5:30 pm            Exhibition viewing
6 pm                 Dinner and discussion
6:30–7:30 pm    Panel discussion

Following a self-guided tour of African Modernism in America, join the annual Diaspora Dialogues event, a conversation among Black women in St. Louis organized by Vitendo4Africa and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. International Awareness and Involvement Committee. This year’s theme will center on a transnational discussion of African art and its connections to African American artists, the social and political roles of art in African and African American contexts during the 1950s and 1960s, and the importance of teaching these histories to challenge Western notions of African art. Invited speakers include Erin Falker-Obichigha, artist, art historian, and curator; Bukky Gbadegesin, associate professor of art history at Saint Louis University; Yvonne Osei, artist; and MwazaCarol Thompson-Robinson, artist. The discussion on the social and political roles of art in African and African American contexts continues over a modern Congolese cuisine provided by Lady Lauralie.

Free and open to the public. Registration is required. Register here >>
Space is limited. If registration is full, email kempereducation@wustl.edu to add your name to the waiting list.

Diaspora Dialogues is organized and sponsored annually by the Saint Louis Metropolitan Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. International Awareness and Involvement Committee and Vitendo4Africa. The program features Black women leaders who discuss a topic of interest across the diaspora.

The event will be recorded. Sign language interpreters can be requested; two weeks' notice is required. Please email kempereducation@wustl.edu.

Image credit

Suzanna Ogunjami (c. 1885–c. 1952; lived and worked in Jamaica, the United States, and Sierra Leone), detail of A Nupe Princess, c. 1934. Oil on canvas, 20 x 15 1/2 in. Fisk University Galleries, Nashville. Gift of the Harmon Foundation. Courtesy of American Federation of Arts; Yusuf Grillo (1934–2021, Nigeria), detail of Untitled (Yoruba Woman), c. 1960s. Oil on canvas, 48 x 30 in. © Yusuf Grillo. Courtesy of Mimi Wolford and American Federation of Arts.