HOMEROOM Opening Reception

Mon, January 19, 2026 6:00 PM - Mon, January 19, 2026 7:30 PM at

Opening Reception: Monday, January 19, 6-7:30 p.m.
(Martin Luther King Jr. Day)

Free parking after 6 p.m.

Always free and all are welcome!

C200 Snyder Hall, 2nd floor
362 Bogue Street
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan 48825

Join us on Monday, January 19th, to meet the artist Elonte Davis as he discusses his exhibition HOMEROOM: Detroit Taught Me First is a photographic and storytelling exhibition exploring how Detroit served as the artist’s earliest classroom. As a Memory Engineer, the artist uses photography to preserve lived experiences, overlooked moments, and the lessons that shaped his way of seeing the world long before formal education. The exhibition features a curated selection from a series of 313 portraits of Detroit students at Michigan State University, a number chosen to honor Detroit’s iconic 313 area code, a symbol of home, pride, and community belonging. Additional works created between Detroit and East Lansing extend the artist’s commitment to building archives that honor community memory and protect the stories of those often unseen. Opening on MLK Day, the exhibition acknowledges the shared traditions of dignity, imagination, education, and collective uplift that link Detroit’s legacy with Dr. King’s teachings.

Elonte Davis (@slumdog_visionaire) is a Detroit born and raised photographer and a
2025 Kresge Artist Fellow who has a deep appreciation for photography and community.
His book, This Is Where I’m At and This Is What I’m Doing, was published in 2025.
Three of his photographs are on view at the Wright Museum in Detroit through 2026.

Emerging Visions 15th Year

Perspectives in African-American Experience: Emerging Visions is an annual paid
residency in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) at MSU for
emerging and mid-career artists whose work reflects on Black, African-American,
or African diasporic experience past or present and explores art as social activism.
The opportunity includes a solo exhibition in the RCAH LookOut Gallery and an
accompanying teaching residency with artist’s talk, class visits, workshops,
and student and community engagement in RCAH and at MSU.