Negarra A. Kudumu is an independent scholar and curator of contemporary art. Her curatorial interests focus on Afro-Surrealism, Black Abstraction, contemporary art from the Pacific Northwest (US and Canada), Africa, South Asia, and their respective diasporas. Her scholarly interests focus on African Diasporic spiritual traditions of the Americas namely Palo Monte and Conjure (also known as Hoodoo). More recently, her interests have taken a turn towards philosophy (Hegel), Christian theology (Barth), and notions of wretchedness and betrayal (Fanon) as a way to better explain the conditions within which Palo Monte and Conjure developed, the particular environment they sought to intervene upon, and the specific category of tools they use to intervene upon said environment. 

Negarra’s curatorial expertise includes the 2023 25th Anniversary Neddy Award Exhibition in Seattle, a group exhibition at the 2021 ARCO Madrid art fair for the Lisbon-based art gallery MOVART, and three exhibitions, also in 2021, during her tenure as curator at the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle (CoCA) featuring works by artists Selma Waldman, Meghan Elizabeth Trainor, and Rajaa Gharbi respectively. In 2017 and 2018, Negarra curated a series of online exhibitions featuring emerging and established artists based in the United States, Canada, and The Netherlands titled, Curatorial Lab.

Negarra’s writing has been published in notable volumes such as Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists since 1940 (Delmonico Books, 2024), Atlantica: Contemporary Art From Angola and Its Diaspora (Hangar Books, 2018) and Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art From the Walther Collection (Steidl/The Walther Collection, 2017). She has also contributed essays to gallery publications and art world magazines in the United States, Canada, and France.

Negarra regularly lectures, participates in talks, and moderates panels on various topics related to contemporary art and Black spirituality. Over the past seven years, she has been invited to speak at the Modern Art Museum (Fort Worth, TX), Esker Foundation (Calgary, CA), Gardiner Museum (Toronto, CA), Framer Framed (Amsterdam, NL), and National Gallery of Zimbabwe (Harare, ZM), and Emily Carr University of Art (Vancouver BC) on a range of topics including the intersections between art and healing, art education, and alternative artistic praxis. Most recently, in October 2024 she guest lectured at Princeton Theological Seminar on the topic, “Thinking with the Wretched: African Diasporic Witchcraft and its Interventions Upon an Anti-Black, Christian World” . In October 2022, she presented a paper titled “Thinking Self-Regard and Liberation: Notes on Toni Morrison, St. Anthony, & Kimpa Vita” at the second Loophole of Retreat conference, curated by Rashida Bumbray, in connection with artist Simone Leigh’s participation in the 59th Venice Biennale.

Negarra received her MA from Leiden University (2006) and her BA from Dartmouth College (2001). Negarra lives and works in Seattle, WA.