Introducing RAI Sessions

In this season finale session we join Rafiki once again in her studio to discuss fame, art as labour, the art in labour, the labour in art, and much more as we explore and tease out the stakes of RAI Sessions and spaces/platforms like Rafiki Art Initiatives. Thanks for joining us this season, and stay tuned for more!

In this second of a two-part session, Ro continues their session with Ayesha T. Jordan (https://www.ayeshajordan.com/) and Jelsen Lee Innocent (https://jelsenjelsenjelsen.com/) in their home in Oslo. Continue listening for a deep, yet fun and lighthearted, discussion about doing art while in diaspora, navigating the Norwegian art scene as U.S. Americans, and finding ways to build community, connect with the land, and stay grounded through it all. Please enjoy!

In this first of a two-part session, Ro meets with Ayesha T. Jordan (https://www.ayeshajordan.com/) and Jelsen Lee Innocent (https://jelsenjelsenjelsen.com/) in their home in Oslo for a deep, yet fun and lighthearted, discussion about doing art while in diaspora, navigating the Norwegian art scene as U.S. Americans, and finding ways to build community, connect with the land, and stay grounded through it all. Please enjoy, and tune back in next week for Part II!

In this RAI Session we meet with Nkuli Mlangeni-Berg (https://www.theninevites.com/about), and explore her wonderful textile artistic practice, while weaving the threads between family, home, belonging, motherhood, and forging global community while navigating the Swedish and Nordic cultural sphere.

This RAI session centres on the interrelationship of power, protest, and our places within these frames. We speak with the multigeneric artist, poet, and activist, Makda Embaie (https://www.instagram.com/makawayy/). Makda's poetic interrogations of time and space root those who experience and participate in her work in immense depth of engagement with the truths of relationship and political context.

In this RAI Session, the prolific interdisciplinary artist Cauleen Smith (https://www.cauleensmith.com/) joins us in Oslo during the close of her exhibition The Deep West Assembly. Enjoy this conversation full of laughter and talk of what it is to collaborate and exhibit the world over, rocks, and time.

In this session, Ro meets with the prolific multimedia artist and scholar Sissel M. Bergh (https://sisselmbergh.net/) for a conversation centering on the land, on sovereignty, and what resistance can look like in academia and elsewhere.

In this inaugural RAI Session, Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor (thejessicastudy.com) joins our host Ro Averin for a live recording during our RAI Sessions launch event. We begin with a lively exercise, and then dive in to a rich conversation full of reflection on identity, ancestry, movement, and art.

In this very first RAI Session, RAI Founder and artist Rafiki joins our host and RAI Director Ro Averin to introduce RAI Sessions, give the RAI backstory, and highlight why exactly there is a need for a podcast and space like that of RAI Sessions and RAI.