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Dunia Dialogues

@duniadialogues

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A cultural storytelling platform exploring identity, migration, memory & belonging.
Created by Teresa Temu @terezush
Columbus, OH

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What does belonging look like when you inherit it from the women who came before you?

This time, we asked Black women and mothers about belonging:

Where did you first feel it?

What was handed down to you?

What did your mothers and grandmothers teach you about being a woman, a mother, and a member of a community?

And perhaps most importantly:

What has to survive for the next generation?

The knowledge circles were held by women who carry deep knowledge of their own.

Thank you to our facilitators:

Dr. Tina D. Pierce, @worthfoundation
Rashaan Cargile-Gregory, MSW, LSW
Faisa Ali @nuumacare @peapod.social
Kristin Mallory @columbuschamber
Monique Whipple, doula @thebirthplug
Georgina Stephenson

And then something happened that stopped me for a moment.

Several mamas came with their grown daughters.

That is exactly the kind of intergenerational exchange I hope Dunia can make possible.

Because belonging isn’t only something we feel.

It can be something we learn, practice, remember, transmit—and remake.

That is the work I’m increasingly interested in through Dunia Dialogues:

What happens when we create space for women to examine not only what they have inherited, but what they want to carry forward?

The best day of my September. 🤎

#SheCarriedItHere #DuniaDialogues #BlackMotherhood #CulturalMemory

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We ask the wrong question about immigrant culture. We ask, “How do we preserve it?”
But culture changes when people move. This one’s about child language brokering — a 9-year-old translating a lease for her mother, holding authority her parents never had at that age.
A tradition being invented right now, at kitchen tables across Columbus. 🎥
#DuniaDialogues | #AfricanImmigrantHeritageMonth | #AsSeenInColumbus | #ColumbusOhio | #DiasporaVoices

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What if some of the knowledge we need to improve Black maternal health is already sitting inside our communities?

That’s the question behind She Carried It Here — a Dunia Dialogues gathering bringing Black mothers together across culture, migration, and generations, and into conversation with doulas, social workers, and health practitioners. 🎥

#DuniaDialogues | #SheCarriedItHere | #BlackMaternalHealth | #AsSeenInColumbus | #ColumbusOhio

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African Immigrant Heritage Month isn’t only for African immigrants to observe.

In a pluralistic society, we understand it through each other — through the histories of the people around us.

This one’s about why that matters, and what happens when different diasporic histories sit at the same table. 🎥

#DuniaDialogues | #AfricanImmigrantHeritageMonth | #AsSeenInColumbus | #ColumbusOhio | #PluralisticSociety

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Jollof. Music. Weddings. That’s the Africa most Americans notice.

The deeper culture is the one that shows up when no one’s watching — how we feel time, what belonging means, who shows up when you’re sick.

As an Africanist, that’s the knowledge I’m interested in documenting. 🎥

#DuniaDialogues | #AfricanImmigrantHeritageMonth | #AsSeenInColumbus | #ColumbusOhio | #Africanist

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I loved seeing African immigrant communities celebrated at Gracie Mansion this week. It also made me ask a very Columbus-specific question: Where is Columbus in this conversation?

We have African festivals, Africa Day, African-led civic organizations, entrepreneurs, professionals, families and communities shaping this city.

So what comes next?

How do we move from visibility to authorship?

That’s the question I’m exploring through this series—and through my work with Dunia Dialogues.

Mayor Mamdani @nycmayor, I’m watching what you’re building in New York. I’m curious what this conversation could look like in Columbus.

#DuniaDialogues | #AfricanImmigrantHeritageMonth | #AsSeenInColumbus | #ColumbusOhio | #AfricanImmigrants

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In many African traditions, knowledge is not owned. It is passed.
Last Saturday, 43 women — African mothers, Haitian diaspora women, and American women — sat together at Zora’s House in structured knowledge circles and did exactly that.
They shared what their mothers knew. What their grandmothers practiced. What almost got lost in the crossing.
This is what Dunia Dialogues is.
#SheCarriedItHere #DuniaDialogues #BlackDiaspora #AfricanMothers #MotherhoodAndMemory

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Years ago, I made myself a promise.

That one day I would build a room where Black immigrant mothers and American-born Black mothers could sit together — not as representatives of competing experiences, but as women who carry the same ancestral thread, severed at different points in history.

On Saturday June 20th, that room existed for the first time in Columbus.
She Carried It Here: Motherhood, Memory & What We Carry — a structured dialogue and knowledge circle across the Black diaspora, convened by Dunia Dialogues at Zora’s House on World Refugee Day.
43 women. 20+ communities. 3 generations — the oldest mother celebrated her 80th birthday last year. The youngest was a pre-teen sitting beside her mother.

Mauritanian, Ghanaian, Haitian, Sudanese, Somali, Rwandan, Tanzanian, Cameroonian, Cabo Verdean, and American-born Black women — in one room, as peers.
Five knowledge circles — each named after a plant native to the African continent:

💙 Lily of the Nile
🌺 Hibiscus
🌳 Baobab
💛 Acacia
💜 Jacaranda

Because knowledge circles are not a modern facilitation technique. They are the oldest form of knowledge transmission on earth. And they are native to us.
Columbus has not seen a structured cultural dialogue across the Black diaspora like this before — Africa, Haiti, and the United States, in equal and honest conversation.

Women arrived as strangers. They left holding each other. Some were still in the building an hour after we closed.

This is what Dunia Dialogues was built for. And this gathering is not an event — it is a living organism. The roots are in.

More to come. In the coming days — meet the women who made this possible.

#SheCarriedItHere #DuniaDialogues #BlackDiaspora #BlackMaternalHealth #columbus

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My heart is still overflowing after the very first Dunia Dialogues: Mamas Who Move the World

What a gift to gather in community, to listen, to share, to celebrate. Thank you to every mama, artist, and leader who made this space so powerful.

And this is only the beginning… 🌍

Upcoming themes will include:
💻 Mamas in Tech
🌿 Mamas & Wellness
🧠 Mamas & Mental Health
🌍 Motherhood & Migration
🗣️ Mother Tongues — on passing down our languages to future generations

We are building a movement where our stories and voices can thrive. Mamas, daughters, sisters, friends — together we move the world.

Want to be part of the next circle — as a speaker, artist, or partner? Send me a DM or tag someone who should be in this movement.

#DuniaDialogues #MamasWhoMoveTheWorld #Motherhood #Identity #Leadership #Community #asseenincolumbus

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My heart is still so full from the inaugural Dunia Dialogues: Mamas Who Move the World at ABA Gallery.

These photos say it all — joy, sisterhood, and the power of mothers who lead with LOVE. We laughed, we cried, we told our truths.

Thank you to every mama, artist, and leader who showed up and made this gathering unforgettable. This was only the beginning. 💛

This is just the start — I know so many talented mamas I’d love to highlight, and countless topics to cover. Our next theme will be Motherhood and Migration.

If you’d like to be part of it — as an artist, panelist, supporter, or guest — drop a comment or DM me! Share your ideas for future themes too. Let’s keep moving… Mamas Who Move the World.

With gratitude to our panelists and partners: @nimbusdevops @614.aba @queensvillage614 @blackgurlsthink @yokizanna @replatynamhumphrey @muniraforohio @girlfpc @lourdesforcolumbus @ltoth @motherful_org
Photo: Albert Opoku @sikapalens

#DuniaDialogues #MamasWhoMoveTheWorld #ColumbusMamas #DiasporaLeadership

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Leaders & sisters — tomorrow we gather for stories, love, and purpose at Dunia Dialogues: Mamas Who Move the World.
Be in the room, be part of the circle — and yes, we’ll have halal bites, refreshing beverages, and a henna artist to make the afternoon even sweeter.
Repost this TODAY so our circles know what’s happening tomorrow. Tag me so I can amplify YOU back.

Thanks to @queensvillage614 for partnering wit me!

🎤 @replatynamhumphrey — State Representative, advocate for equity & justice
🎤 Councilwoman @lourdesforcolumbus Lourdes Barroso de Padilla — First Latina elected to Columbus City Council, diaspora mama and Champion for equity
🎤 Houleye Thiam @girlfpc — Mauritanian activist and poet
🎤 Dr. Lucille Toth @ltoth — Artist and movement storyteller
🎤 Heidi @motherful_org — advocate for single mothers
🎤 Dr. Erica Womack @blackgurlsthink — Educator, Strategist & Champion of culturally responsive leadership
🎤 @findingmonti Monti Taylor — passionate community advocate and my co-host
🎤 Suzan Mchao @yokizanna — our Spiritual guide

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✨ Mamas Who Move the World ✨

Some of these incredible women, I’m honored to call friends. Others, I’m just beginning to know — and already in awe of their brilliance, vision, and the ways they pour into our communities.

This gathering is a space to celebrate them, listen deeply, and honor the power of women who lead, nurture, and create change.

It’s a close, intentional event. Make sure you follow us and comment below word INVITE (or Mamas Who Move the World) and I’ll send you the Eventbrite link directly.

Proudly co-created with @queensvillage614

📅 Saturday, August 16
📍 Columbus, OH

#MamasWhoMoveTheWorld #DuniaDialogues #QueensVillageColumbus #BlackMotherhood #DiasporaLeadership #Storytelling #ColumbusEvents

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