11.12.24, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
Join us for a conversation exploring the cultural, political, and personal importance of Cairo, Egypt and its outsize impact on anticolonial liberation movements from the 1960’s to today. With a particular focus on Cairo’s relationship to Black people in the city, African continent and across the diaspora, Nsenga Knight, Kribsoo Diallo, and Mohamed Yehia will draw from their own research and experience living in Cairo to trace lineages, honor ancestors, and connect international movements for liberation and spiritual transformation.
Organized in conjunction with Knight’s exhibition, Close to Home, the conversation features two of Knight’s friends and colleagues who she worked with from the Contemporary Image Collective during her time in Cairo between 2016-2022. Kribsoo Diallo’s research focuses on Africanism in the Arabic languages, and Mohamed Yehia’s on African diasporic migration to Egypt for study and community building.
About the Speakers:
Kribsoo Diallo is a Cairo-based Pan-Africanist researcher in political science related to African affairs. He has written for many African magazines and newspapers, and Diallo has contributed to translated editions of papers and articles in and English for several research centers within the African continent.
Nsenga Knight (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1981) is an In Situ Artist Fellow at the Queens Museum. She earned an MFA from University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Howard University. She has exhibited her work internationally, including: Contemporary DW Image Collective, Cairo, Egypt (2022); Drawing Center, New York, NY (2017, 2016); Project Row Houses, Houston, TX (2015); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (2011); among others. Knight is a recipient of grants from Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2019), Foundation for Contemporary Art (2016), Brooklyn Arts Council (2007). She was an artist-in-residence at BRICworksxzpace, Brooklyn, NY (2019); and Film/Video Arts Center, New York, NY (2005) among others. She lives and works in New York.
Mohamed Yehia, a history researcher and educator within the arts and culture domain, joined various projects in Egypt with a primary objective of decentralizing and democratizing access to knowledge production in the social sciences and humanities. He actively participates in initiatives focused on humanities education and public history, particularly in Cairo and the Suez Canal Zone, demonstrating a commitment to fostering a comprehensive understanding of Egypt’s rich historical and cultural legacy. Benefitting from his academic achievements, Mohamed obtained an MA in History from the prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. His research pursuits primarily delve into labor and urban history as well as memory studies , focusing on lesser-explored facets of Egypt’s historical narrative.
Event Partner
The Contemporary Image Collective (CiC) is an independent non-profit art initiative founded in Cairo in 2004. CIC’s mission spans contemporary art and educational programming that responds to and develops artistic practice, engagement, and discourse.