Join us for "Ririkana Omoide" by Oxy Arts Initiate! recipients Waruguru Waithira and Tia Fujino Reid.
"Ririkana Omoide", a visual and auditory experience contextualizing Blackness transnationally through the experiences of four female Mau Mau warriors in Kenya and seventeen Black-Japanese mixed-race individuals in Japan.
"Ririkana Omoide" will incorporate three modes of oral history presentation: video footage showcasing the interviews of Kenyan women directly involved in the decolonization revolution from the British in 1963, audio recordings of Black-Japanese mixed-race living in contemporary Japan paired with an interactive wall which will display selections from the interviews highlighting the multiplicity within Blackness. Omoide is a multilingual experience, oral history interviews were collected in Kikuyu, Japanese and English and will be presented as such.
"Ririkana Omoide" uncovers the true images of British colonial influence in Kenya and the implications of Japanese nationalism on Black presenting bodies. Ultimately, Omoide captures the diversity within Black identity, contesting Western notions of Black essentialism in order to represent the richness and strength of Black identities.
Waruguru Waithira was born and raised in Kenya for 15 years of her life. She is a senior, studying art and art history. Waruguru enjoys telling Kenyan history through her paintings, she recently gave a TED x talk on the history of Mau Mau survival and also spent two months in Kenya collecting interviews on colonial history. Waruguru will be making a film, giving voices to female soldiers from the Gíkúyú tribe who went through unprecedented forms of violence from the British colonial administration.
Tia Fujino Reid is a fourth year studying Critical Theory-Social Justice. She is from Los Angeles and identifies as African American/Black-Japanese and mixed-race. Due to her ethno-racial identity, Tia decided to apply for the Richter Summer Research Grant at Occidental College to collect oral history narratives of Black-Japanese mixed-race individuals
On view: Nov 15 - Nov 23
Sponsored by the Oxy Arts Initiate! Program.