WATCH: Bushra Junaid and Sonja Boon in conversation // PRESENTED BY THE ROOMS AND CBC
Just before the pandemic, the exhibition “What Carries Us: Newfoundland and Labrador in the Black Atlantic” opened at The Rooms in St. John’s, NL. The exhibit brings an African-diasporic perspective to the province's place in centuries-long global migration and trade relationships.
In honour of this landmark exhibition, The Rooms and CBC NL are pleased to co-present a conversation between exhibition guest curator Bushra Junaid and Memorial University professor and author Sonja Boon. Recorded live on Thursday, July 2nd, the conversation thoughtfully connects themes explored in “What Carries Us” to Boon and Junaid’s individual research interests as well as global movements such as Black Lives Matter.
To view the conversation, please click on the video above.
About Bushra Junaid
Born in Montreal and raised in St. John's, Bushra Junaid is a Toronto-based artist and curator interested in history, memory, identity and representation. In 2016, she initiated, co-curated and exhibited her work as part of New-Found-Lands: An Art Project Exploring Historical and Contemporary Connections between Newfoundland and the Caribbean Diaspora at Eastern Edge Gallery in St. John's. She is the curator of “What Carries Us: Newfoundland and Labrador in the Black Atlantic.”
About Sonja Boon
Sonja Boon is a professor of Gender Studies at Memorial University. She is the author of What the Oceans Remember: Searching for Belonging and Home, a memoir that traverses five continents and spans more than two centuries.
ABOUT “WHAT CARRIES US: NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR IN THE BLACK ATLANTIC”
What Carries Us pivots on Black-British philosopher Paul Gilroy’s concept of “The Black Atlantic” — a term that describes the cultural (and many other) contributions of African-descended peoples to societies on both sides of the Atlantic. Making visible these connections means reckoning with the ways in which this province, like other communities along the Atlantic, was at the crossroads of the movement of ships, goods and enslaved people between Europe, Africa and the Americas, known as the triangle trade. It also means appreciating the enduring influence this transatlantic trade has had on the food, language, culture and traditions of both Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and Caribbean peoples.
Curated by Bushra Junaid, the exhibition is inspired by, and reflects on, British-Ghanaian artist John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea (2015) —an epic meditation on the sea and the history of migration, slavery and conflict. What Carries Us includes video, mixed media, mural and photo-based works by Canadian artists Sandra Brewster (Toronto), Shelley Miller (Montreal) and Camille Turner (Toronto), and British artist Sonia Boyce (London, UK), as well as historical items from The Rooms collections.
The Rooms, which has reopened to the public, will present “What Carries Us” until Sept. 7, 2020.
