I am delighted to share my conversation with the inspiring Everlyn Nicodemus. Everlyn is one of the strongest feminist voices to come out of Eastern Africa over the past 30 years, and an incredibly prolific artist, writer, and curator. I think of Everlyn Nicodemus as a “lamplight” — a term used by civil rights activist Vincent Harding to describe people who light the way and show us what’s possible. Everlyn was born in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania in 1954, and her life has been shaped by movement — something she reflects on in both her writing and her art. She’s lived across Europe, in Sweden, France, and Belgium, before eventually settling in the UK. Her experiences of racism and cultural trauma have shaped a really powerful and distinctive body of work, including paintings, collaged books, mixed-media pieces, and poetry, often using unexpected materials like metal netting, sisal, textiles, and found objects. Her work explores personal and cultural trauma, but also the role art can play in healing. As an art historian and academic she has been instrumental in building knowledge about African modernism. She has published widely, with her critical essays on art, philosophy, transculturalism and postmodernity appearing in Third Text (where she also sat on the advisory board) and other major journals. She also co-authored the book 'Modern Art in Africa, Asia and Latin America: An Introduction to Global Modernisms'. In this conversation, we talk about how studying anthropology led her to centre dialogue in her practice. We discuss her 'Woman in the World' project, how she explores silence especially around women’s experiences. We chat about how her practice connects to trauma studies, which she researched in her PhD on African Modern Art and Black Cultural Trauma at Middlesex University in 2012. Find out more about Everyln Nicodemus’s work National Galleries of Scotland exhibition and catalogue Recent exhibition at Wiels, Belgium, Black Bird Richard Saltoun Gallery
