the deeply personal from the political, the individual from the structural. Through twenty-three essays, reflections, and lived experiences, the book honors the practitioners, educators, cultural leaders, and community members who are shaping civic media as both a practice and a philosophy.

Tyree’s contribution reflects his lifelong commitment to uplifting Black narratives through an African-centered lens. As a multidisciplinary historian and cultural archaeologist, Tyree’s work interrogates how archives, museums, and public history can be reimagined as platforms for liberation spaces where the histories of the African Diaspora are not only preserved but celebrated. His chapter in We Are Civic Media explores how cultural strategy, curatorial practice, and storytelling can serve as civic infrastructure, empowering communities to see themselves as both the narrators and architects of their futures.

“Civic media is not just about content, it’s about context, connection, and community. It’s about making history a living, breathing force for liberation,” Tyree reflects.

From his early engagement with the African Diaspora in South Africa to his curatorial leadership in major museums, Tyree has consistently pushed for institutions to center the lived realities of marginalized people. His founding of NOMMO Cultural Strategies and Freedom School Online further extends this mission, bridging art, education, and activism to create cultural narratives that resonate globally.

We’re thrilled to see Tyree’s voice alongside other visionary thinkers in this important work. We Are Civic Media is more than a book, it’s an invitation to enter the world of civic media, discover its many pathways, and connect with the people shaping it.

Get your copy: Visit We Are Civic Media and use discount code CIVICMEDIA for 25% off at the Northwestern University Press website.