Art & Culture
"Guilt is born in the same hour with pleasure, like anything in this universe and its enemy."- Ama Ata Aidoo
Based in New York City.
Art & Culture
Yellow Fever is a mixed-media documentary animation by Kenyan filmmaker Ng'endo Mukii . The short film, which served as Mukii's thesis project at London's Royal College of Art, is a captivating blend of live-action, stop-motion, spoken word, and vibrant hand-drawn animation that explores the effects of Eurocentric beauty ideals, as disseminated by mainstream media and advertising, on African women.
Atong Atem is a South Sudanese photographer based in Melbourne, Australia, whose work centers on notions of blackness. In a recent photo series she focuses on the social and cultural identities constructed by first and second generation Africans living in the diaspora.
Santu Mofokeng: A Metaphorical Biography is a forthcoming solo exhibition presented by the Walther Collection in NYC spanning three decades of Santu Mofokeng 's career. The show forms part of the non-profit foundation's two-year exploration of photo and video narratives from contemporary African artists and will feature images from the award-winning South African artist's photographic essays that explore landscape, community and social identity in South Africa during and after apartheid.
Double Take: African Innovations is the Brooklyn Museum 's new long-term installation focusing on the interconnected narratives that weave through African art from the past to the present. The experimental exhibit, which made its debut on October 29th, invites visitors to trace links between works from differing time periods by drawing out recurring artistic techniques, solutions, and motifs in African creativity within different historical and cultural contexts.
Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye is one of Nigeria's most renowned visual artists and cultural icons. Born in Ogidi, Kogi State, to an artistic family with a long history of textile craftsmanship, the 63-year-old designer and painter spurred the contemporary revival of traditional textile production in Nigeria.
In just two years London's 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair has grown to become one of the leading art gatherings showcasing the work of contemporary artists from Africa and the diaspora on the international art market.
disclaimer: this beautiful, thoughtful, inspiring photographic work has been at times called "graphic" so we're giving a fair warning some of these images are what some call "not safe for work" Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955-1989) is a new solo retrospective at the Tiwani Contemporary in London featuring the seminal work of late Nigerian photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode , whose vivid photography constructed a rarely-seen narrative centering around cultural displacement, Yoruba spirituality, sexual...
Born in 1962 in Kumba, Cameroon, award-winning contemporary photographer Samuel Fosso began his career taking wedding portraits and passport pictures at the tender age of thirteen. Originally of Igbo descent, Fosso lived with his grandparents in southeastern Nigeria as a young child but fled to escape the tumultuous violence that engulfed his family's village during the Biafran War.
'Finding Fela ,' the new documentary from Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney, begins its North American theatrical run on August 1st. To celebrate we'll be finding Fela in our Okayafrica archives with a look back at our favorite Fela-related videos, galleries, remixes, interviews and much more.
For the last eight years photographer, visual activist and community organizer Zanele Muholi has devoted herself to documenting members of South Africa's LGBTI community for her portrait series Faces and Phases .
Nigeria's first and only international festival of photography, LagosPhoto , kicked off this past weekend in Victoria Island featuring the work of forty local and international artists from over twenty countries.
The Love Within is a solo exhibition of recent works by British-Ghanaian painter, poet and writer Lynette Yiadom-Boakye currently on display at New York's Jack Shainman Gallery . This new show is the artist's third at Jack Shainman following 2010's Essays and Documents and 2012's All Manner of Needs .
This month Zimbabwean mixed-media artist Virginia Chihota unveiled a new body of work focusing on the female form with A Thorn in my Flesh (munzwa munyama yangu) . The show, which is currently on display at London's Tiwani Contemporary , marks Chihota's first solo European exhibition and features a selection of monoprints and drawings inspired by the artist's personal experiences with marriage and motherhood.
New work from Omar Victor Diop , the Senegalese photographer behind the striking [re-]Mixing Hollywood (Onomollywood), Le Futur du Beau and Le Studio des Vanités projects, is always a cause for excitement. The artist returns this month with a photo series to debut at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, which opens today in London.
Cinémafrique
Welcome to the inaugural edition of our new Cinemafrique series. Each week we'll be highlighting the latest film and television news from throughout Africa and the diaspora, from film festival announcements and who to expect on the big screen to the scoop on what to binge watch and add to your viewing party schedule.
Though our Top African Films of 2014 list is by no means comprehensive, we're confident that each of the titles we've picked represent some of the finest cinema pertaining to this site's interests that the last 12 months had to offer.
The African Diaspora International Film Festival returns to New York City for its 22nd edition from November 28th to December 14th.
Welcome to our new Cinemafrique series, where we highlight the latest film and television news from throughout Africa and the diaspora. From film festival announcements and who to expect on the big screen to the scoop on what to binge watch and add to your viewing party schedule.
Fashion
For decades, the fashion and beauty industries have been notorious for catering exclusively to a white customer base by using nude as a catch-all descriptor in their product line-ups. From make-up to accessories and clothing, nude has been the default word used to describe a color scheme that more often than not rotates between cream, beige and tan- pale hues that are more suited towards white skin.
Urbane Hanger is an up-and-coming menswear and lifestyle blog based in Lagos, Nigeria. The site's latest editorial feature, Good Morning Lagos , was shot at the Independence Tunnel in Maryland, Lagos, and captures site founder (and 1/2 of the dapper Biker Gents of Lagos) Oluwapelumi Alabi doing some urban exploring in a thrifted cream two piece suit and a pair of red lace-up Oxfords as the city wakes up.
Since linking with Petite Noir and his Drone Society crew for the sleek Golden Drones capsule collection earlier this summer, Seattle by way of Cote d'Ivoire clothing label Gold Coast Trading Co. has been hard at work prepping the latest line of its symbolism-filled gear.
Afrobougee is an emerging online publication based in Ghana, which describes itself as an "Afro-privileged journal designed to capture and ignite the mind and creative soul." The site recently debuted its Nouveau Noir campaign for which they tapped rising Ghanaian actress Maame Adjei of the popular web series An African City .
Interviews
A film still from "Half of a Yellow Sun" Anika Noni Rose ©2012 Shareman Media Limited / The British Film Limited / Yellow Sun Limited Courtesy of monterey media.
Nana Mensah is a Ghanaian-American actress, director, writer, singer and all around renaissance woman who we first got to know as the fiery Sade on the web series An African City . Over the last thirty months, Mensah has been hard at work on her first feature film, a dark comedy called Queen of Glory , which she wrote, directed and stars in.
Live Performance
We were first captivated by the hypnotic vocals of Ghanaian afro-soul and jazz singer Jojo Abot after she released the spellbinding video for "Hex" last summer. The heartwrenchingly cinematic clip introduced us to the vulnerable yet willful nature of Abot's songwriting and it hinted at even greater things to come from the budding songstress.
Under the moniker E.R., short for (Ethiopian Records ), Addis Ababa-based musician Endeguena Mulu is one of the artists leading the charge in the evolution of Ethiopiyawi Electronic, a new experimental sound emerging from Ethiopia's underground music scene.
The 2014 Red Bull Music Academy Festival kicked off its month long series of cultural events in a major way with last night's Bounce Ballroom held at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar.
The night of May 2nd, Marques Toliver brought his hypnotizing blend of R & B, soul, and classical music back to New York where he performed to a packed house at the Mercury Lounge in the LES.