Say My Name, Say My Name:
A Homage To Diasporic Street Culture, Art, and Aesthetics
Say My Name Say My Name celebrates the poetics of everyday cultural objects – an homage to the street, to culture, to the classed and racialized people that create, remix, dismantle objects that amplify (his)stories of ordinary lives. The nameplates, grillz or nailart— those quiet keepers of memories and holders of minor histories.
In a world shaped by the relentless grip of racial capitalism, where psychological, spiritual, and (im)material impacts abound, scholar Kevin Quashe underlines that “ there is no end to the condition of coloniality and captivity—no end, but there is life in the midst and aftermath of those interminable conditions.” How do everyday objects and their stories offer alternative meaning to heritage and embody archives?
As political, cultural, and subversive design objects find their way into the racial capitalist market machinery of contemporary art, design, and fashion, how do we hold on to their meaning and politics? Say My Name is a convergence of artistic works, public programs, workshops, and film screenings that amplify, question, and center the ratchet politics, subversive strategies, and artistic imagination forged by artists, activists, organizers, and designers.
With contributions by artists such as Tewa Barnosa, Sara Elawad, Jay Ramier, Anisa Nuh-Ali, L’ENCHANTEUR and Dreea Pavel, The Name Plate/Marcel Rosa-Salas, Isabel Attyah Flower, and Roxane Mbanga.
Public Programs:
Thursday 25 January 2024
7pm-9pm
A Sonic Lecture with Jay Ramier
Saturday 27 January 2024
7pm-9pm
Book Launch: The Nameplate: An Evening On Jewelry, Culture & Identity
With Isabel Flower, Marcel Salas, Farida Sedoc & Roberto Luis Martins - Moderated by Hodan Warsame
Friday 01 February 2024
7pm - 9pm
Beyond Excess: A Conversation on Black Femininities
With Roxane Mbanga, Koura-Rosy Kane - Moderated by Adama Keita
Say My Name Weekender
Thursday 08 February 2024
7pm
On Their Pills
Lecture Performance by Tewa Barnabosa
Saturday 10 February 2024
7pm
All Gold Everything with ’L’ENCHANTEUR and Andreea Pavel
An evening on gold, jewelry, identity, street culture & mythology
Sunday 11 February 2024
12PM - 5pm
All day Everyday Market - shops, stories, jewelry and design
Contributing Artists
Identical twins and collaborators Soull & Dynasty Ogun were born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, where they both still live and work. Inspired by their rich lineage of Nigerian and Dominican, West Indies/ Antilles descent, Soull & Dynasty transmute their varied surrounding cultures by making unique jewelry, textiles, and amulets. Soull & Dynasty are both autodidactic artisans: Soull works in metal- forging, casting, carving, cutting, inlaying jewelry, and small sculpture, while Dynasty assembles, cuts, and sews textile to make tapestries and garments. Their collaborative works are heirlooms to be imbued with new magic, inspired by the sciences, color theory, numerology, religion, mythology, and fairytales.
Sarah is a British Sudanese multidisciplinary designer currently based in Brooklyn, NYC. Sarah’s art work explores her own culture, identity and interpersonal relationships. Her research is heavily linked to themes of islamic philosophy, Arabic poetry and her African heritage. Sarah’s visual practice is collage-like and experimental in nature, the output of which spans a variety of materials including experimental print, garments, textiles, video art and installation.
Anisa Nuh-Ali is an artist, researcher and documenter based in the UK. Nuh-Ali works in a wide variety of mediums such as installation, moving image and sound; creating sculptural readymades. She has a continued exploration into memory, language, found and inherited objects. Through these materials, she is interested in investigating the expectations of Black performativity, specifically focusing on the commodified sporting and entertainment spectacle, as well as culture and rituals from her heritage. Nuh-Ali looks to oral histories and communities, whilst utilising archives as a tool for re-imagining.
Tewa Barnosa is a Trans-disciplinary artist and curator, based between troubled Tripoli and a-political Amsterdam, her artistic practice spans across trajectories of visual arts, literature, sound and curatorial collaborations, Grounded in critical curiosity- and intuitive based knowledge reinterpretation and re-production(s), She constructs surreal scenographies that navigate the intricacies of contradiction, extremity, and the evasive realm of transitional “in-between” physical and psychological spaces.
Roxane Mbanga is a Guadeloupean, Cameroonian, and French multidisciplinary artist, currently based between Amsterdam and Paris. Working at the intersection of fashion, film, graphic design, photography, writing, and performance, Roxane is a storyteller. Her research revolves around the relationship between the lived, intimate body and the perceived body, which becomes a social receptacle for others' projections. Through her installations, she questions, listens, and transcribes the voices of women with plural identities. She collects chronicles of their bodies, living memories of intersecting gazes, envelopes shaped by the geographies they traverse.
D.R.E.E.A. is a multifaceted Rromani artist with a remarkable journey in the realms of music, writing, and creative expression. Originating from Berlin via Düsseldorf, she has earned recognition as one of the few credible female selectors in the city's vibrant nightlife. Venturing beyond her roots, D.R.E.E.A. made impactful strides in New York's musical and artistic underground scene, adding a global dimension to her experiences. D.R.E.E.A.'s selections, known for their adventurous and rugged styles, have cultivated a devoted following across Europe, solidifying her status as a trendsetter in the music scene. Beyond her mainly retired DJ career, she has expanded her creative portfolio by working as a freelance editor, showcasing her diverse talents and commitment to artistic expression.
Jay Ramier, born Jacky Ramier, is a multidisciplinary and self-taught artist, a visual artist who mixes painting, videos installations and music, a key actor in the building of the European “Urban-Art” scene. Starting from his roots, Caribbean culture and history, he moves to the representation of the negroes in euro-centric France’s social and cultural spaces. His narrative covers the all Pan-African Diaspora, from west African coast to the American continent, resting on its tribulations and struggles as much as its sense of humour, resistance and creativity, represented by its music and its unconventional use of language. Mixing the ancient popular imagery with todays Pop concept, his grotesque and metaphorical work appears strongly contaminated by contemporary elements.
Isabel Attyah Flower is a New York City-based editor and writer. She is executive editor of Deem Journal and editorial director of Foundwork. With Marcel Rosa-Salas, she is co-host of the Top Rank podcast and coauthor of The Nameplate: Jewelry, Culture, and Identity (Clarkson Potter, 2023).
Marcel Rosa-Salas is a cultural anthropologist and documentarian who hails from Brooklyn, NY. She is co-author of the The Nameplate: Jewelry, Culture and Identity (Clarkson Potter, 2023, with Isabel Flower) and author of the forthcoming Total Market American: Race, Data and Advertising (Duke University Press). She cohosts the Top Rank podcast, also with Isabel Flower.