The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is presenting Tongues Untied, an exhibition titled after the landmark film by poet, activist, and artist Marlon Riggs. Tongues Untied presents a selection of works from the museum’s permanent collection by John Boskovich, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and others, alongside Riggs’s deeply personal and lyrical exploration of black gay identity in the United States. Made during a historical period marked by the onset of the AIDS crisis, the works navigate desire, love, loss, and mourning to engage and question sexual and political repression, expression, and deviation. Tongues Untied’s centerpiece and title-work is a 1989 feature-length video essay that mixes documentary and archival footage, personal testimony, dance, poetry, and music. Riggs’s (b. 1957, Fort Worth, Texas; d. 1994, Oakland) semi-autobiographical coming-of-age

Read More: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles takes a look back at art from the AIDS crisis