The Walker Art Center has published the fourth volume in its Living Collections Catalogue, the Minneapolis gallery's digital publishing platform dedicated to the scholarship of its collections.

“We hope the publication, offered at this heightened moment in the fight for racial justice, may provide added insights into, and appreciation for, the critical role that radical Black innovation has played in the world of contemporary American artistic expression,” says Mary Ceruti, Executive Director of the Walker Art Center.

Focusing on a select group of Black artists who were prominent in the 1960s and 70s and who featured at the Walker, Creative Black Music At The Walker: Selections From The Archives includes rare audio and video recordings, photographs, posters and correspondence, as well as commissioned essays and interviews. Artists and writers include The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Amiri Baraka (including three previously unpublished recordings of Baraka reading his jazz-related poems), Anthony Braxton, Betty Carter, Ornette Coleman (including responses to his work by Dave King and Greg Tate), Julius Eastman (with two previously unreleased videos of him performing and being interviewed at the Walker in the 80s, and an appreciation from Jace Clayton), Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor and Henry Threadgill. The full digital archive can be found on their website.

Edited by Walker Interdisciplinary Fellows Danielle A Jackson and Simone Austin, the Living Collections Catalogue was conceived three years ago as part of the Walker’s multiyear Interdisciplinary Initiative (2016–2020) to explore the intersection of the performing and visual arts.