Uzo Nwankpa | Roots in Яeverse
Uzo Nwankpa | Roots in Яeverse
Dancer/Performing Artist
@uzonwankpa | Uzo Nwankpa on FB | theuzo.com
Is there a version of Africa that lives and breathes outside the geographic location of Africa? Is Africa in America? This project explores the story of an immigrant womyn journey to becoming “African” in America. This story looks at the idea of being African as a consciousness or a state of mind. Africa is everywhere, breathing and evolving. This notion invites the idea of the continent known as Africa to be a place of origin that may physically disappear, but consciously multiply in the diaspora. Roots in Яeverse is an audio-visual investigation of multiple stories from Africans living in the diaspora told by Uzo Nwankpa, recalling journeys from Africa to America and the discovery of the lost, stolen, and hidden parts of Africa in America. “I met my ancestors, who left or were taken, here in the flesh, reminding me of who I am. They remind me of my culture, spirituality, laws of living and activism”.
About Uzo Nwankpa
Uzo Nwankpa is a multi and interdisciplinary performing artist, edu cator, dance facilitator, researcher, and an advocate for re(member)ing ancient and current indigenous healing practices for wellbeing. Uzo uses performance ritual, autobiographical storytelling, and experiential installations to engage and tell stories. As a Nigerian-Igbo, UK national, raised in Nigeria and U.S immigrant, Uzo began making art that spoke to the conditions of her personal and collective oppression as an intersectional Black immigrant living in America.
Uzo is currently one of the 2020 recipients of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts apprentices focusing on storytelling under the mentorship of Rhodessa Jones. She is also one of the 2019-2020 recipients of the Onye Ozi Fellowship for social change that delves into the complexities of relationships between *Africans & *African Americans in the United States.
She is the founder of the Uzo Method Project- A Public health solution that restores remembers and reindigenizes the mind, body, and spirit to heal the self and community. Uzo is the developer of the RICHER model, a 5-step process in creating and facilitating healing in community settings. Uzo is a community health nurse who currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and an Instructor of Community Health Nursing at Samuel Merritt University
