A Journey through Otherworld — Closing Keynote: gli tXh! Performance and Celebration

A part of:
A Journey through Otherworld

Saturday, March 15, 2025
University College, UC179

In this closing keynote, multi-genre writer m. nourbeSe explored the technological currents in her eponymous poem 𝘡𝘰𝘯𝘨!, which tells stories of enslaved Africans massacred on an 18th-century slave ship for insurance purposes. 𝘨𝘭𝘪 𝘵𝘟𝘩!, the project, explores the congruences, resonances, and dissonances that appear when contemporary and current digital technologies encounter the legacies of the spiritual and artistic technologies of Africa. 𝘡𝘰𝘯𝘨! 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘺 𝘚𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘦𝘺 𝘈𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘶 is one such example.

Using 𝘡𝘰𝘯𝘨! as departure point, m. nourbeSe invited a group of multidisciplinary artists to engage with the notion of the “gli tXh” in relation to their own practices. Ten artists—Kobena Aquaa Harrison (music), Otoniya J. Okot Bitek (poetry), Yasmine (Saysah) Hassen (performance), Sistah Lois Jacob (music, performance), Y Josephine (percussion, visual art), Bushra Junaid (visual art), Amai Kuda (music), Charmaine Lurch (visual art), Vivienne Scarlett (dance), and Natalie Wood (visual art)—shared their explorations and insights through music, poetry, performance, visual art, and dance.

A Journey through Otherworld was a multi-sensory program of workshops, tours, and presentations that took place at the University of Toronto from March 12–15, 2025. The program was inspired was inspired by Camille Turner’s exhibition Otherworld, on view at the Art Museum from September 4, 2024 through March 22, 2025.