Publishing as a Cause of Action: A Daytime Conversation with Yusuf Hassan of BlackMass Publishing
Join BlackMass Publishing founder Yusuf Hassan in a casual conversation around the Fisher Fine Arts Library’s recent acquisition of twenty BlackMass Publishing titles.
This event has already occurred
Hosted by: Fisher Fine Arts Library
Please RSVP directly to Kayla Romberger: kaylarom@design.upenn.edu by Thursday 3/6/25 at 10am.
Yusuf Hassan will engage in a discussion about his publications with the Fisher Fine Arts Library. In this conversation, he will explore the thematic underpinnings and artistic philosophies that inform his work, particularly through the lens of BlackMass Publishing. He will also delve into the architectural aspects of publishing, examining how spatial design, materiality, and the physicality of the book shape the conceptual framework of his projects. The discussion will address how these architectural considerations inform the intersection of form and content in his practice. Additionally, the conversation will highlight the significance of the Fisher Fine Arts Library's resources in supporting scholarly inquiry, emphasizing how libraries function as critical spaces for cultural exchange and intellectual reflection within contemporary art discourse.
About BlackMass Publishing
Founded by Yusuf Hassan in 2019, BlackMass Publishing is a New York-based collective and independent press. At once a structure of coherent units and a collection of disjointed parts, BlackMass invokes an aggregate of Blackness, of matter in resistance. Combining archival photographs and found print material with poetry and jazz music, BlackMass grapples with the blurred lines and idiosyncrasies which make up the collective improvisation of African diasporic culture.
BlackMass have publications included in the permanent book collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, RAW Material Company, Dakar, Center for Book Arts, New York, The Thomas J. Watson Library, New York, The Whitney Museum Library, New York, The Houghton Library, Cambridge, The Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, New York, The New York Public Library, and The Evergreen State College, Washington.
About the Speaker
Yusuf Hassan (b. 1987) is the founder of BlackMass Publishing. Hassan’s work explores the idea of the book. His reductive technique and meditative approach challenge the physical and poetic boundaries of his materials. Canceling the idea of restrictions within his work allows him to analyze it with no limitations, using printed matter as a physical way of expression. Much of Hassan’s success is attributed to his unique ability to express dramatic and emotional content through publications and printmaking. Hassan holds publications in the permanent collection of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Langston Hughes Library, Thomas J. Watson Library, the Houghton Library, and the Whitney Museum Library.
Featured image: BlackMass Publishing co-founders Yusuf Hassan (R) and Kwamé Sorrell (L), Los Angeles, Aug 2023. Photo: Ari Marcopoulos