Afro-Atlantic Histories uses 130 works of art and documents made in Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe across 500 years to tell the polyphonic histories of the African Diaspora in the Americas. The Dirty South makes visible the roots of Southern hip hop culture and reveals how the aesthetic traditions of the African American South have shaped visual art and musical expression over the last 100 years.

Part performance, part communal ritual, this program is devised to honor and explore the complexities of water in relation to both exhibitions. The audience is invited to wear varying shades of white and blue as the procession’s theme will honor the eco-spiritual implications of the Atlantic as both a site for trauma and transfiguration throughout the African Diaspora. Join us as we meditate, move, and honor the intricate connection to this quintessential element of life with a lineup of energetic performances. Accompanying performing artists include Ganavya Doraiswamy, Jasmine Hearn, Frewuhn, and Medina Perine.

Location and Accessibility

This program will convene at CAMH before moving to the Caroline Wiess Law Building at MFAH. Both museums are open and free to the public on Thursdays.

Caroline Wiess Law Building
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1001 Bissonnet St
Houston, Texas 77005

Part of this program will take place outside and will involve moving from CAMH to MFAH. Both Museums are accessible, but seating will be limited.

Ticket Information

RSVPs via Eventbrite are strongly recommended. There will be a waitlist for those who cannot obtain a ticket.

Reserve Your Place

Featured Artists

Viktor le. Givens
Viktor le. Givens is a found object installation performance artist whose practice centers around the gathering and arrangement of ancestral objects to activate spaces for site specific public rituals. By connecting the material culture of his ancestors with pre- and post-modern spiritual theologies, le. Givens hopes to extend and reimagine the folk customs of his family. His material archive consists of the forgotten and discarded household items found during excavations of East Texas, Louisiana, Havana, and Mexico City. Through the accumulation of these rich cultural artifacts, le. Givens seeks to create spaces that inspire the activation of cultural and spiritual memory.

Ganavya Doraiswamy
Tamil Nadu-raised and New York-born critically acclaimed vocalist Ganavya lives, learns, and loves fluidly from the nexus of many frameworks and understandings. Hers is a deeply profound and rooted voice. A multi-disciplinary creator, she is a soundsmith and wordsmith. Trained as an improviser, scholar, dancer, and multi-instrumentalist, she maintains an inner library of “spi/ritual” blueprints offered to her by an intergenerational constellation of collaborators, continuously anchoring her practice in pasts, presents and, futures. Much of her childhood was on the pilgrimage trail, learning the storytelling art form of harikathā and singing poetry that critiques hierarchal social structures. She is a co-founder of the non-hierarchical We Have Voice Collective.

Jasmine Hearn
Jasmine Hearn was born and raised on occupied lands now known as Houston, Texas. They are an interdisciplinary artist, director, choreographer, organizer, teaching artist, and a 2017 and 2021 Bessies award-winning performer. Jasmine’s commitment to dance is an expansive practice that includes performance, collaboration, and memory-keeping.

About Frewuhn
Singer-songwriter Franchelle Lucas, known as “Frewuhn,” was born in Houston, surrounded by a collage of musical inspiration. Sonically, she embodies a peaceful flow and ambient strength. She is heavily influenced by ’90s rock, R&B, country, and artists like Res, Santigold, and Stevie Nicks. Her love of the sacred wisdom of folk songs, the blues, and gospel is coupled with her first love of music found in church where she gained her initial performance experience. Her background in Theology and performance influenced her production of The Color of Frequency lyric poetry book and the SoundLab sonic experiment. Frewuhn made her debut in 2008, singing with Alternative soul outfit Neon Collars, and has performed as a backing vocalist for many artists including CeCe Winans, and Solange. She released her first solo project Stupid Carnival in 2018. Frewuhn is a messenger who encourages listeners to go beyond the simplicity of her narratives to encourage freedom and healing from within.

Medina Perine
New Orleans native Medina Perine, a teaching artist and actress who was born to tell stories. Medina’s first professional role as Ganges in an original play, Liability, was featured at LePetite Theater for the annual Tennessee Williams Festival, which sparked her to travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Perine transferred to Southern University A&M where she earned a Bachelors of Art in Theater. She joined Upstage Theater Ensemble for two years earning stage credits Old Settler, Blue Denim, and Sunday Dinner, and awarded best actress in 2007. She experimented with writing sketch comedy and playwriting for a few years. In 2010, Medina co-wrote a collaborative piece with Columbia College of Chicago about Hurricane Katrina five years later. She uprooted to Chicago where she taught writing and acting coach in CPS schools with Victory Gardens’ Drama in the Schools program and was an instructor at Holy Family School.

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Image caption: Allison Janae Hamilton, Wacissa (film still), 2019. Single-channel video. Collection of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen.