A Possibility – multimedia installation

August 27, 2013 by Mariamma Kambon

 A Possibility[i] [audio http://f.cl.ly/items/2d2S1G2L2p2q2C2O3e3o/SF21-NOF-compilation.mp3] After my visit to a state prison in North Carolina, the hollow, trapped eyes of the men in worn out prison uniforms stayed with me along with the miles and miles of chain-link fence, the layers of enclosure that separated them from the rest of life. I could have drowned in the bleakness of their interminable sentences and the withering boredom of their days had I not been able to resurrect a semblance of hope for a […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: a possibility, African Diaspora, audio installation, chain link, correctional institution, emancipation, Exhibition, Frederick Douglass, freedom, Gary Snyder Project Space, group show, Harriet Tubman, hope, incarceration, installation, Kongo, liberty, Mariamma Kambon, mass incarceration, Narratives of Freedom, Nat Turner, nkisi sarabanda, ogun, parabolic speaker, prison, rebellion, resistance, sarabanda, Seth Concklin, slavery, syncretism, syncretist, Yoruba

Narratives of Freedom: Chanting Down Babylon with Ancestral Voices

August 25, 2013 by Mariamma Kambon

In April 2013, I followed my inspiration from reggae legend, Bob Marley, to “Chant Down Babylon.”[1] I had played the track countless times until the refrain Come we go chant down Babylon[2] one more time retrieved distinct images from the vault of my memories. Links began to form Music -> the Key Chant Down Babylon CHANT down Babylon Chant DOWN Babylon Chant DOWN BABYLON Communicating -> to Everyone I recalled my childhood neighbour, an elderly Shouter Baptist woman who spoke […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: audio installation, Bob Marley, chant down babylon, escape, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Narratives of Freedom, Nat Turner, rebellion, resistance, Seth Concklin, slavery, Underground Railroad