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The RFTMI Online Archive will serve as a living, evolving repository dedicated to the study, preservation and activation of Afro-Atlantic arts.  Rooted in Robert Farris Thompson’s lifelong commitment to integrative context-based inquiry and embodiment, the archive is composed of dialogues, references, performances, images, texts, films and pedagogical materials.

Cover image of Robert Farris Thompson's notebook courtesy of Caitlin Gaylord Churchill, RFT's granddaughter.

“When my grandfather and I were together, I drew some of the images I found in his notes on the white board we use to communicate and he told me what they were. At one point he said, ‘you know why chalk is sacred’? ‘Because it’s the color of the other world.’ When I’m with him, the other world is right there.” 

–CAITLIN GAYLORD CHURCHILL, granddaughter of Robert Farris Thompson, 2021

Bárbaro Ramos-Aldazábal performs Ogún with Irawo Osa, Nublu, NYC, June 4, 2024.

Select Books by Robert Farris Thompson

Black Gods and Kings:
Yoruba Art at UCLA (1971)

African Art in Motion: Icon and Act in the Collection of Katharine Coryton White (1974)

The Four Moments of the Sun:
Kongo Art in Two Worlds (1981)

Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy (1983)

Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas (1993)

Mbuti Design: Paintings by Pygmy Women of the Ituri Forest
(contributor, 1995)

Tango:
The Art History of Love (2005)

Blues for New Orleans: Mardi Gras and America’s Creole Soul
(with collaborators, 2006)

Aesthetic of the Cool: Afro-Atlantic Art and Music (2011)

Jean-Michel Basquiat
(with Rene Ricard, 2015)