Jeary Payne

Jeary Payne (He/Him) is a third-year graduate student at Columbia University, pursuing a Master’s degree in Oral History. He is a multi-disciplinarian artist, telling stories and creating art across mediums. Based in Brooklyn, NY by way of Phoenix, Arizona. He is a musician, writer, orator, and photographer. In addition to his academic and creative practice he serves full time as an Associate Educator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he oversees the museum's Teen Programs division.

Who will tell the stories after us? — is an essential question that serves as a guiding principle for his work as a visual artist and oral historian. He sees this residency as an opportunity to reimagine what Oral History can do and what it can be used for. And he’s interested in exploring the ways in which grief, loss and absences as well as love, time, space and memory interplay with each other through a Black visual lens and performance.

You can learn more about Jeary and his work at Sayjeary.com.