7 Days in the Cultural Life of a MoMA Photography Curator

As a curator in the photography department of the Museum of Modern Art, and a Ph.D. candidate in art history at Columbia, Oluremi C. Onabanjo squeezes as many exhibitions and talks as she can into an already packed schedule.

“I tend to absorb heaps of images, texts and sounds in one day,” she said. A New Yorker for the past 12 years, she previously lived in Kano, Nigeria; Lagos; Johannesburg; Fair Lawn, N.J.; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. “Living in New York has given me a political education,” she said, “taught me how to look alongside and think with artists, and made me sensitive to how the forces of history structure the contemporary conditions of social life.”

Onabanjo tracked a few days of her cultural life, noting some of the books, music and conversations that inspired her. These are edited excerpts from phone and email interviews.

Wednesday

At the moment, my days start at 5 a.m. I am currently A.B.D. (All But Dissertation), which means that I’m in the final stretch. With a full-time job, this requires being resourceful with my time: rising early to crank out two hours’ worth of pages every morning before heading to the office, so that I can hopefully finish a full draft of my dissertation by December. At first it was slow going because I’m not naturally a morning person, but the words are coming more easily as the months pass — especially as the sun rises earlier to keep me company.

Reading: “O Defeito de Cor” by Ana Maria Gonçalves, “Slave Rebellion in Brazil” by João José Reis. Listening to: “Don’t Touch My Hair” by Solange, “Green Grasshopper” by Marcia Griffiths.