Assistant Curatorial Researcher

For the ninth edition of Black History Month Florence, the theme of Whole Rest was chosen as an invitation and indication of the rest, repose and repositioning needed amongst those realities dedicated to the history and future of the cultural production of people of African descent. This is a response to exhaustion and a call to come together and to share restfulness as a collective gesture. Whole rest is also in response to the weariness that is an outgrowth of co-existing with consistent insensitivities and demands of the cultural sector in a context where marginalized histories are tasked with proving why they should be taken into consideration in the first place. This battle for a sense of relevance in a cultural panorama that has consistently benefited from and exploited these same sources of knowledge and power is a cause for a full stop, a whole rest. As an Assistant Curatorial Researcher for the exhibition Repose and Resist at the Murate Art District, my research culminated in a text entitled “How Can We Dream When We Do Not Sleep?” as part of the exhibition.