Exhibition Closing: New Black Visionaries: The Mural, The Music, The Future

An Unforgettable Closing Celebration of Art, Sound, and Vision.

Join us as we honor the extraordinary residency of the legendary Nona Hendryx, where artistry meets ancestry in a one-of-a-kind evening of immersive experiences. This closing celebration invites you to explore Black Visionaries: Exhibition Closing: New Black Visionaries: The Mural, The Music, The Future, a groundbreaking mural exhibition that bridges the past, present, and future of Black expression through Nona’s visionary lens.

The evening begins with an intimate AR gallery viewing, where cutting-edge technology transforms art into a living, breathing experience. From 6–6:30 PM, you’ll walk among stories—guided by a docent to uncover the layers of history embedded in every hue, every thought.

At 6:30 PM, prepare to be transported. A dynamic program of spoken word and live music performances will bring the exhibition’s themes to vivid life, weaving together resonant voices and transformative soundscapes. Together, we will celebrate the creative power of Blackness—the innovation it embodies, the resilience it channels, and the possibility it inspires.

This event is more than an installation or a performance; it is a moment, a movement, a pulsation of culture that refuses to look away from the richness it cultivates and the future it shapes. Don’t miss the chance to witness, reflect, and revel.

Evening Program

6pm: Doors Open  -AR Gallery Viewing in our gallery. 

6:30-7:30 pm: Performance – Performance

ARTISTS AND PERFORMERS:

Nona Hendryx

Nona Hendryx is an art-rock Vocalist, Composer, Technologist, and Multidisciplinary Artist whose career spans decades of sound & style evolution. She is a founding member of the Rock, Gospel, R&B Afrofuturistic group Labelle, responsible for the No.1 hit ‘Lady Marmalade’ (“Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi C’est Soir?”), and she currently holds the post of Ambassador for Artistry in Music for Berklee College/Boston Conservatory. Her audio-visual productions, inspired by Afrofuturism, have been presented by The Metropolitan Museum, Mass MOCA, MOMA, Park Avenue Armory, Moog Fest, Miami Basel, London’s Serpentine Gallery, and Somerset House. Her groundbreaking project, The Dream Machine Experience, a music-driven Mixed Reality installation combining AI, AR, and VR applications, was presented at Lincoln Center, NY, in the Summer of 2024. Nona is passionate about Music, Visual Art, and Technology and continues to be a prolific artist.

Jacqueline Coston

Jacqueline Coston is a violinist, music educator, composer, and arts administrator based in Brooklyn, NY. A proud descendant of Bedford-Stuyvesant natives and raised in Hempstead, Long Island, Jacqueline began studying piano and violin in childhood and has remained deeply connected to music ever since.

She has performed with the Harlem Symphony Orchestra, Litha Symphony Orchestra, Protestra, and the New Conductors Orchestra, appearing at renowned venues including Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theater. Jacqueline holds both a BS and MA in Music Education, with a concentration in string performance, from Hofstra University, where she specialized in urban multicultural education.

Driven by a commitment to equity in classical music, Jacqueline developed a multicultural string curriculum that addresses the erasure of composers of color in traditional music education. In 2019, she founded the Youth Orchestra of Urban Towns and Hoods (Y.O.U.T.H.), offering group violin instruction and general music workshops throughout New York City and New Jersey, centering composers of color and their contributions to the classical canon.

Currently, Jacqueline works as a freelance performer and composer, exploring the intersection of sound, healing, and storytelling. Her practice includes intuitive improvisation, sound frequency healing, and film scoring—an evolving journey through which she continues to expand the role of music in community and personal transformation.

LaFrae Sci

LaFrae Sci is an imaginationist, educator, composer, and sound scientist (physics) with a career spanning 30 years and 40 countries. Her creative process embraces percussion, DIY, modular and hardware synths. As a composer, she writes for theater, film, and large and extended jazz and classical orchestras. Bedrock to her artistry is the roots and the fruits of the blues from spirituals to Afro-diasporic futuristic soundscapes that explore time travel, prayer, meditation, and the African American ecstatic tradition. Perhaps her proudest achievement yet, Frae-Frae was appointed executive director of williemaerockcamp.org in 2020. She has spearheaded the organization’s expansion to a full suite of year-round, STEM-informed programming – currently serving over 600 girls in NYC.

LEXI LESTER-WILLIAMS

LEXI LESTER-WILLIAMS (Viola) is a passionate music educator, violist, and violinist. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and currently holds a residency at a thriving high school string ensemble program called the Inner City Youth Orchestra of New York. As a violist, Lexi has performed with the Staten Island Philharmonic and brings her performance experience into the classroom to inspire the next generation of musicians. She has appeared onstage in productions such as Into the Woods and Gianni Schicchi, where her love for storytelling and music is combined. Lexi is committed to making music accessible, meaningful, and empowering for all students, both onstage and off. This production reflects her dedication to arts education and collaboration.

Mary Orji

Mary Orji is a multifaceted artist: a visionary tenor saxophonist, composer, and poet. Her music is a unique blend of spiritual jazz, hip-hop, and neo-soul, reflecting her Christian faith and Nigerian heritage. She leads The Mary Orji Visionaries Collective, creating immersive and soul-stirring musical experiences. 

Mary Orji’s work is deeply rooted in her spiritual beliefs and cultural background, drawing inspiration from artists like Alice Coltrane and Grover Washington Jr. Her music is described as a powerful expression of faith and identity, incorporating poetry, rhythm, and improvisational freedom.

Nia-Simone

Nia-Simone is a Composer and Cellist who graduated from Berklee College of Music in May 2023. She’s passionate about enhancing storytelling and creating immersive experiences through composition. Nia-Simone was recognized by the Berklee College of Music with the Women in Game Audio Award and the Berklee Thrive Scholarship, and recognized by the Game Audio Diversity Alliance as a GSC award recipient. She has collaborated with prestigious institutions such as MIT, MassArt, USC, and Harvard. Most recently, Nia-Simone was a guest panelist at the Lincoln Center AI in Creativity Conversation and appeared on the Lincoln Center Artclass Podcast. She was featured in the Emerging Sounds Los Angeles Composer Debut and performed as a cellist alongside Nona Hendryx for the event “In Love and Struggle.” Nia-Simone is also the composer for the short film Mmanwu and served as the assistant project manager for The Dream Machine Experience. Additionally, she is the composer and arranger for the Black Visionaries: Weeksville Then and Now AR Mural, and Collaboration & Education Track Chair for AWE 2025 XR conference

Noshi Norris

Noshi Norris is a classically trained violinist-violist from Brooklyn currently studying film scoring at Berklee College of Music. Noshi blends his classical knowledge with hip hop and jazz influences to create a unique sound. He is currently part of a string/beatbox group performing across Boston.

Shelley Nicole

Shelley Nicole is a transformational healer using the power of love and the energetic magic of music to shift the world. She is a songwriter, vocalist, composer, actor and founder of Shelley Nicole’s blaKbüshe. Shelley Nicole has released three albums; her latest, I Am American, produced by Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid. Shelley Nicole has graced stages including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and The Apollo Theater. She is a 2024 recipient of the NYFA Women’s Fund Grant and a Watermill Center Fellowship for her “Tao of Abbey Lincoln” project and is also a co-collaborator on Nia O. Witherspoon’s “Priestess of Twerk: A Black Femme Star Temple + Wisdom School.”