The museum will be closed September 14–16, 2026 for a private event. The Museum Store will remain open to the public from 3rd Street.
This program has tiered pricing. Please select the option that works for you:
$0 — Free RSVP
$10 — General
$20 — Extra Support
$30 — Pay It Forward
Join Nexus: San Francisco/Bay Area Black Art Week, SFMOMA, and MoAD for a film screening of Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story, followed by a conversation with Brathwaite’s son, Kwame S. Brathwaite Jr.
Starting from Harlem in the 1950s and working until his death in 2023, Kwame Brathwaite took half a million photos. Many captured regular people on the street, but he also took thousands of intimate and unexpected photos of stars, including Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali, Marvin Gaye, Roberta Flack, Nina Simone, and the Jackson Five.
Brathwaite’s photos of Black communities and people focused on beauty and joy instead of trauma and conflict at a time when this was deemed radical. Kwame also pioneered grassroots fashion shows that celebrated natural Black beauty, heralding a new dawn across the globe.
Photographer to the greats, collaborator in African liberation movements, and archivist of Harlem culture, Brathwaite’s impact on Black culture is undeniable —he has been called the “soul” of the Black Is Beautiful movement. However, he was largely forgotten by history until his son uncovered his vast archive of photos. This documentary covers his incredible surge in popularity since 2020, including being embraced by Rihanna and Beyonce. In the film, Alicia Keys, Jesse Williams, Gabrielle Union, and Tyler Mitchell speak emotionally and personally about discovering and championing Brathwaite’s work, which finally gets its due.
Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story dares to present an uplifting, cinematic, and bold story rooted in Blackness that will leave audiences feeling energized and inspired.
Kwame S. Brathwaite Jr., son of photographer Kwame Brathwaite, is the director of the Kwame Brathwaite Archive, through which he manages his father’s photographic archive and collaborative projects that are concordant with the themes in his father’s work; namely, activism, politics, fashion, and music. He authored a chapter entitled “Fashion and Consciousness” in the book Mod New York: Fashion Takes a Trip and has lectured at numerous institutions including the Museum of the City of New York, Cal State Fullerton, and Harvard Art Museum. He co-curated Celebrity and the Everyday at Philip Martin Gallery along with Jesse Williams and curated Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite, a touring exhibition in partnership with Aperture Foundation.
Accessibility accommodations such as American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and assisted listening devices are available upon request ten business days in advance.
Please email publicengagement@sfmoma.org, and we will do our best to fulfill your request.
Meaningful Support provided by the Susan Wildberg Morgenstein Memorial Fund.