The Holdout II
Derrick Adams

With “The Holdout II,” Adams revisits a social sculpture that he initially debuted at Alijira: A Center for Contemporary Art in Newark in 2015. Now, using a house-like structure and the format of a pirate radio station, “The Holdout II” is hosted by Sister From Another Planet (Andrea Rose Clarke, SFAP) and welcomes creatives and cultural practitioners to engage in conversation about gentrification, economic development, and land ownership, set to the curated sounds of SFAP.

“Holdout” is a real estate term for an owner of property in a row of acquired buildings who refuses to sell. Adams’s sculpture poetically references individuals within communities united as a wall of resistance and support. The installation and performative work acknowledges what is priceless and important to preserve in one’s own culture. It highlights a value system that appreciates these ideals.

The sculpture and custom furniture was designed and created by L. Dawn Designs, Jahmir Duran Abreu, Rich Dubois and Ziello Frames.

Listen now to The Holdout II live, hosted by Sister From Another Planet!

About Derrick Adams

Derrick Adams (b. 1970, Baltimore, MD) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BFA from Pratt University, New York, in 1996 and graduated with an MFA from Columbia University, New York, in 2003. Adams has held numerous teaching positions and is currently a tenured assistant professor in the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts at CUNY Brooklyn College. He also holds an honorary doctorate from Maryland Institute College of Art. Adams celebrates and expands the dialogue around contemporary Black life and culture through scenes of normalcy and perseverance. He has developed an iconography of joy, leisure, and the pursuit of happiness within a practice that encompasses paintings, sculptures, collages, performances, videos, and public projects. Adams synthesizes representational imagery with planar Cubist geometry to produce multifaceted figures and faces that address the richness of the Black experience.

In 2022, Adams established Charm City Cultural Cultivation, an organization to support and encourage underserved communities in the city of Baltimore through events conducted by three entities: The Last Resort Artist Retreat, a residency program that subscribes to the concept of leisure as therapy for the Black creative; The Black Baltimore Digital Database, a collaborative counter-institutional space for collecting, storing, and safekeeping the data of local archival initiatives; and Zora’s Den, an online community of Black women writers started in January 2017, which has since expanded into in-person writing workshops, a writers’ circle, and a monthly reading series that strive to promote instruction, support, and social engagement.

Adams has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions such as The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland (2022); The Momentary, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville (2021); Hudson River Museum, Yonkers (2020); and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2018). The artist has mounted public installations commissioned through Art at Amtrak at NYC Penn Station, New York (2023); MTA Arts & Design at the Nostrand Avenue LIRR Station, Brooklyn (2020–ongoing); and RxART at NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem (2019–ongoing). His work has been featured in notable group exhibitions including The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore (2023); Packaged Black: Derrick Adams & Barbara Earl Thomas, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2022); Textures: The History and Art of Black Hair, Kent State University Museum (2021–2022); and Performa, New York (2015, 2013, 2005). His art resides in the collections of The Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; and the Birmingham Museum of Art, among many others.

About Sister from Another Planet

Andrea Rose Clarke began building her music library in the 5th grade. Her Guyanese father, an audiophile and computer programmer, encouraged her to set up his then state-of-the-art Fisher Tune-o-Matic 500TX stereo system, which later was conducive in her feeling at ease in settings like a master control room or DJ booth.

Her journey continued through classical violin study and art school, which immersed her in the vibrant culture of downtown Manhattan during the 1970s and 80s. A regular in celebrated clubs like Danceteria, Area and Mudd Club, and at the Soul Boys and 12 Tribes gatherings in Brooklyn, her musical horizons expanded across many genres including rare soul, 70s/80s reggae and golden age hip hop, African, new wave, and rock.

By creating Sister From Another Planet (SFAP), Andrea found a platform to share her music discoveries. DJing at venues like the World, MK’s, Pyramid, Wetlands, Madam Rosa’s and Mars, she later extended her listenership through a 14-year stint producing and hosting a radio show for WBAI 99.5 FM that connected with a diverse audience spanning age, race and gender.

Collaborations with icons like Chuck D resulted in the production a second show for WBAI, “...ANDYOUDONTSTOP!“, that focused on social commentary and the impact of independent and golden-age hip hop on global culture.

Notable interviews include such luminaries as Octavia Butler, Avery Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, Gil Scott Heron, Kanye West, Nona Hendrix, and Sananda Maitreya/Terrence Trent D’Arby.