Killing the Negative:

A Conversation in Art & Verse

Killing the Negative: A Conversation in Art & Verse is a multi-media exhibition led by artist Joel Daniel Phillips and poet Quraysh Ali Lansana exploring the phenomenon of the "killed negative", a destructive editing process of punching holes through unwanted photography negatives.

Phillips transforms the historic images into large-scale, immersive graphite drawings, which urge viewers to confront not just the realism of the image, but also the personal and cultural implications of stories embedded within the image. The poets respond to the image with interventions of text, sound, and breath to give voice to the subject. In each collaboration, poet and artist together fill the vacant space left by government censorship and create an entirely new conversation about power, representation, and the shaping of America’s historical narratives.

Killing the Negative will be on view at IAM beginning early September 2026.