Saturday, 11/7/2020
11:00 - 12:30
Virtual Library
Address

United States


Désir analyzes the Maafa, known as the transatlantic slave trade in captive Africans, her book, Redlining a Holocaust, Memorials and the People of the AfroAtlantic: Wòch kase wòch, created through the lens of a photographic, sociopolitical, philosophical and geospiritual journey in the Americas, Africa and Europe. She will recount the contemporary human rights struggles of the global African community in conversation with Wanda Sabir, co-founder & CEO of MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area, in its 25th Season this year.

Her Majesty Queen Mother Dòwòti Désir of the Royal Palace of Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna II Guely, is the Founder and President of, The AfroAtlantic Theologies & Treaties Institute. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the Queen Mother is the Kpodjito (Reine Mate of the King). An interfaith leader and Manbo Asogwe (High Priest) in Haitian Vodou, Her Majesty is an independent scholar, human rights activist, educator, curator, photographer and author. She has traveled extensively documenting the historic sites, memorials and monuments of the transatlantic slave trade in captive Africans. From 2017-2018, she served as the designated UNESCO Desk Review Expert for the New Approaches and Interpretations to Slavery Museums and Sites International Conference. A graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, she received her Master of Arts degree from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and conferred her Doctorate of Ministry from The New Seminary in interfaith studies in 2020. 

 Ms. Wanda Sabir is a journalist, poet and author, moonlighting as a college professor in Alameda, California (wandaspicks.com). For 30 years, one of her many literary events has been to host “A Celebration of African American Writers and Their Poetry,” 1st Saturdays in February. She is also a Depth Psychologist, with deep roots in the bayous of Louisiana where she was born. Her interests and expertise are historic & persistent trauma and trauma healing—the Maafa, specifically ancestral memories, dream tending, women prisoners and the use of art & appreciative inquiry to stimulate those forgotten conversations, especially among Diaspora descendants. She is co-founder & CEO of MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area, in its 25th Season October 2020, co-founder of the International Coalition for the Commemoration of African Ancestors of the Middle Passage and recent recipient of the Distinguished 400 Award, 400 Years of African American History Commission (2019) She is a Transformative Justice (TJ) or Community Accountability facilitator and believes the true revolution starts at home. Contributor: Words Upon the Waters: A Poetic Response by Bay Area Artists (to Hurricane Katrina (2006); Our Spirits Carry Our Voices: West Oakland to West Africa (2019); Colossus Home: An Anthology of Lives in and out of Space (2020); The Houzin Project: Words, Art and Resources on Gentrification, Displacement, Eviction and Homelessness (PNN Survival Handbook Series).  

Connect

Majesty Queen Mother Dr. Dòwòti Désir: Website | The Royal Palace Of Hounon Houna Ii | Twitter

Wanda Sabir: Website 

 

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