Photo - Zanele Muholi and Ashara Ekundayo July 13, 2022 at Museum of the African Diaspora Photo Credit: Jonathan Carver Moore

I hope this newsletter is finding you all with some spaciousness for accepting and providing abundant generosity in your life. This month has brought many opportunities for Artist As First Responder (AAFR) to participate in gifts and grant-making through our work with the Global Fund for Women and the Panta Rhea Flow Fund which expanded the Grants aspect of our 6-point platform to support artists-activists from across the United States and internationally.

Additionally, we wrapped up our 2-year forum, “BLATANT: A Forum on Art, Joy & Rage” in partnership with the Museum of the African Diaspora by hosting my longtime friend, Sir Zanele Muholi (South Africa). This past Friday, July 15, we were able to bring Muholi to CAST San Francisco where AAFR installed a day long pop-up exhibition with Ashara Ekundayo Gallery. We ended Friday with “An Evening with Zanele Muholi” a night screening two of Muholi’s films, a panel discussion, and a presentation on Muholi’s Personal projects and collaborations including the Muholi Art Institute that recently opened in Cape Town, South Africa. I hope you enjoyed the opportunities to join us and learn more about Sir Zanele Muholi’s deeply humanitarian arts practice!

In the Sunshine,

Ashara

Poet, Writer, Preacher, Public Theologian, Visual Artist, Arts Organizer

After 9-months of hosting three phenomenal authors in the studio, Artist As First Responder completes our Black Writer’s Residency series, designed in partnership with Black [Space] Residency, with Reverend Marvin K. White as our July Poet-in-Residence. ​

Rev. White is cofounder of B/GLAM (Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement), a Bay Area, California organization whose goal is to preserve, present and incubate black gay artistic expressions. As Poet-in-Residence, Rev. White will take up space in the writer’s studio and has the opportunity to expand his visual art practice over the next several weeks.

Learn more about Rev. Marvin K. White on his website: www.marvinkwhite.com

Collective Arising: The Insistence of Black Bay Area Artists is curated by Ashara Ekundayo and Lucia Olubunmi R. Momoh and features art by contemporary Black artists who have participated in interdisciplinary collectives which have served both the revolutionary and creative practices of Black, queer, and femme people across the African Diaspora.

The Museum of Sonoma County is open Wednesday - Sunday from 11am - 5pm and is located at

425 Seventh St. Santa Rosa CA, 95401

Black August commemorates the fallen freedom fighters of the Black Liberation Movement, to call for the release of political prisoners in the United States, to condemn the oppressive conditions of U.S. prisons, and to emphasize the continued importance of the Black Liberation struggle.

Observers of Black August commit to higher levels of discipline throughout the month by fasting, exercising, and increasing their political study.

Follow our month-long #BlackAugust Campaign on IG @artistasfirstresponder culminating with a live Guided Meditation lead by Ashara Ekundayo on Zoom: Wednesday, August 31st.