Wednesday, June 17, 2026, 6:00 – 7:00 pm – Virtual on Zoom
Visual Storytelling and the Sacred Everyday
A virtual conversation with visual artist, muralist, and educator, Jimmy James Greene.
Join us for another edition of the Cinque Artists Talk series where we talk with contemporary artists.
Register on Eventbrite for a link to join the live Q & A session.
Free online. Register: https://bit.ly/4dHp0Iw
Photograph of the artist by Sharon Pendana
Wednesday, June 17, 2026.
The Romare Bearden Foundation presents Visual Storytelling and the Sacred Everyday, a virtual conversation with visual artist, muralist, and educator, Jimmy James Greene.
Through mosaic, collage, painting, and public art, Greene has spent decades creating vibrant visual narratives rooted in African diasporic culture, community memory, spirituality, and the everyday experiences of Black life. The artist will be in conversation with moderator Marline A. Martin.
Register for a link to join the Q & A session: https://bit.ly/4dHp0Iw
“I see myself as a visual storyteller. The styles I use range from tight representation to abstracted forms, depending upon my intent, but the bottom line is communication. Ideally, my work acts as a springboard for viewers into their own imagination, experiences, memories, and aspirations.” – Jimmy James Greene
A Song is a Prayer With Wings, acrylic.
About the artist
Since his childhood in Xenia, Ohio, Jimmy James Greene has demonstrated exceptional artistic ability. After apprenticing with acclaimed Afrocentric muralist Jon Onye Lockard in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he graduated from Rhode Island School of Design. Presently, Greene’s artistic practice encompasses collage, painting, drawing, design, printmaking, and stained-glass mosaic.
Detail from “Children’s Cathedral” (1996) by Jimmy James Greene at Utica Ave Station.
For more than forty-five years, his work has explored the communal expressions of the African diaspora in general and the African American experience in particular.
As a fine artist, Greene has presented more than thirty solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions. As a commercial artist, he has created theater posters, CD covers, and illustrations
for newspapers, magazines, and book covers. His public commissions include projects for the New York City Transit Authority, City Parks Foundation, MetLife, and St. Philip’s Episcopal Church.
Greene is a member of the Weusi Artist Collective and The Art League, and is represented by Just Lookin’ Gallery. He is based in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Read an article about the artist here: The Trove, by writer Sharon Pendana.
About Marline A. Martin
Award-winning Arts Administrator, Cultural Curator, Educator, Storyteller. She is currently a development consultant for the Romare Bearden Foundation, and owner of MAM Creative Consulting, Inc. Based in Detroit Michigan, Martin has extensive experience in arts administration as Director of Learning and Engagement for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History; and Executive Director of CREATE Council on the Arts, the LeRoy Neiman Art Center, and the Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem.
Tune in Wednesday, June 17, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. (EDT)
The Romare Bearden Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that perpetuates the artistic and intellectual legacy of the 20th-century master of visual art.
The Artist Talk series is part of the Cinque Artist Program, named after the Cinque Gallery, founded by artists Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, and Ernest Crichlow in the late 1960s. The gallery served as a catalyst for artists and curators of color to exhibit, but also as a place for networking and building community. Our series provides a platform for visual artists to showcase their work, and promotes presentations from professionals on practical information for artists and the general public. We encourage adult artists, students, and enthusiasts to share in discussions in an intimate setting.
The Cinque Artists Program is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
The Bearden Foundation’s programs and activities are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
The Mellon Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and other foundations, corporations, and individual donors generously provide additional support.
The Romare Bearden Foundation is a participant of the Harlem Cultural Collaborative of Harlem One Stop
Register for a link to join the Q & A session: https://bit.ly/4dHp0Iw