Theme: Community Learning in Culture and Heritage
In an exceptional edition of the Culture Catch Up Public History Talks, we are honoured to have not just one but two special guests! Our historians in residence Banji Chona and Akanyijuka Evans will join us for this exciting session and share their experience of the residency program- as relates to what they learned while actualising their projects “Cisita” and the “Battle of Kagogo”.
Banji Chona is an artist, researcher, and curator. Her current artistic practice is expressed through earth-based alchemy, which uses natural materials, and visual poetry, expressed as digital collages using anthropological photographs alongside personal objects, images, and histories. These offerings are grounded in the terrestrial and often spiritual practices of baTonga. Chona combines this with research and curation which allow the exploration of themes of identity, memory, and history grounded in a sense of storytelling and healing through alternative mediums. This act of reflection uses the self-composed methodology of Radical Zambezian Reimagination.
Akanyijuka Evans is a digital artist based in Kampala, Uganda. In his series, Akanyijuka collages and manipulates photography with AI-generated images to create hyper-realistic works. Through his series Within The Depths Of The Unrealised, Lies The Potential, Akanyijuka challenges the tendency to dismiss what we do not fully comprehend. He embraces objective reasoning and listening, recognising the potency of contradictions as a means to gain deeper insight into life’s contradictions.
Over the past six months, we’ve had the privilege of learning alongside our residents in a series of vibrant sessions that touched on building anti-colonial research frameworks, navigating funding and fundraising, and exploring different digital techniques and tools that can be utilised within the cultural heritage space. We invite you to join us as Banji and Akanyijuka take us through their projects and what they learned while working within the community- as a cohort and in their practices.
The conversation will take place on Thursday 29th of August 2024 at 18:00 EAT on Zoom.
Click the links to read more about their projects “Cisita” and the “Battle of Kagogo”.
