Friday, March 27, 2026. 12:00 noon-3:00 pm Eastern USA
Webinar (Zoom address TBA)
Conveners: Mark Auslander (American University)
and Abdi Osman (University at Buffalo, SUNY)
“There is no problem in this world that cannot be solved.”
― Flora Nwapa, Efuru (1966)
“I should constantly remind myself that the real leap consists in
introducing invention into existence.”
—Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1967)
This International remote roundtable considers the dynamics of creativity and crisis in making sense of LGBTQ+ art produced within Africa or Africa-adjacent contexts. Confronting waves of institutionalized homophobia and transphobia, perpetrated by state and non-state actors and networks, queer artists and activists have pursued aesthetic interventions characterized by edginess, verve, absurdity, humor, joy, camp, and parody, suffused at times with mourning, outrage, and pathos. The remarkable range of work presented in the new exhibition, “Here” Pride and Belonging in African Art,” at the the National Museum of African Art, illustrates the dynamics of inventiveness in moments of personal and collective crisis. We consider as well the curatorial challenges of mounting such an exhibition at this moment of history, and the coordinated creative energies called forth by the “Here’ production team under unprecedented circumstances.
Our point of departure is the famous dictum in Flora Nwapa’s 1966 novel, Efuru: “There is no problem in this world that cannot be solved.” Our discussion is equally informed by Frantz Fanon’s call, in the face of historical crises of structural oppression, for unruly “leaps” into unscripted territories that “introduce invention” into everyday existence. Where, at the edge of new horizons of the possible introduced by the “Here” artists, might we now go traveling?
For more information, please contact: Mark Auslander, markauslander@icloud.com
Mark Auslander 