> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Carmen Maria Machado on Power - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/carmen-maria-machado-on-power/ - Published: 2026-06-11T10:00:37.000Z - Updated: 2026-06-11T10:00:38.000Z - Description: Plus, the largest survey of Arthur Jafa’s work is coming to New York. - Author: Hyperallergic - Tags: Daily Newsletter, Newsletter You may know Carmen Maria Machado as the author of the acclaimed short story collection *Her Body and Other Parties*, or her memoir *In the Dream House*, a candid chronicle of abuse in a queer relationship, or her many other published works. But the Cuban-American writer, who was a photography major in college, has also long collaborated with visual artists. Today she speaks to Associate Editor Lakshmi Rivera Amin about her latest venture as a guest curator of painter Rocío García’s exhibition at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art — a show she hopes will inspire us “to be interested in both the violence and power of the state, and the power as we exchange it between people.” Also today: a major Arthur Jafa survey coming to the New Museum, a historic Indigenous art acquisition in Phoenix, and the latest installment in Beer With a Painter, featuring Palestinian-American icon Samia Halaby. This weekend, I'll be at the Albuquerque Museum for [Legacy Lab New Mexico](https://www.legacylabnm.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com), speaking on a subject that's dear to us here at Hyperallergic — how artists can leave their mark on the world. If you’re signed up, I hope you’ll come and say hello. *—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor* --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/06/carmen-machado.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/what-carmen-maria-machado-wants-you-to-know-about-power/) [ What Carmen Maria Machado Wants You to Know About Power ](https://hyperallergic.com/what-carmen-maria-machado-wants-you-to-know-about-power/) For *The Object of Power is Power*, titled after a quote from George Orwell’s 1984, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in Soho invited author Carmen Maria Machado to collaborate with Head Curator Stamatina Gregory on a one-room show of paintings by Cuban artist Rocío García. Walking through the dim cave of the gallery, I felt instantly that Machado had met her match: García’s massive canvases narrate tales of their own, trading in the very same questions of sexuality and power that the author has long probed through language. | Lakshmi Rivera Amin [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/what-carmen-maria-machado-wants-you-to-know-about-power/) --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/06/MSM-Tara-K.-Daly_3-1-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/health-technology-art-and-design-intersect-at-uc-davis-graduate-showcase/) ****Health, Technology, Art, and Design Intersect at UC Davis Graduate Showcase** On view at the Manetti Shrem Museum through June 20, the multidisciplinary exhibition features projects by 20 arts graduate students. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/health-technology-art-and-design-intersect-at-uc-davis-graduate-showcase/) --- ## News [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/06/arthur-jafa.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/largest-ever-arthur-jafa-survey-coming-to-new-museum/) - The New Museum will hold the largest-ever [survey exhibition of works by filmmaker and multimedia artist Arthur Jafa](https://hyperallergic.com/largest-ever-arthur-jafa-survey-coming-to-new-museum/) this September, Titled *I Am Tony* in honor of the late jazz drummer Tony Williams. - [Phoenix Art Museum will soon showcase 100 works by Native American artists](https://hyperallergic.com/phoenix-art-museum-receives-largest-gift-of-native-american-works/) tracing creative resilience over the course of a century following its largest-ever gift of Native American art. --- ## From Our Critics [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/06/synthetic-hair.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/an-artist-duos-haven-of-synthetic-hair/) [ An Artist Duo’s Haven of Synthetic Hair ](https://hyperallergic.com/an-artist-duos-haven-of-synthetic-hair/) Merryn Omotayo Alaka and Sam Frésquez steamed, cut, and sewed together lengths of hair by hand to create an ecosystem of biomorphic sculptures. | Chie Xu [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/an-artist-duos-haven-of-synthetic-hair/) --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/06/bennett-ad.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/the-bennett-prize-opens-fifth-call-for-entries/) ****The Bennett Prize Opens Fifth Call for Entries** Women figurative realist painters can enter to win $75,000 and a traveling solo exhibition. Applications are open through September 19. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/the-bennett-prize-opens-fifth-call-for-entries/) --- ## Community [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/06/samia-halaby.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/beer-with-a-painter-samia-halaby/) [ Beer With a Painter: Samia Halaby ](https://hyperallergic.com/beer-with-a-painter-samia-halaby/) At her longtime studio in Tribeca, the Palestinian-American painter discussed her experimentation with color and how she “accidentally stepped into abstraction.” [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/beer-with-a-painter-samia-halaby/) [ Remembering Willie Valentine, Marjane Satrapi, and John Claridge ](https://hyperallergic.com/remembering-willie-valentine-marjane-satrapi-and-john-claridge/) This week, we honor a champion of Southeast Asian art, the giant behind “Persepolis,” and a photographer dedicated to London’s East End. [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/remembering-willie-valentine-marjane-satrapi-and-john-claridge/) --- ## Member Comment (1) 'ethical AI' 😂 (2) 'In reality, it has more in common with our theme parks like Disneyland, with their meticulous crafting of “experience.”' well said! & also related to the theme-parkization of art one sees ( here in the UK & I guess in the US too) in those horrible 'immersive' Van Gogh &c. money spinners ...(3) 'It was exhilarating. It was mesmerizing. I felt like I was going to be sick.' Nice comic timing! Michael Szpakowski on “[My Queasy, Forest-Scented Stroll Through LA’s New AI Art Museum](https://hyperallergic.com/my-queasy-forest-scented-stroll-through-las-new-ai-art-museum/)” --- ## From the Archive [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/06/jafa-archive.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/confronting-the-limits-of-catharsis-in-a-video-about-black-american-life/) [ Confronting the Limits of Catharsis in a Video About Black American Life ](https://hyperallergic.com/confronting-the-limits-of-catharsis-in-a-video-about-black-american-life/) Arthur Jafa’s “Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death” communicates a truth about black life in the US: Many of our public encounters erupt in violence or are premised upon violence. | Seph Rodney [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/confronting-the-limits-of-catharsis-in-a-video-about-black-american-life/)