The Black Embodiments Studio and Scalawag Magazine have partnered on the second iteration of our Arts Writing Apprenticeship. Both of our organizations believe in serious, sustained attention to black art, and we are inspired and energized by Scalawag as a movement journalism outlet that stands in solidarity with marginalized communities in the South. Together, we are investing in the idea that criticism rooted in place, history, and political commitment—and that thinking carefully with and about art is essential to a healthy arts ecosystem.

We are thrilled to introduce Willie Jamaal Wright as the 2026-2027 BES x Scalawag Art Criticism Apprentice. A scholar, political thinker, and critic from Houston, Texas, Wright studies urban and black geographies across the Diaspora, and his research has appeared in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, The Black Scholar, and City & Society. His arts writing has been published by Sugarcane Magazine, Art League Houston, and Vielmetter Los Angeles, with support from the Ford Foundation, the Teiger Foundation, and the Andy Warhol Foundation. Wright is co-editing the late geographer Bobby M. Wilson’s Consumer Political Economy and African America for the University of Georgia Press and is busy drafting his first sole-authored book, Valorizing the Void: Place and Public Art in Houston’s Third Ward.

BES and Scalawag are excited to collaborate on mentoring Wright over the next six months. We’re confident that Wright’s sharp eye and research-driven practice will produce criticism that illuminates how place, power, and art shape one another, not only in Houston but as a model for thinking critically about art well beyond beyond the city