In Search of a Black Utopia with Aaron Robertson

DISCOURSE: A live conversation with Aaron Robertson & Dario Calmese

May 11th | 4PM | SPACE 001 | The Oculus, NYC

On May 11th, Space 001 welcomes writer and translator Aaron Robertson into conversation with artist and design theorist Dario Calmese for an evening of inquiry at the edge of memory and possibility. In a world shaped by extraction and enclosure, what does it mean to imagine otherwise? What futures—real or remembered—lie dormant within the Black imaginary?

Drawing from Aaron’s ongoing exploration The Black Utopians, and Dario’s work as Chief Imagitect of the Institute of Black Imagination, this dialogue moves across continents, archives, and timezones—mapping the philosophical and aesthetic lineages of Black futurity. Together, they ask: Is utopia a destination, or a method? A memory, or a blueprint?

Join us for a conversation that traverses the speculative and the scholarly, inviting us to dream—not as escape, but as strategy.