WESTWOOD—On Saturday, January 7 and Sunday, January 8, the Hammer Museum on Wilshire Boulevard will feature a “performative lecture” by artist Simone Leigh and Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies and African-American studies at Yale, Rizvana Bradley. The program, which is part of Hammer’s Bureau of Feminism initiative, will mark the end of Leigh’s exhibition at the Hammer Museum, set to leave January 8.

Leigh and Bradley will engage in an improvisational exchange about black radical political, literary, and artistic traditions,” states the Hammer Museum website.

Simone Leigh was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1968. Leigh’s most recent work involving societal issues is largely influenced by the Black Panther Party’s efforts of cultivating an empowering, informative, organized and self-determined African-American community. She refers back to historical women of color who had secretly banned together to encourage, uplift, and teach each other amidst the racial inequality they experienced on a daily basis.

According to Leigh’s website, “Simone Leigh’s practice is an object-based on-going exploration of black female subjectivity.” Her practice involves sculpture, videos, and installations. She has received the 2013 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial award and the LMCC Michael Richards award (2012), as well as the 2011 Joan Mitchell Foundation grant for Sculpture. Leigh is also a Creative Capital Grantee (2012), and has been featured in numerous New York studios and museums. Her works have been seen internationally in Nigeria, Senegal, Vienna, Morocco, and Cape Town. Leigh has been published in Bomb Magazine, Modern Painters, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Small AxE and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art and Artforum.

The In Real Life: Performance, Bureau Of Feminism featuring Simon Leigh, will take place on January 7 and January 8 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. both days. All Hammer Museum events are free of charge.