About the event

Join us for an evening exploring what health, healing and liberation practices look like for Black women and non-binary people in the context of late capitalism.

Writer, healing arts practitioner and community organiser Omikemi will perform an excerpt from their collection of spoken word portraits and monologues in an audio-visual collaboration with photojournalist Yasmine Akim. Generated through candid conversations with other Black women over the past year, this new audio-visual work considers themes of health, healing, vulnerability, pleasure, and internalized racism. The sharing will be followed by a creative inquiry circle facilitated by writer and psychotherapist Foluke Taylor, who will invite participants to take part in a deeper listening and dialoguing exercise.

This event centres the lived experiences of Black women and non-binary people. We will invite you to connect, share experiences, witness, re-source as a collective, and reflect on our daily health, healing and liberation practices.

ARTISTS / FACILITATORS

Omikemi is a writer and body worker living in London. They’ve been working in disability arts as a writer for organisations such as Vital Xposure and Disability Arts Online. Omikemi is also the organiser of Way Making, an online Black-centred creative and healing arts community.

Yasmine Akim is a photojournalist and arts writer based in London. She engages social photography as a way of transcending negative boundaries through agency. Her portraits are collaborations acting as a means of revealing internalized exterior perceptions, in order to find a way back to power through intimacy. Yasmine studied Fine Art Photography at The London College of Communication. Her work has been exhibited at Autograph as a part of ‘The Missing Chapter Collective’, The Horse Hospital & Ditto Press with her Feminist photo zine ‘Vagina Dentata’ and published by the Independent, Afropunk, The Guardian, VICE, The Face, and Dazed Digital.

Foluke Taylor is a psychotherapist, writer and teacher. She has been in practice for over 25 years, drawing on Black feminist, relational psychoanalytic, and narrative approaches, as well as on knowledge gathered in nonconventional study spaces. Her work engages therapeutics, poetics, and activism as dynamically interconnected experiments in being and living otherwise, that support wellbeing in racialized and marginalized people. Recent publications include a bio-mythography How the Hiding Seek (2018), and As Much Space as We Can Imagine: Black Presence in Counselling and Psychotherapy (2019).

HOW TO JOIN THIS EVENT

The ticket price for this event is £5. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. If this ticket price is unaffordable for you please get in touch with Livvy at livvy@autograph-abp.co.uk about free ticketing options.

This event will take place online only. Here’s how to join us:

1) Book a ticket on this webpage, on Eventbrite, or the Facebook event. If you would like to make an additional donation to support Autograph’s arts and learning programmes, you can do this when you purchase your ticket. If you have any accessibility needs you would like us to be aware of, you can tell us on the booking form.

2) We'll send you an email confirmation of your booking.

3) This online event will use Zoom. For the best experience, we recommend using the Zoom app on your computer or mobile device. You can download the free software here. Or, you can access the event through your web browser without a download.

4) On the day of the event, we’ll send you a welcome email with a link to the event on Zoom. You will be able to join for the start of the event at 6pm (GMT).

5) We will encourage participants to have their cameras switched on, so we can have a sense of the community gathered at the event. The first half of this event, with Omikemi’s reading will be recorded.

If you have any questions, we’re here to help! Please get in touch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can participants outside of the UK join this event?
Yes! Everyone is welcome to join, from any location. The primary language used will be English.

Will the event be recorded?
Only the first part of the event, with Omikemi’s performance, will be recorded. After the event, you can watch the performance on Autograph’s blog.

IN MEMORy OF

The event is being held by Omikemi in the memory of Vitoria Lelis Aranha. She was a friend, teacher, mestra and keeper of African-Brazilian ritual - Capoeira Angola. Vitoria was also an activist and photographer whose work documented Black life in Brazil and the UK.

Part of Autograph's 2020 Open Call

Each year, Autograph has an Open Call for event proposals from emerging cultural producers who are working on a new or early stage project. For successful applicants, Autograph provides a budget, curatorial fee, and support to help make the event happen. This event is a result of our 2020 Open Call.

SUPPORTED BY

Banner image: Vitoria Lelis Aranha, Self-Portrait, 2010

Health & Healing: SPOKEN PORTRAITS OF BLACK WOMEN