Stone Center’s multimedia exhibit celebrates Africa, diaspora

Women artists from Africa and the African diaspora are lending their voices to tell the same tale — what home means to them.

In “Telling Our Stories of Home: Exploring and Celebrating Changing African and African Diaspora Communities” mediums like theater, poetry, dance, visual art, film and music covey the theme of home.

The first series of performances spanned from March 31 to April 2 and will resume today until Friday.

“A Spiritual Home: Muslim Women in African and the African Diaspora” will be shown today, as well as a play reading and film excerpt in the future.

Organized by Tanya Shields, a women’s and gender studies professor, and Kathy Perkins, a dramatic art professor, the project began as a seed of an idea in 2014 and gradually grew as community and University support increased.

“We have been incredibly lucky,” Shields said. “We started fundraising right here at UNC, beginning with our home departments — women’s and gender studies and dramatic art — but over 30 other units have joined us in supporting this program.”

The event also received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which, for its 50th anniversary, granted its first Public Square Grant to Shields and Perkins for the exhibition.

This event is open to all students and members of the community.

“I think sometimes our students are so limited in terms of what they know globally — not all of them, but a lot of them,” Perkins said. “I felt this would be one great way to share with my students.”

Perkins said she was especially excited about “Story of a Girl with Closed Eyes,” a performance by Girija and Geeta Siddi, women of African descent from India.

“When people think about the African diaspora, they never think about the Africans who were taken to Asia as slaves,” Perkins said. “People of African descent were not accepted in India, so they have a special story to tell.”

Students from UNC’s Organization for African Students’ Interest and Solidarity attended a presentation by Brazilian dancer and anthropologist Luciane Ramos-Silva.

“My work is related to some African perspective,” Ramos-Silva said.

“And this African perspective in the body is a way to understand our foundations, not only as black people, but thinking about Brazilian culture.”

Ramos-Silva said she didn’t plan to teach the students how to dance; rather, she intended to explain how dance is a branch of knowledge.

“We have a concept called ‘decolonial knowledge.’” Ramos-Silva said.

Perkins said she, as well as Shields, wants to expose her students to what’s happening globally.

“We want to give them a broader horizon and to know that people of African descent — we’re all over the world.”

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