Tag: African culture

Culture

PhilAesthetic: AAMP celebrates the African Diaspora in Philadelphia

Three new exhibitions and over a dozen programs will take place from February through May

PhilAesthetic returns to the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) to celebrate the African Diaspora.

Funded through The PNC Foundation through the PNC Arts Alive initiative, and curated by AAMP, PhilAesthetic shines a light on the vastness, depth and impact of diasporic arts and culture here in Philadelphia, and worldwide.

This year marks the 400-year anniversary of the arrival of Africans to British colonies of 1619. These individuals brought with them a rich cultural tapestry that would shape the foundations of our country, and go on to influence creative expression around the globe.

Honoring the cultural contributions of diasporic communities past and present, this year’s PhilAesthetic celebration includes three new exhibitions at AAMP, including “AAMP on Paper: Selections from the Permanent Collection,” along with “Baye Fall: Roots in Spirituality, Fashion” and “Resistance and The Sacred Star of Isis and Other Stories,” which include photographs by MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora founders Laylah Amatullah Barrayn Adama and Delphine Fawundu. In addition to these exhibitions, PhilAesthetic includes more than a dozen programs held both at the museum and with partnering institutions around Philadelphia through May.

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Culture

Pan African Festival Connects African Diaspora Through the Arts

More than 100 artisans and 170 films from around the world are being showcased at the 27th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival in Los Angeles.

The multiday event in the largely African American neighborhood of Baldwin Hills aims to connect Africans to people of African descent from around the world.

“As a result of the slave trade and colonization, African people are spread all over the planet, so we get a chance through this festival, get a chance to know each other,” said the festival’s executive director, Ayuko Babu.

Film, fine art, fashion and jewelry with Africa as inspiration are all featured at the festival.

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Culture

West African Students host annual African week to highlight diversity

From Feb. 17-23, the Wellesley African Students’ Association (WASA) invites the Wellesley College community to take part in Africa Week. Originally called the African Film Festival when it was established in 2004, the event as a chance for the community to focus on different African perspectives through film.

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Culture

Interviews form basis of new play about the legacy of Sudan in Iowa City

On Friday, Feb. 15 from 4:30-6 p.m. in the Senate Chambers of the Old Capital Museum, the African Studies Program and the Office of Outreach and Engagement at the University of Iowa presented My Daughters Are My Writings, a new play based on oral histories of seven Iowa City residents from Sudan compiled by two UI graduate students, followed by a talk by Steve Howard, a scholar visiting from Ohio University (Athens), about Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, a Sudanese Muslim social reformer whose work initiated the Republican Brotherhood before and after Sudan’s independence from Britain.

The play is a truly interdisciplinary affair: Written by UI alum Margot Connolly, based on excerpts from Howard’s book and interviews by graduate students from the history department, it is directed by UI theater graduate student Britny Horton, who acts in the play alongside three fellow graduate students.

Taha is best known for the Second Message of Islam, which distinguishes the verses in the Koran revealed in Medina (the basis of Sharia law) from those initially revealed in Mecca. The latter, from Taha’s perspective, would provide the basis of an ideal religion based on freedom and equality — including the equality of men and women.

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