In this combination lecture and workshop, visual artist Trina Michelle Robinson uses historical photographic techniques, handicraft, and deep knowledge of a material’s origins as a metaphysical means to revisit or access the memories and visions of Black ancestors. This investment—in not just a picture but also in the material and its handling—helps to literally process the trauma that bubbles up when contending with these images and narratives of Black history.

Trina Michelle Robinson is a San Francisco–based interdisciplinary artist. Her work has been shown at the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia, San Francisco Art Commission Main Gallery, Minnesota Street Project, New York’s Wassaic Project, and triennial Bay Area Now 9 exhibition at Yerba Buena Center for Fine Arts. It is currently included in the group exhibition Allegedly the worst is behind us at ICA San José. She had a solo exhibition at the Museum of the African Diaspora as part of its Emerging Artist Program 2022–23 and is a 2024 SFMoMA SECA Finalist. She previously worked in print and digital media in production at companies such as the New York Times T Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Slack before receiving her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2022.