Soft is Strong
A(f)mrka
2021
02:08 min. excerpt of 06:06 min.
Video diptych for two CRT TVs. Single-channel version.
Two-Channel SD Color Video & Two-Channel Audio: Vocalization, Cassette Tape Recordings, Synthesizer, Original Electronic Score.
Text, Sound, Vocals, Editing: Miatta Kawinzi.
A(f)mrka is a video blues poem exploring the Afrka in Amrka and Amrka in Afrka through fragmented poetics and soundscape. The republic of Liberia in West Africa was established by the American Colonization Society in the 1800s to re-settle formerly enslaved/free-born Black people from North America amid rising racial tensions. This piece reflects on the emotional resonances of that complex and under-acknowledged history and its continued reverberations in the present. In the audio, I re-interpret and combine the Liberian National Anthem “All Hail, Liberia, Hail!" and the Black American National Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Full screener available upon request.