The California African American Museum (CAAM) unveiled its 2026 spring and summer exhibits, which features historical storytelling and convey black excellence. Exhibits such as “Free and Queer: Black Californian Roots of Gay Liberation,” “A New Song: Langston Hughes in the West,” and the first comprehensive retrospective for acclaimed New Orleans-based artist Willie Birch; with “Willie Birch: Stories to Tell,” featuring the renowned artist’s unique vision of Black American life.
“The Stories to Tell” exhibition brings together groundbreaking works from the early 1970s to the present that chronicle his unique vision of Black American life and the interconnected nature of global art forms. Born and raised in New Orleans and trained in Europe, Baltimore, and New York, Birch often speaks about “retentions,” a term he uses to describe evidence of one culture’s narratives and traditions within another.
“I create for the children not yet born,” Birch said about his artwork and legacy. “Every generation takes a piece of Black history and reinvents it to represent their generation in the timeline. My generation fought for civil rights and left an example for the current generation that now has the same fight on their hands with the current administration’s actions.”
Birch showcases his skills with papier-mâché, large-scale charcoal, and acrylic works on paper. “The reason I started doing large pieces was to get Black people to visit the museum and see themselves and the story we have to tell,” Birch said. During the civil rights era, it was never about being the hero. I wanted to create and show social commentary from the Black perspective. People can try to rewrite history, but you can’t rewrite art, and when you see Willie Birch’s work, the story will tell itself.”
“Free and Queer: Black Californian Roots of Gay Liberation” presents California as a pioneering site of sustained, Black-led struggles for LGBTQ equality, civil rights, and recognition. The exhibition recovers histories largely excluded from existing narratives and exposes powerful ways Black queer social movements shaped current society.
The Langston Hughes exhibit follows the travels of the world’s most famous Black poet. Starting in the 1930s, through the upheavals of the Great Depression, World War II, and McCarthyism in America.
“This spring and summer, CAAM exhibitions unveiled ‘Stories to Tell,’ which chronicles Willie Birch’s unique, often intimate, vision of Black American life, utilizing painting, drawing, and mixed media to capture the texture and spirit of New Orleans,” CAAM Executive Director and Chief Curator Cameron Shaw said. “Together, these exhibitions provoke essential questions about presence, identity, and importance: How is being yourself—out loud, visible, and Black—remembered and exalted? How is this self-expression important to the cultural landscape and the fight for civil rights and recognition? And, ultimately, how is it woven into the fabric of our everyday lives?”