Take care of your blessings

Accompanying the eponymous exhibition at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Essex Hemphill: Take care of your blessings explores the interdisciplinary relationship between Hemphill's writing—raw, politically charged and deeply personal—and contemporary visual art.

Titled after Hemphill's personal signature, Take care of your blessings traces his relationships with and influences on visual artists who, like Hemphill, created genre-defying works that explore race, culture, community, gender, sexuality and the experience of living with and losing loved ones to HIV/AIDS.

This publication features ephemera, photographs and archival materials alongside personal reflections from Hemphill's friends and collaborators and essays that trace the dynamic poet's life, work and impact on a generation of artists. [publishers’ note]