Siana Bangura

Group exhibition I, The Angry Black Woman & Other Stories at London’s Buster Mantis is opening October 20 and running to October 23.

Featuring works by Juliana Kasumu, Adama Jalloh, and Mikela Henry – Lowe, the event is curated by writer/poet and performer Siana Bangura and is inspired by her poem ‘I, The Angry Black Woman’ from her new poetry collection Elephant. The exhibition explores black female anger, stereotypes, vulnerability and stories of ‘the Other’ which are “contrary to negative mainstream narratives about our bodies, our sexuality, our cultures, how we parent, our hair, how we express joy, and so much more.”

Bangura will be in conversation with the three artists on the final day, where they will be discuss key themes and inspiration for the show. There will be a Q&A for audience participation, as well as a chance to buy signed copies of Elephant.

Visit the FB event page for more details.**

The SOAS Women’s and SOAS BME networks join forces to host a talk on twerking for Black History Month, taking place at London’s DLT, the main SOAS building, on October 19.

The talk takes on the notion of twerking as an act of resistance, and examines how the representations of twerking in popular culture by means of cultural appropriation, the “occupation” of black bodies, and the representation of black femininity in relation to white femininity.

The discussion will be led by Prisca Vungbo, part of the Ain’t I A Woman collective, and will feature talks by personal trainer, twerk instructor and pole dancer Kelechi aka ‘Cocoa’, poet and editor of Black Feminist platform No Fly on the Wall Siana Bangura, NUS representative Sarah Nwafor, and writer, curator and artist Ama Josephine Budge of the Hysteria collective.

See Facebook event for details. **

I, The Angry Black Woman @ Buster Mantis, Oct 20-23

Twerking: An Act of Resistance @ SOAS, Oct 19