On Gratitude

Dear Friends,

I can hardly believe we have reached the final months of the year so soon, but alas, here we are. It has been an incredible year at The Africa Center, largely with gratitude to you and to every member of our growing community. Thank you to everyone who has joined us for a program or has paid a visit to one of our exhibitions, in-person or online.

If you are in or around New York City, and have yet to visit our latest exhibition, States of Becoming, presented in partnership with Independent Curators International (ICI), I certainly hope you do. The works presented by the featured artists are remarkable in how they grapple with complexities around establishing the places we call home as people of African descent, and how that process shapes our lives. As part of our opening celebration for the exhibition, we hosted Becoming: Art & Narrative in partnership with Astra House and Brittle Paper. The conversation explored themes in States of Becoming that are also reflected in Vanessa A. Bee’s memoir Home Bound. For more information on States of Becoming and to plan your visit, click here.

On November 15, we are delighted to host Fitsum Shebeshe, curator of States of Becoming. Fitsum will engage in a conversation with Serubiri Moses, who is also an independent curator and a writer of Ugandan descent. The program, Curating in Diaspora(s), will be a discussion on the ways both Shebeshe and Moses’ transcontinental experiences have inspired their curatorial practices. Please follow the link here to learn more and purchase tickets.

Lastly, I would be remiss not to mention a reminder that we are in another midterm election season in the United States, as well as approaching Presidential and Legislative elections in Equatorial Guinea and Tunisia. No matter our feelings or beliefs about the systems within which we live and operate, it remains fact that the only way to affect them in the direction we hope they might go, however incremental, is to pay attention and to cast our votes.

Once again, and on behalf of the entire team at The Africa Center, thank you for your time, attention, and commitment to our work.

Wishing you well as we enter the holiday season.

Sincerely,

Uzodinma Iweala, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer, The Africa Center