Darrick Rainey

Amid one of the most divisive and chaotic election years in recent history, Ward Sutton brings his diamond-edged satire — often targeting conservative and right-wing politics — to the Subliminal Projects Gallery, in Los Angeles.

∼ ∼ ∼ This article is part of a series — At 250, Who Will America Be? — reporting on threats to American democracy as we approach the nation’s Semiquincentennial, on July 4, 2026. ∼ ∼ ∼ For generations, conservatives have pushed the racist myth that poverty is mainly a Black issue. The plutocrats, led by Ronald Reagan, campaigning for the presidency in 1976, reinforced this harmful trope with damaging stereotypes.

Mati Diop’s new documentary, Dahomey, is a dreamy little piece of observation, quietly brimming with old-school Negritude and faith in the power of objects. Her ostensible protagonists are not people, African or otherwise — they’re a set of 26 ancient Dahomian “treasures,” art pieces and artifacts, that French President Emmanuel Macron decided to repatriate to Benin in 2021.