Join us for a night at the museum for a last look at Osman Khan: Road to Hybridabad. During this evening of programming, we celebrate the exhibition closing and facilitate knowledge sharing of immigration processes through a toolkit presentation by Emma Lezberg. The exhibition will be on view until 8pm. Mingle, grab the new catalogue, and bid farewell to Khan’s exhibition with light refreshments.

4–5pm: Immigration Toolkit Presentation with Emma Lezberg
5:30–6:30pm: Catalogue Launch and signing with Osman Khan and Alexandra Foradas
6:30pm: Toast to the closing Road to Hybridabad
Mix and mingle in the exhibition until 8pm.

About the Toolkit Presentation:
This introductory presentation provides an overview of the U.S. immigration system, different immigration statuses, and best practices in allyship. This presentation allows moments for Q&A, partnered discussions, and includes slides in both English and Spanish.
The presentation is geared towards allies and other community leaders who wish to learn more about ways to support friends, family, neighbors, and communities at large. It calls to those who do not have any immediate connections in this critical moment of knowledge sharing.

About the Presenter:
Emma Lezberg, an alumna of Williams College and current Ph.D. student at Harvard University, is a scholar of how best to support undocumented young people. Her research is informed by years of experience practicing immigration law as an accredited representative at the Berkshire Immigrant Center in Pittsfield, MA. She prioritizes putting her research into practice, particularly in the Berkshires, where she has built long-term partnerships with public school districts and colleges and helps to lead the Berkshire Alliance to Support the Immigrant Community (BASIC).

About the Catalogue:
Khan’s work plays with and subverts the materiality behind themes of identity, migration, and decolonization of knowledge and technologies through participatory and performative installations and site-specific interventions. Osman Khan: Road to Hybridabad — Khan’s first monograph — chronicles his major exhibition of the same name at MASS MoCA, and will contextualize this project within his larger practice. The volume gathers writings by thinkers who share Khan’s interest in decolonization, hybridity, and the role of storytelling in shaping identity. This richly-illustrated, foil-stamped hardcover features a new interview with Khan and art historian and critic Tausif Noor, as well as contributions from Alexandra Foradas, Gunalan Nadarajan, Julietta Singh, and more.

About the Artist:
Osman Khan is a Detroit-based artist interested in constructing artifacts and experiences for social criticism and aesthetic expression. His work plays and subverts the materiality behind themes of identity, migration, and decolonization of knowledge and technologies through participatory & performative installations and site-specific interventions. He is currently a professor at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan.

Khan’s work has been shown at MASS MoCA; the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MoCAD); the Cuenca Biennial, Ecuador; the Chicago Architecture Biennial, USA; the Shanghai Biennale, China; the Zero1 Festival, San Jose; Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Ars Electronica Center, Linz; Socrates Sculpture Park, NYC; Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids; and Centro Internazionale per d’arte Contemporanea, Rome; among others.
Khan is a recipient of a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, an Art Matters grant, Ars Electronica’s Prix Ars Award of Distinction, and an Arctic Circle 2009 Residency. Articles about his work have appeared in numerous publications including Hyperallergic, Artforum, Art in America, I.D., LA Times, and The New York Times, among others.

In addition to his artistic practice, Khan is also Co-Director of the Indus Detroit Artist Residency + Culture Lab, co-curator of Halal Metropolis, a series of exhibitions and programs exploring Muslim identity in southeast Michigan, and a member of the cosmic jazz group the Astro Mystic Sama Ensemble.

About the Exhibition:
In Road to Hybridabad, Osman Khan re-reads the magical and fantastical figures found in folktales and lore, with a particular focus on those from South Asia, the Middle East, and other Muslim and immigrant traditions. Khan interprets these figures through contemporary technologies and concerns: this new body of work includes an animatronic djinn, drone-operated flying carpets, a wall-destroying sound system/cannon, and a storytelling Scheherezade AI. This sprawling and wryly funny exhibition invites us on a journey across borders, through time, and between legend and history, encouraging us to reconsider — and perhaps rewrite — the narratives around identity, difference, and power reflected and recounted in the tales we tell ourselves.

Installation view of Osman Khan: Road to Hybridabad, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (August 25, 2024 – April 6, 2025). Courtesy of the artist, made with MASS MoCA. Photo: Jon Verney