I used to give a lot more parties. The older you get, the more you realize that everyone is busy; two years go by with just text messaging. This dinner was the opportunity to actually connect with people outside of formal art world events. I wanted to create a moment to hang out — something we haven’t been able to do since early 2020. My daughter’s friends were there, too, so it was a good generational mix.
We had cocktails and hors d’oeuvres inside. Outside, I’d set up two big tables near a waterfall grotto in my garden. The linens were African prints in blues and whites that I found on Etsy. The flowers were ranunculus, roses and snapdragons from UrbanStems. It rained all day, but by the evening, it stopped.
I don’t remember who I was seated next to because I was so busy checking in with the kitchen and just making sure everybody had what they wanted. My only memory was, “Oh my god, I want another piece of steak.” But it was all gone.
The attendees: Lorna Simpson, “102,” hosted 34 guests, including the artists Christina Quarles, 37, Glenn Ligon, 62, and Alexandro Segade, 49; the filmmakers Kersti Jan Werdal, 35, and Garrett Bradley, 36; the musician Michael Balzary, a.k.a. Flea, 60, and his wife, the fashion designer Melody Ehsani, 42; the poets Robin Coste Lewis, 58, and Natalie Diaz, 44; the curators Kellie Jones, age withheld, and Sandra Jackson-Dumont, 52; the health educator Erica Chidi, 36, and her partner, the talent agent Vatana Shaw, 36; and Simpson’s daughter, the actor Zora Casebere, age withheld.
The food: The meal was prepared by Kris Tominaga, the chef at the Los Angeles restaurant Manuela. The buffet-style dinner featured blistered okra with cucumber buttermilk and benne seeds, and grilled skirt steak with pickled garlic and parsley gremolata. But the best part, Simpson says, were the “buttery, flaky, crispy, melt-in-your-mouth” cream biscuits.
The music: Simpson entrusted the playlist to her daughter, who streamed Alice Coltrane Radio from Spotify, which included “Isis and Osiris” from her album “Journey in Satchidananda” (1971).
The conversation: One new show that came up a few times was “Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which examines the legacy of the gallerist Linda Goode Bryant, an early proponent of Black artists when she opened her Manhattan space in 1974.
Dinner party memory: “It was in a loft I had in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the late ’80s,” Simpson recalls. “We had tons of chicken and booze and a D.J. There weren’t cellphones at the time — you just put out the word and 200 people showed up: It was packed.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
