L. Kasimu Harris

L. Kasimu Harris is a New Orleans-based artist whose multidisciplinary practice and installations centers underrepresented communities and expands narratives of Black life in the American South and beyond. Through layered storytelling, Harris documents cultural shifts, memory, and belonging—often through the lens of place. His acclaimed series “Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges” (2018–present) explores the cultural and historical significance of Black gathering spaces, many of which are disappearing. The series has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (Pittsburgh) and the Hilliard Art Museum (Lafayette, LA). Harris debuted new work from this series—expanding its lens nationally and internationally—at Prospect.6: The Future Is Present, The Harbinger Is Home (2024–2025), where he was one of the fifty-one artists selected globally. He also presented the series in New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where five of his photographs have been acquired for the permanent collection. Harris’s photography and writing have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Stranger’s Guide, and Wildsam Field Guides: New Orleans. His The New York Times essay, “A Shot Before Last Call: Capturing New Orleans’s Vanishing Black Bars,” remains a defining statement on the project.