Installation view of Edges of Ailey (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 25, 2024-February 9, 2025). From left to right: Romare Bearden, “The Buzzard and the Snake (The Conjur Woman)” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, “Earth and the Magic Drummer” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, “The Swamp Witch, Blue-Green Lights and Conjur Woman” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, “The Conjur Woman” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, “Star (Star from the Heavens)” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, The Magic Root (Spotted Deer and the Father)” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, “Past-Present-Future and Beautiful Dreams” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, “Wisdom” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden “The Emperor of the Golden Trumpet” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, “All Come Back” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, “All Come Back” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Nelson Breen, Excerpts from Bearden Plays Bearden, 1980; DeCarava, Coltrane and Elvin, 1960; Roy DeCarava, Elvin Jones, 1961; Lyle Ashton Harris, Billie #21, 2002; Hale Aspacio Woodruff, Blind Musician, 1935/1998; Norman Lewis, Jazz, 1943–44; Gordon Parks, Music–That Lordly Power, 1993. Photograph by Ron Amstutz