Ghameli

With the curation of his debut exhibition, rapper   Vic Mensa   is imagining creativity, expression, and identity free of the white gaze. Presented by the Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago, Mensa's  SKINS + MASKS  features art pieces by a collective of visual artists from the diaspora. The group exhibition, which opened last month, is inspired by Frantz Fanon’s 1952 book  Black Skin, White Masks  and centers on Black experiences with the goal of decolonizing Black art beyond the politics of visibility. Mensa's father is from Ghana, and his roots are well represented in the exhibition. SKINS + MASKS features a number of rising artists from Ghana, including Accra-based talents like  Foster Sakyiamah  and  Elizabeth Sekyiamah . (Elizabeth is the inaugural winner of the  Judith-Ellen Prize , an annual prize dedicated to supporting emerging women artists within Africa and the Diaspora.) Mensa first became aware of the work of the siblings when he...

  “I’ll never forget suddenly crying the first time going to a beach in Ghana. It was so triggering. And I didn’t feel alone. My heart aches/ached for my ancestors. It was a surreal experience,” read one of a series of now-deleted tweets by Grammy-nominated American singer/songwriter, Ari Lennox. Her heartfelt posts – views often shared by African Americans when they first touch down in the West African country – quickly turned left,  attracting vitriolic messages  from trolls who unrelentingly mocked her for, amongst other things, exaggerating how she felt and being excessively sentimental. The situation descended into a virtual fight between African Americans on one hand, and Africans (mostly Ghanaians) on the other, leading to the ‘Shea Butter Baby’ singer deleting the tweets, and her photos about Ghana on Instagram. Lennox was in the West African country in December 2021 to perform at the Afrochella Festival, one of several events held as part of the  Beyond The ...