In this conversation at MOA, Grace will discuss her ongoing research into the repatriation of museum objects back to their places of origin within the context of her own art practice. Healing the Museum is a body of work that Grace began in 2012, which came out of a need to re-introduce non-rational methodologies, such as shamanism, to re-activate the ‘sacredness’ of art spaces. Grace believes that most modern art institutions are out of sync with their audiences’ everyday experiences and the widespread socio-economical and political changes that have taken place globally in the recent decades, have further eroded the relationship between museums and their audiences.

The hour-long talk will be followed by an informal gathering in the MOA Community Lounge.

In partnership with the UBC African Awareness Initiative Conference 2020: Africa in the Diaspora—The African Experience Around the World. Additional workshops of the Vancouver edition of the 2020 Year of Black Healing will be presented by Grace Ndiritu, psychotherapist Aziz Majid, and artist Guadalupe Martinez in association with OR Gallery from February 3 to 7, 2020.

This special performance by Tonye Aganaba is a part of MOA’s full evening program, Decolonizing Voices: A Celebration of Canadian Black HERstory, which strives to shine a light on the contributions of Black Womxn Canadians through academic and artistic performance. A ticket to the Tonye Aganaba performance at 8pm includes admission to the full Decolonizing Voices program, beginning at 6 pm. Witness the powerful words of Nya Lewis, Bertha Clarke and Chantal Gibson with readings and an artist panel—come early and enjoy the full evening!

Tonye’s debut performance at MOA draws from their new album, Something Comfortable—an intentional and devotional endeavour inspired by their battle with Multiple Sclerosis. The album serves as the score to ‘AfroScience’ an ongoing immersive performance and workshop series that fuses live music, dance, visual art/digital media and storytelling to stimulate conversation and action around identity, addiction, healing and expression. Tonye’s shows, workshops and classes are connected and intimate experiences, and evoke a kind of vulnerability that we all hunger for.

Praise for Tonye’s music: “… one of the best R&B recordings ever to come out of Vancouver, spanning decades of soul and funk touchstones, from Chaka Khan and Jody Watley to Brand New Heavies, Jill Scott and others.” ~ Westender

Full program of Decolonizing Voices: A Celebration of Canadian Black HERstory here.

MOA pays tribute to the contributions of Black Womxn Canadians with an evening of academic and artistic performances. The night (free with museum admission) features readings and artist talks from award-winning spoken word artist, Adelene da Soul Poet (Bertha Clark); artist, poet and award-winning educator, Chantal Gibson; and founder and director of BlackArt Gastown, Nya Lewis. Each of these womxn will explore how we can decolonize institutional prejudice and evaluate how colonialism has woven its way into our every day lives through their own unique perspectives and forms of artistic and intellectual expression.

Separate tickets ($15) are also available for a special performance at 8 pm in MOA’s Haida House with multidisciplinary artist, musician and arts facilitator Tonye Aganaba who offers a powerful performance that explores the shared experience and expression of Afro and Indigenous peoples.

Program schedule

Great Hall | 6 – 8 pm
Free with museum admission

Opening remarks and Musqueam welcome | 6 pm
Introduction by co-curator, Nya Lewis | 6:10 pm
Reading from Adelene da Soul Poet | 6:15 pm
How She Read: So what does it mean to decolonize your mind? Talk and book signing with Chantal Gibson | 6:30–7:30 pm

Haida House | 8 – 9:30 pm
$15 (Please note: tickets for this portion of the evening are sold separately and available here. A ticket to the 8 pm performance includes museum admission for the full program starting at 6 pm.)

Performance by Tonye Aganabe | 8 pm

Bios

Adelene da Soul Poet (Bertha Clark) was born in San Francisco and raised in Vancouver, where her family roots are. Clark’s direct descendants are the first of BC’s black pioneers, who settled on Salt Spring Island and Victoria in the mid-1800s. Her grandmother owned a famous restaurant back in the day called Vie’s Chicken and Steaks, a famous restaurant on Vancouver’s Union Street that operated from the early 1940s to the late 1970s.

“My writing reflects the wisdom, humour, positive spirit and the strong will of my mother. She always told me to share my words with the world. As an adult when I write, I feel a deep spiritual connection coming from a source before my time. I feel the spirit and soul of the people. I write under the name of Adelene in honor of my mother, and perform as Adelene da Soul Poet. I am a spoken word artist.”

Chantal Gibson is a/Historical In(ter)ventionist, an artist, award-winning educator and poet living in Vancouver with ancestral roots in Nova Scotia. Interested in the cultural production and consumption of knowledge, her creative work illuminates the spaces where literary art and visual art meet, to confront colonialism head on. She uses everyday objects to explore nuances of power and unpack hegemonic mechanisms of oppression persistent across readings, writings and representations of Blackness and Otherness in the Canadian cultural imagination.  

As an arts educator, her public talks, community arts projects and workshop activities encourage individual reflection and collaborative exploration of Identity, Otherness, Privilege and Belonging in this de/colonial moment.

Nanyamka Lewis is the founder and director of BlackArt Gastown—an art showcase that presents outdoor and indoor art installations that stand for social change. A writer committed to creating community, her work celebrates the strength and perseverance of Black Canadian culture, history and its diversity. Last year Lewis presented an installation titled “The Feels” that shed light on mental illness within the black community and created a safe community for black youth to heal, process, share and discuss mental and emotional health.

It’s a day of hands-on museum activities for the entire family at MOA, where children and teens will be inspired to make change! At lunchtime, you’ll find a host of hands-on art workshops for all ages, followed by a performance by RupLoops. Later in the afternoon, creative youth leaders dedicated to racial and climate justice will take the stage to share their work.

This event is open to children and youth—see program schedule below for age-appropriate activities. Kids under 12 should be accompanied by an adult. The event is free with museum admission, or with the Kids Take Over UBC All Access Pass.

Plus, there’s many more family activities at Kids Take Over UBC, happening all across the UBC campus. Find more info here.

Program schedule at MOA

Courtyard Tent
12 – 1:30 pm
Mural-Making — A Collective Call: A drop-in workshop where kids of all ages are invited to make their mark on a new mural. Help create a large-scale work of art that imagines what a healthy future planet and home might look like. Constructed from recycled canvas from MOA’s past exhibitions, the completed mural will serve as a colourful backdrop to the afternoon’s performances in the Great Hall.

Learning Lab
Rhythm Stick Styling: In this drop-in workshop, kids will decorate a pair of rhythm sticks created from reclaimed wood from MOA’s past exhibitions. After the workshop, participants can join a special group performance and use their newly personalized beat-making instruments!

Textiles Research Room
Line x Line – Word Play Workshop with Ruby Smith Diaz: Create rhymes and verses that capture our transforming world. This poetry workshop with artist and musician Ruby Smith Diaz will encourage youth and teens to stretch their lyrical imagination through prompts and collective writing activities. Participants will help imagine a future of collective care and mutual aid through the power of words. No poetry experience necessary.

Great Hall
2 – 2:30 pm
Performance by RupLoops: Audience members are encouraged to participate in this performance of rhythm and movement with interdisciplinary artist and facilitator RupLoops (Ruby Singh), whose creativity crosses the boundaries of music, poetry, visual art, photography and film.

Haida House
2:30 – 3 pm
Afrofuturism Poetry and Passion Youth Showcase with Ruby Smith-Diaz

3 – 4 pm
YOUth Speak Panel: The issues of racial and climate justice are at the forefront of international public discourse today. Both represent crises that youth have no choice but to experience and combat as they face the future. This panel discussion featuring local youth activists will be an opportunity to bridge these two critical conversations. Witness local youth speak their truth on matters affecting their lives in the complex world they are inheriting, and in so doing, opening the door for intergenerational and cross-cultural dialogue.

At 12 pm, Debra Sloan will be begin the afternoon with a brief tour at of the Koerner European Ceramics Gallery, where Sloan’s work is featured as part of MOA’s new feature exhibition, Playing with Fire: Ceramics of the Extraordinary.  

Visitors are then invited to drop into MOA’s Learning Lab for an afternoon of all-ages fun. Discover and experiment with a variety of clay techniques, including press molding, carving, and painting. Then, take matters into your own hands by applying these techniques onto a ceramic tile that reflects your own story. Participants will then contribute their completed tile to a clay tiled stove, similar to the one exhibited in the Koerner Gallery, as they help build a new collective story.

Debra Sloan is a Vancouver-based artist who is alumni of both the Vancouver School of Art and the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She has exhibited with and served on a variety of boards throughout British Columbia, and her work has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally. In 2015, she was honoured with the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Craft and Design. Working mainly as a figurative artist, Sloan was the first sculptor to have ventured in the sculptor/commentary direction at the Leach Pottery in its 95-year history.