Artists Respond to Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism

Overview

Join us for a panel discussion featuring artists Jennifer Elise Foerster, Steven Yazzie, and Dana El Masri as they respond to the exhibition Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism.

Learn how their contributions to the exhibition, including two custom scents developed by Dana and a video poem created by Jennifer and Steven, respond to, complicate, and reappropriate the colonial perspectives of the artworks on display. Moderated by exhibition curator JR (Jennifer R.) Henneman.

Dana El Masri is a perfumer, interdisciplinary artist, lecturer, writer, and storyteller based in Montreal, Canada, who is inspired by the scents and sounds of contemporary landscapes, as well as by her deeply rooted Egyptian Lebanese cultures and global life experience.

Jennifer Elise Foerster (Mvskoke) is the author of three books of poetry, The Maybe Bird (2022), Bright Rain in the Afterweather (2018), and Leaving Tulsa (2013).

Steven Yazzie (Navajo/Laguna Pueblo) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the complexities of the post-settler colonial indigenous experience as it relates to personal identity, community relationships, and the essential connection to the land as the source of life, stories, conflict, and healing.