This panel brings together 4 artists and activists: Bernice Mulenga, Joy Yamusangie, Marie-Ermelinda Mayassi (Dr. Mazza) & Ariel Collier who have participated in Zanele Muholi’s latest iterations of their project Faces and Phases: UK 2025. A project that aims to bring black queer people closer together, represent themselves, form connections to build sustainable futures.
Making connections should be relatively simple, yet due to the scars of marginalization and the ongoing conjunctural crisis, there is both a great need and great block to build over. Being connected within a community is a skill, one that starts with our interiority. How deeply we can connect with ourselves mirrors how deeply we can connect with others; how able we are to be seen in the fullness of ourselves.
Zanele’s practice invites their participants to consider who we are, who we are connected to and what we are to become. Hosted by Ariel Collier, the four panelists will share about their experiences being photographed, their relationship to photography and community, as well as any tips for building and maintaining connections within black queer spaces.
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Bernice Mulenga is a British-Congolese photographer with a distinct aptitude for archiving, documenting and interrogating the world around them. Their work centres around the search for intimacy.Primarily looking at themselves, the Black queer global/local community and the experiences found within them. This can be found in their ongoing photo series #friendsonfilm. An archive that has been growing since 2015 and continues to shape with time. Their work is an exploration of reoccurring themes surrounding movement, identity, sexuality, grief, darkness, bonds and kin.
Joy Yamusangie AKA J is a visual artist from the UK. Yamusangie’s work exists both within dream and reality, creating fictional characters and worlds that provide insight into the artist's real life. They experiment with a range of processes such as drawing, film, painting and print making. Their previous work have included a public art installation commissioned by Tate, designing the cover of C. L. R
Marie-Ermelinda Mayassi AKA Maz/Dr. Mazza (they/them) is a dynamic not-for-profit director, cultural producer, social advocate, Afrofuturist, dreams architect, and DJ whose work is rooted in community development and the empowerment of marginalised voices. Driven by a passion for equity and inclusion, they founded Skate Gals & Palsand Melanin Skate Gals & Pals, groundbreaking organisations dedicated to making skateboarding accessible to marginalised genders and BIPOC communities across the UK.
Ariel Collier (she/they/we/our) is a multimedia artist, curator and researcher originally from South Florida, currently based in London. Collier’s work challenges alienation and estrangement, using multiple mediums (such as textile, poetry and photography) and socially engaged practices to shift global understandings of black queer culture towards our inner worlds, reflections and interconnections.