Changing the Narrative through the Arts
Join us for hands-on activities, dance, peer-to-peer presentations, educational games, stories, and book signing.
Presented in collaboration with the Africa Memory Game, Howard University Center for Africa Studies, Africa Access and the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association (ASA) and YehieEl Design. Special participation by Culture At Home, homeschool of D.C and Kings College Lagos.
Community Day
September 30, 2023
12:30–9:30 p.m.
About this event
Inspired by the museum’s exhibitions and collections, Community Day offers something for everyone.
Among this year’s highlights are:
Hair design workshop. – 12:30 – 3:30 pm
Culinary delights – 2:00 pm, 4:00 pm, 6:00 pm
Curator led-tour-2:30 – 3 pm
Drummer performers – 2:45, 6:00 pm
Discussion and fashion showcase with From the Deep costume designers – 3:30-5:00 pm
Sounds of Africa, celebrating 50 years of Hip-Hop! – 6:30-9:30 pm
To register, click here
Heroes now available in the museum store!
We are thrilled to announce the release of Heroes: Principles of African Greatness. The catalogue showcases the more than 50 museum artworks included in the award-winning exhibition (2019–22) of the same name—both components of a larger multi-platform project that developed, from an in-person show, into a multimedia digital experience featuring videos, an interactive tour, and curated playlist.
The catalogue is the museum’s first collection-focused publication to apply the National Museum of African Art’s pioneering exhibition practice of inviting connections between works by African artists in the museum’s collection across the full spectrum of time, media, and geographies. Published by Hirmer Publishers, Heroes’ 264 pages contains 200 color illustrations and retails for $34.95.
OPEN! New exhibit: From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson
Click on the image to watch an introductory video
In the early 1990s, Drexciya, a Detroit-based techno duo made up of James Stinson and Gerald Donald, imagined an underwater kingdom populated by the children of pregnant women who had been thrown overboard or jumped voluntarily into the ocean during the transatlantic slave trade.
Drexciya’s founding myth has inspired numerous artists, among them Ayana V. Jackson who, in this exhibition, brings to life an immersive, feminist, and sacred aquatopia where African water spirits from Senegal to South Africa both midwife and protect the Drexciyans. Jackson asks that we reckon with the brutal history that cast these beings to the sea while simultaneously envisioning a world of powerful, resilient women. By using her own body to convey her message, Jackson actively engages in what it might have meant to be among the estimated two million captives who never made it to shore. What do you imagine the Drexciyans see looking back at us?
