A Conversation Series on African American x African x West Indian x Afro-Latin + identity & relationships in the USA
Saturdays: Sep 18 - Oct 23, 2021
10:00AM - 1:00PM PST
Online (via Zoom)
Limited spots available per date
You must Register and receive a final confirmation invitation to participate
What the hyell is an African Booty scratcher anyway? Why do Africans or Black British folks get to play significant roles in American movies? Why do y’all think we live in trees in Africa? Why does my Afro-Caribbean mom keep talking shit about African Americans?
Eish! You've spent the past few years of your life in convos, clacking away in the ShadeRoom comment section, and it feels like mofos still ignant and this is not going anywhere.
So let’s face each other. For real. Let’s have a dialogue. Let’s create a new vision.
“The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart.” – Kwame Nkrumah, Africa Must Unite, 1963.
What if we could squash the African vs. African American beefs with a fiercely crafted rap verse? Or some shady but sensible memes for those our forward-trigger Aunties in Watsapp? Or made a dope ass playlist that got us to see how powerful we are together?
This conversation series is a part of Onye Ozi, is a social discourse and creative experience project exploring the complexities of AfricanBlack Identity and relationships in the United States. Over several weeks, participants will have ‘Diaspora Dialogues’ on issues relating to identity, immigration, and the evolving dynamics of Blackness.
Sessions are guided by hosts and guest presenters and open to Black people of African descent. Each session builds upon each other, but you can attend week by week.
Space per week is limited. You must RSVP to reserve and confirm your spot.
ABOUT
Tammy Johnson, Dialogue Facilitator
Tammy Johnson is a dancer, producer, culture keeper, writer, equity consultant and godmother extraordinaire. Johnson directed living wage, welfare rights, public education and election campaigns as community organizer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has partnered with World Trust and Art / Work Practice and spent a decade at Race Forward as a national organizer, trainer, writer, and policy analyst. Johnson co-produced the television special Colorlines: Race and Economic Recovery with LinkTV. She was also the curator of creativesinplace.org, a listening project and digital platform that features the stores of Bay Area artists and their work. Johnson specializes in raks baladi, also known as Egyptian style belly dance, and was a recipient of the 2016 Deborah Slater Studio 201 Residency Program and a featured performer in the 2017 Live Arts in Residence at Eastside Arts Alliance. The Oakland based Johnson embraces work that is healing and gives her joy.
For this project, Tammy will serve as the lead facilitator of the weekly African Diaspora Dialogues to create a discussion container that allows for support, honesty and space for broadening mutual understanding of the topics discussed
Michael French, Creative Facilitator
Originally from London, England, Mr. French is a writer, director and creator of theatre. As a boy he saw “Cathy Come Home” on the seminal British television series “Play for Today” and was transformed. He created the Glasshouse Theatre Company thirteen years later where he wrote and directed the Ovation award winning play “The Rainy Season.” Mr. French also co-wrote “The Buddha Prince,” a ‘walking’ play about the life of the Dalai Lama, which has toured the U.S. extensively and was performed in Central Park in New York City in 2005 and 2008. More recently he was selected as one of only twenty-five directors to the prestigious Lincoln Center’s Director’s Lab program, and one of only eight directors to the Great Plains Theatre Conference. Mr., French is an associate artist at the Oakland Theatre Project, Co-Creative director at Other Hand Studies, a resident artist at Playground, and currently adapting the Heinrich von Kleist novella, ‘The Betrothal of Santo Domingo” for production in 2021.