MFON Presents: Altar: Prayer, Ritual, Offerings

MFON Presents: Altar: Prayer, Ritual, Offerings

Saturday, April 27th | 12.30PM – 1.30PM

Meet at The Studio, across the Park from Annenberg Space For Photography.

Let us know you are attending, by registering here.

Please note that seating is first come first served.

All talks are free and are open to all.

Presented by MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora is a panel discussion moderated by MFON co-founders Laylah Amatullah Barryan and Adama Delphine Fawundu will feature contributing photographers sharing perspectives on photography and spirituality.

Intisar Abioto is an artist engaged in dancing, photography, and writing. Utilizing a research focus on the global African Diaspora, her form of story inquiry as a way of life has taken her from Memphis to Berlin to Djibouti seeking the stories, experiences, and dreams of people within the diaspora.

Abioto has shown her photographs of people of African descent in Oregon at venues including the Multnomah County Public Library, Powell’s City of Books, University of Oregon’s White Box Gallery, Portland State University’s Littman Gallery, and Ori Gallery.

She’s the creator of The Black Portlanders, an ongoing photo essay and blog that’s imaging people of African descent in Portland, Oregon. The Black Portlanders blog documents her interviews with black Portlanders. Once the text is posted alongside her photographs, they become compelling visual essays. She was a contributing photographer to MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora (2017) and her photographs were featured in the Urban League of Portland’s State of Black Oregon 2015.

Along with her four artist sisters, she is the co-creator of The People Could Fly Project, a 200,000-mile flying arts expedition exploring realities of flight and freedom within Virginia Hamilton’s award-winning book, The People Could Fly. Abioto has a degree in Dance and has performed at Paragon Gallery, Portland Art Museum, and Disjecta Contemporary Art Center.

Traci Bartlow has been called a community healer. A native of Oakland, California, she is a multi-faceted performance and visual artist who has used her love of dance to expand her creative and leadership skills.

Ms. Bartlow is a longstanding, devoted contributor to many social and creative movements in the Bay Area, and is one of the founders of Eastside Cultural Center, a building in East Oakland owned and operated by artists and activists of color.

Traci Bartlow owns and operates B-Love’s Guest House in West Oakland which features a garden, gallery, and performance space. Ms.Bartlow is currently developing Oakland Picture Lady: Tales of a 90s Girl, a photography exhibition with stories of her days as a hip-hop photojournalist in the 1990s.

Bay Area based photographer and visual artist Idris Hassan is dedicated to uplifting, cultural, life moments through her creative work. In her evolution as a documentarian she has traveled across the country and abroad capturing the visual essence of various communities.

Her photography and collage works reveal the worlds of artists, musicians, and families, showcasing the legacy of creative culture. Her style evokes such greats as Gordon Parks, Romare Bearden, and Carrie Mae Weems. Ms. Hassan’s photography, collage, and video work has been featured in the The Black Woman is God exhibition at SOMArts in San Francisco, the Black Artists on Art: The Legacy Exhibit at Oakstop Gallery, the Annual Art of Living Black Exhibition at the Richmond Art Center and at various exhibitions in the Bay Area.

In 2016, Ms. Hassan exhibited her work as part of a residency at Green Olive Arts in Morocco, Africa. Her work has been featured in the Summer 2015 issue of African Voices, A Soulful Collection of Art and Literature. In 2018 her photography was featured at Photoville in Brooklyn, New York City, as part of the exhibition Alter: Prayer, Ritual, Offerings curated by Women Photographers of the African Diaspora.