A Swimming Lesson Conducted by Chinonye Otunye
Sunday, February 19, 2023
A Swimming Lesson conducted by Chinonye Otuonye, who will facilitate a vocal annotation of sections of Tiffany King’s Black Shoals.
In her disruptive text, Tiffany King examines the physical formation of shoals, as “spaces of contact, friction, and interaction among land and water” and uses it to question the lack of rootedness that is often attributed to the black diaspora. Instead, she offers up the Black Shoal “as a moment of convergence, gathering, reassembling, and coming together (or apart)”. Through a series of interactive activities, we’ll engage in a non-linear reading of the text in relation of other thinkers and collectively imagine new topographies of blackness that speak to our pasts, presents, and futures.
This event forms part of 'Water Laboratory: Experiments in Swimming and Drowning' – a space of artistic experimentation and creative ideation that explores the watery disruptions and connections of people of African descent. Curated by Tracian Meikle during her curatorial residency at the Treehouse, it takes the form of a series of performances, presentations, installations and conversations; with the aim of learning water together.
Chinonye Otuonye is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at CUNY, Graduate Center in New York. While in Nigeria she has been working on a project that explores the notions of futurity and alterity that undergird local black geographies.
