Ashara Ekundayo: AfroPortals Project Space & Archive @ BAMPFA

Join us for a special conversation led by interdisciplinary curator and organizer Ashara Ekundayo, along with collaborators from the AfroPortals Project Space & Archive. Stewarded by Artist As First Responder and the Black Cultural Zone CDC in partnership with Shared Studios, AfroPortals is an interactive, immersive creative lab, pop-up exhibition space, and bourgeoning archive rooted in principles of Afrofuturism, Black memory, and abundance. At BAMPFA, Ekundayo will facilitate a responsive inquiry process into the philosophical, spiritual, and structural design of Black public spaces, focusing on Deep East Oakland, where the AfroPortals project lives at Liberation Park. This conversation will explore strategies that center Black life in places where Black people and families are being displaced, attempt to lower the barriers between campus and communities, and, as Ekyundayo explains, “illuminate how radical Black thought, Black genius, Black privacy, and Black art, maintain Black ‘hoods.” Programmed by Black Life co-curator Ryanaustin Dennis.