Museum of Contemporary Art

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) presented Shamel Pitts|TRIBE in Touch of RED from April 6 through April 8, 2023. This new work is a duet for two Black men set inside a contemporary boxing ring—a space that might traditionally suggest an aggressive competition between male athletes for entertainment purposes. Yet in Touch of RED, the two dancers imbue this boxed-in site with an intense energy drawn from the power of vulnerability, effeminacy, and the healing that occurs when Black men are allowed to soften, together. On April 8, artist Shamel Pitts and Jafari S. Allen, author of There’s a Disco Ball Between Us: A Theory of Black Gay Life (2021), came together at Northwestern University for a wide-ranging conversation on Pitts’ practice and Touch of RED.