Dr. LeRonn P. Brooks is the Associate Curator for Modern and Contemporary Collections at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Founded in 1985, the GRI is dedicated to advancing the understanding of the visual arts and their various histories through active collecting and public programs, institutional collaborations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and residential scholars programs. Dr. Brooks is a specialist in African American art, poetics, performance, and Africana Studies. His interviews, essays on African American art, and poetry have appeared in publications for Bomb Magazine, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Spelman Museum of Art, Callaloo Journal, The International Review of African American Art as well as The Aperture Foundation, among others. As the lead curator for the Getty's new African American Art History Initiative, he is charged with building and developing collections to promote advanced research in the study of African American art history.