Gallery Talk

Neneh Cherry and Naima Karlsson in conversation with John Corbett

September 27, 2025
11:00 am to 12:00 pm

An older photograph from the 1960s of a woman and her young daughter in a living room. The woman is lounging on the floor reading a book while the little girl, seated on a rocking horse, is throwing an object. There is a large, colorful hand-painted mural on the wall, a record player, record crate, and toys nearby.
Moki and Neneh Cherry in their home in Gamla Stan, Stockholm, 1967. Photo credit: Photo: Sven Åsberg. Courtesy of the Estate of Moki Cherry.

Please join Ars Nova Workshop and FWM for a special public conversation with renowned musician Neneh Cherry and multidisciplinary artist Naima Karlsson, moderated by critic and curator John Corbett.

Together, they will reflect on the life and work of their mother and grandmother, Moki Cherry, whose radical vision fused art, music, and domestic life into a seamless practice—sewing tapestries while raising children, creating immersive environments with Don Cherry, and transforming everyday acts into profound artistic statements. This discussion will consider the conditions that shaped Moki’s creative world and the ways she redefined the boundaries between motherhood, community, and artistic production, offering a deeply personal lens on an extraordinary legacy.

Organized in conjunction with The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry.

Explore FWM

Event Information

September 27, 2025
11:00 am to 12:00 pm

The Fabric Workshop and Museum
1214 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Eighth Floor Gallery

This event is SOLD OUT.

Join the waitlist for this workshop by emailing us at info@fabricworkshopandmuseum.org

About the Participants

Naima Karlsson (b. 1982) is a multi-disciplinary artist and musician based in London. Her practice interweaves sonic and visual forms led by interests in repetition, improvisation, and the abstract relationships between language, symbol, image, and sound. Naima’s main instrument is the piano, as well as percussion, vibraphone, and organ. Improvisation is at the core of the artist’s musical process, combined with minimalist uses of tone, arrangement, and an inherently organic approach to playing. Naima is part of the duo Exotic Sin with Kenichi Iwasa. She is an archivist and coordinator for the Estate of Moki Cherry and Cherry Archive.

Neneh Cherry (b. 1964) is a singer with a four decade career of music, songwriting and performing. A sonic force shaped by global styles and a youth spent traversing Sweden, London and New York City, Neneh came of age in the radically creative world envisioned by her mother, visual artist and designer Moki Cherry, who with her family championed the power of music, art and community. Neneh Cherry continues to be an iconic figure whose raw, ever-perceptive style and incisive lyrics inspire female empowerment and self-expression through a forward-looking gaze, and radically prescient sound. Cherry’s memoir was recently published by Penguin Books which she describes as “about punk, reggae, dub and hip hop… It’s about having children and being a mother and a daughter. It’s about balancing family, work and artistic life. It’s about race and struggle and overcoming hardship. It’s about feminism, and the joy of female friendships. It’s about love. It’s about marriage. It’s about music.”

John Corbett is a Chicago-based writer, curator, and producer, and co-owner of the gallery Corbett vs. Dempsey. He is the author of several influential books on music and culture and has written extensively for publications such as DownBeat, The Wire, and Lapham’s Quarterly. In addition to curating major exhibitions, he has produced groundbreaking recordings and overseen more than 150 books and catalogs through his gallery.