On this episode, I'm joined by Chiwoniso Kaitano Executive Director of MacDowell, the nation’s first artist residency program. She is the 10th person to lead the organization since 1907. Before joining MacDowell, Chi spent the last four years at the helm of Girl Be Heard, expanding its organizational budget, increasing individual giving by 200 percent, and growing both the staff and board. Prior to Girl Be Heard, she served as executive director of Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy, a 30-year-old Brooklyn-based arts and culture organization. She is an avid traveler, having lived on three continents. She holds a law degree from the London School of Economics and a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs. She also serves on the Board of Directors of three New York City-based nonprofits: the International Contemporary Ensemble, The Center for Fiction (formerly The Mercantile Library), and The Jazz Leaders Fellowship of Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Originally from Zimbabwe, she currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

On this episode, I'm joined by Samuel Levi Jones ahead of his latest solo exhibition at Vielmetter, Los Angeles, abstraction of truth. The exhibition presents a profound and timely critique of the structures that shape our understanding of authority and history. Jones’ method of deconstructing books and now, flags serves as a powerful metaphor for the dismantling of the colonial and imperial narratives that continue to influence our legal and social systems. By physically tearing apart these symbols of power and reassembling them into abstract compositions, Jones not only challenges the authority of these texts but also invites viewers to question the origins and implications of the knowledge they represent.

Samuel Levi Jones was born and raised in Marion, Indiana, and he lives and works in Indianapolis, Indiana. Trained as a photographer and multidisciplinary artist, he earned a B.A. in Communication Studies from Taylor University and a B.F.A from Herron School of Art and Design in 2009. He received his MFA in Studio Art from Mills College in 2012. He is the recipient of the 2014 Joyce Alexander Wein artist prize awarded by the Studio Museum in Harlem.

On this final episode of Everything is Connected: African Artists & Curators in the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale, I'm joined by Sir John Akomfrah RA. Akomfrah is a Ghanaian-born British artist, writer, film director, screenwriter, theorist and curator. A pioneering filmmaker, Akomfrah creates multichannel video installations that critically examine the legacy of colonialism, the Black diaspora, and environmental degradation. Akomfrah weaves together original footage with archival material to create stirring, layered narratives that juxtapose personal and historical memory, past and present, and environmental and human crises. This year, Akomfrah was commissioned by the British Council to represent Great Britain with his multi-layered film piece, 'Listening All Night to the Rain.'

This exclusive season of Everything is Connected: African Artists & Curators in the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale is sponsored by The Africa Institute, Global Studies University.

Light Work is a creative media platform rooted at the intersection of art, education, and culture highlighting the work of emerging, mid-car.eer, and established artists from diverse communities and the art professionals who seek to amplify their achievements and contributions to society

On this episode I'm joined by Sandra Poulson. Sandra Poulson is an Angolan artist based in London and Luanda. Poulson draws from personal experiences and observations growing up in Luanda, Angola, a former Portuguese colony. Her work investigates the political, cultural, and socio-economic landscape of Angola analyzing the relationship between history, oral tradition, and global political structures. I first discovered Poulson’s work earlier this year on a trip to Sharjah when I visited the Sharjah Art Foundation and The Africa Institute. At the time, Poulson’s work, as part of the Sharjah Architecture Triennale, was still on view.

This exclusive season of Everything is Connected: African Artists & Curators in the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale is sponsored by The Africa Institute, Global Studies University.

Light Work is a creative media platform rooted at the intersection of art, education, and culture highlighting the work of emerging, mid-career, and established artists from diverse communities and the art professionals who seek to amplify their achievements and contributions to society.

On this episode I’m joined by Wael Shawky. Wael Shawky is an Egyptian artist working between Alexandria and Philadelphia, whose practice is based on extensive periods of research and inquiry, tackling notions of national, religious and artistic identity through film, performance and storytelling. Shawky reconsiders historical narratives and contemporary culture. He was commissioned by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to represent Egypt this year in the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale.

This exclusive season of Everything is Connected: African Artists & Curators in the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale is sponsored by The Africa Institute, Global Studies University.

Light Work is a creative media platform rooted at the intersection of art, education, and culture highlighting the work of emerging, mid-career, and established artists from diverse communities and the art professionals who seek to amplify their achievements and contributions to society.

On this episode I'm joined by Azu Nwagbogu, curator and a National Geographic Explorer at large and director and founder of Lagos Photo Festival and African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), a non-profit organization based in Lagos, Nigeria dedicated to the promotion of art in Africa with the purpose of developing talent, creating societal awareness, and providing a platform to express creativity. He is also the curator of the first ever pavilion of the Republic of Benin at the Venice Biennale.

This exclusive season of Everything is Connected: African Artists & Curators in the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale is sponsored by The Africa Institute, Global Studies University.

Light Work is a creative media platform rooted at the intersection of art, education, and culture highlighting the work of emerging, mid-career, and established artists from diverse communities and the art professionals who seek to amplify their achievements and contributions to society.

On this episode I'm joined by MADEYOULOOK the South African, Johannesburg based interdisciplinary artist collaborative between Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho. The works of MADEYOULOOK take as their point of departure everyday Black practices that have either been historically overlooked or deemed inconsequential. These works encourage a re-observation of and de-familiarisation with the everyday of urban South African life.

This exclusive season of Everything is Connected: African Artists and Curators in the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale is sponsored by The Africa Institute, Global Studies University.

Light Work is a creative media platform rooted at the intersection of art, education, and culture highlighting the work of emerging, mid-career, and established artists from diverse communities and the art professionals who seek to amplify their achievements and contributions to society.

On this episode I’m joined by Aindrea Emelife. Aindrea Emelife is a Nigerian-British curator and art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art, with a focus on questions around colonial and decolonial histories in Africa, transnationalism and the politics of representation. Aindrea is currently Curator, Modern and Contemporary at MOWAA (Museum of West African Art,). She is also the curator of the Nigeria Pavilion at this year's 60th edition of the Venice Biennale.

This exclusive season of Everything is Connected: African Artists in the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale is sponsored by The Africa Institute, Global Studies University.

The Africa Institute, Global Studies University, is an interdisciplinary academic research institute dedicated to the study, research and documentation of Africa, its people, and its cultures; its complex past, present and future; and its manifold connections with the wider world. The Institute is conceived as a research-based think-tank, and a postgraduate studies institution (offering both master’s and Ph.D. programs), which aims to train a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African diaspora studies. The institute programs include international symposia and conferences, teaching of African languages and translation programs, active publishing of books and periodicals, visual art exhibitions and artist commissions, film and performance series, and community classes and outreach events.

Light Work is a creative media platform rooted at the intersection of art, education, and culture highlighting the work of emerging, mid-career, and established artists from diverse communities and the art professionals who seek to amplify their achievements and contributions to society.