The exhibition “Diagram of the Heart” at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA) featured fifteen photographs by photographer Glenna Gordon and an installation of an assortment of Hausa novels. The exhibition was curated by Elliott Brown, Jr., Exhibitions Coordinator of MoCADA. The introductory wall text informed the viewer that littattafan soyayya, or “books of love,” is a literary genre specific to Kano, Nigeria. The self-published paperback novels, which are written by women, often sold by women, and read by women, feature story lines that include love found and lost, educational pursuits, prearranged marriages, living with HIV/AIDS, global occupation, and the challenging aspects of women living in a conservative Islamic society. Many of the photographs represent “books of love” authors engaged in the labor of writing or selling their books, in conversation with other women, at wedding ceremonies (Fig. 1), within domestic interiors, or sharing moments...
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Winter 2017
December 01 2017
Diagram of the Heart Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, New York November 18, 2016–February 26, 2017
Tashima Thomas
Tashima Thomas
Tashima Thomas is an Assistant Professor of Art of the Americas in the Art and Art History Department of Kutztown University in Kutztown, PA. tthomas@kutztown.edu
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Tashima Thomas
Tashima Thomas is an Assistant Professor of Art of the Americas in the Art and Art History Department of Kutztown University in Kutztown, PA. tthomas@kutztown.edu
Online ISSN: 1937-2108
Print ISSN: 0001-9933
© 2017 by the Regents of the University of California.
2017
The Regents of the University of California
African Arts (2017) 50 (4): 88–90.
Citation
Tashima Thomas; Diagram of the Heart Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, New York November 18, 2016–February 26, 2017. African Arts 2017; 50 (4): 88–90. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/AFAR_r_00382
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