Cox will present an artist lecture 10 a.m. Tuesday on her work in black feminist themes in the Indiana Memorial Union Dogwood Room. Cox is known for her nude self-portrait, which explores black female sexuality.
Cox’s work has been shown in the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Venice Biennale.
Davis, who worked with Cox on the 1996 feature film “Naked Acts: Image Making and Black Female Sexuality” will have a discussion with Cox at 3 p.m. today at IU ?Cinema.
“Naked Acts” is about a young actress who is struggling to perform a nude scene on screen.
The film explores the theme of how black women are portrayed in the media and film.
Cox plays the main character of the film, Diana. Davis had written the character of Diana because she thought a character like her should exist.
After meeting Cox, Davis started to cast the role for the film. However, she couldn’t get the idea of Cox playing the main role out of her head, archivist for the Black Film Center Brian Garney said.
Davis asked Cox, who had never acted before, to play the role.
Cox and Davis will further discuss their creative work and black feminist themes at the IU Cinema lecture.
“I think that both women have been making strong and poetically provocative work,” Garney said. “This event series provided a forum to show the scope of this.”
Davis will also be present at Box Car Books at 7 p.m. Tuesday, where she will read an excerpt from her book, “Into the Go-Slow.”
The book is set in 1986 Detroit, where the main character Angie plans a trip to follow in the footsteps of her sister, who died in Nigeria years ?earlier.
The book’s story travels to Africa with Angie as she discovers more about her sister and herself through the ?journey.
Box Car Books will have copies of the book for sale so people can get them signed by Davis.
All events are free and open to the public.
“The events are a way to be introduced or reacquainted to important artists of our time,” Garney said.
