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Nnaemeka Ekwelum

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Hey Y’all! We’re back with a pre-summer kickoff event that you don’t want to miss! 🪩💫

AfroDisco Social Hour presents SHAKARA— a dance party that marks the contributions of women and femme creatives that move culture forward through music, memory keeping, fashion, and dance.

Featuring live performances by Chi Village (@chivillage_) community members and musical sets by DJs Dyaspara (@dyaspara), Zulu•ish (@zulu.ish), and FINDING IJEOMA (@findingijeoma), this event will sonically explore how West African, Caribbean, and other Black diasporic musical traditions shape contemporary Afrobeats music.

From Lagos to Chicago, ancestral drums to digital decks, this program is a love letter to the beatmakers, the caretakers, the dancers, and the dreamers!

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In Nigerian culture, to “make shakara” means to show off and show out. 😏 As you start getting your outfits together, we encourage all guests to be creative and audacious in their style of dress. Our event host Hazel (@blachaz3) will be hosting a SHAKARA style off at 8:50pm right before the final DJ set by our very own DJ FINDING IJEOMA! Invite your homies, get fly together, and come prepared to dance, dance, dance!

This FREE event is presented in collaboration with the “Before and Beyond Afrobeats…” day-long symposium at Northwestern University on Friday, March 23rd. DM us if you are interested in more information about the symposium!

Link in bio to RSVP!🔗 taken in Le Nocturne Chicago by @loveaboundz

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And we’re back! 🪩✨

Next Friday (March 7th), join AfroDisco Social Hour for ‘A Rebel’s Rebuke!’ This event is the closing reception for ‘Benny Andrews: Trouble’—the inaugural exhibition of @ruthfoundationforthearts at their newly-acquired space in Milwaukee!

Check out the full schedule of events below. 👇🏾

5 pm: Poetry by Tongo Eisen-Martin in collaboration with Woodland Pattern (@woodlandpattern)

5:30–6:15 pm: Final exhibition walkthrough with members of the Benny Andrews Estate, in conversation with our very own Nnaemeka Ekwelum (@loveaboundz)

6:15–9 pm: AfroDisco Social Hour Presents: ‘A Rebel’s Rebuke’—a celebratory reminder of our call to purpose, passion, and power during troubling times, with music by yours truly—DJ FINDING IJEOMA (@findingijeoma)—and delicious treats by Chef Imani Graham of Mentionable Eats (@mentionables_eats)

All are welcome to attend, and reservations are not required. See you in Milwaukee next week! 🤞🏾✊🏾💫 by @loveaboundz

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by @loveaboundz

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Through a Lens of Beauty & Wonderment ✨
📸 : Lishan AZ

repost @southsidecommunityartcenter :
We’re thrilled to welcome Nnaemeka’s doctoral thesis research exhibition into our Burroughs gallery this season, which features curators and artists who have applied to our open call for exhibitions.

Through a Lens of Beauty & Wonderment: Notes on Collaborative Friendship is the culmination of Nnaemeka C. Ekwelum’s doctoral research on friendship, artistic collaboration, and decolonial Black political thought. Through a series of intentional and creative partnerships between him and eight other US-based artists/scholars, this project experiments with the rigor of collaborative friendship as creative methodology in contemporary art making and knowledge production.

Collaborative artist interventions in the exhibition include: Lishan AZ, Shenequa “SHENEQUA” Brooks, Stephen Hamilton, Noor Jones-Bey, Mercy Emelike, Carmen Neely, and Cordelia Rizzo.

This project is co-sponsored by @northwesternu Department of Black Studies.

Nnaemeka (Emeka) C. Ekwelum (@mekcity) is a transnational and multidisciplinary researcher, educator, and artist/curator from Boston, MA. He currently lives in Chicago, IL, where he is a Ph.D. candidate in Black Studies (African American Studies) at Northwestern University. Emeka’s scholarly and creative interests converge at the intersection of history, critical theory, creative expression, curatorial practice, and political education. His dissertation project–“On Artistic Collaboration & Decolonial Black Political Thought”–examines the critical role(s) of beauty, wonderment, and friendship in contemporary and craft art collaborations between and amongst Black creatives. by @loveaboundz

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CONGRATULATIONS to all of the new caretakers of these pieces of my (he)art: @jas_mrtn, @zaccuardi , #amandabarksdalelyttle, @bmoreterrell, #jocelynbohn, @imaginemor, and @samorapinderhughes!!

And THANK YOU TO EVERYONE that supported and encouraged this project along the way—I LOVE AND APPRECIATE YOU ALL VERY MUCH! 🥺🥰✊🏾🙏🏾❤️💫

#loveaboundz #solitude #grief #love #art #raffle #nigerianweaving #abatacloths #blackart #blackstudy by @loveaboundz

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unbound in ways that felt: familiar, distant, and unknown, a younger version of myself appealed to my conscience.

he asked, ever curious:

“how do i
—black as night—
remain as light in spite
of all of this knowing?”

—sincerely,
i replied:

“i fear that i,
lost in real time,
have troubled your joy
with troubling thoughts
about a troubled world.
forgive me—
for i wish that i knew
what i did not yet know
about the heaviness of
knowing...

we might never
(re)discover
what was lost
in transformation,
but on your quest for #life,
#liberation,
and the #pursuitofwholesomeness,
be kind to yourself...
kindness empowers the heart
to remember
what love looks like
in all forms.”

...awakened to new knowledge, a different version of himself teetered away in space,
eager to convince the world that he could be free within, [within], and without.

🖖🏾 (godspeed),
@mekcity

#all #blacklivesmatter #stopkillingus #loveaboundz #solitude #grief #love #blackstudies #blackstudy #nigerianweaving #weaving #blackart #blackhistory #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory365

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“The Pursuit of Wholesomeness / #ALLBlackLives” (2021), 11” x 84”

Plastic Lacing
Chord
Yarn taken in Chicago, Illinois by @loveaboundz

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“Love Abides” (2018), 2.5’ x 3.5’

Wood
Fabric
Plastic Lacing
Found Objects
Floral Decorations

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“Love does not mean that I accept anything...It means that I hold within me an abiding sense of another being’s humanity, even when they cannot hold it.” ❤️💫 -@sonyareneetaylor taken in Boston, Massachusetts by @loveaboundz

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