18 / AMAM.OBERLIN.EDU JAN 26, FEB 23, MAR 16, APR 27 / 12:15 PM MINDFUL MEDITATION Clinical therapist Libni López leads sessions of intentional mindfulness centered around a work of art followed by a discussion facilitated by Ellis Lane, Curatorial Assistant in the Allen’s Education Department. To attend one of the Zoom sessions, register at bit.ly/allen_meditation. FEB 14 / 3 PM TUESDAY TEA / SONGS, SIGNS, AND THE LANGUAGE OF THE STREETS Julia Alexander, Curatorial Assistant in the Office of Academic Programs, will explore how protest music, signage, and other creative acts of dissent in historical social justice movements relate to images of urban environments like those on view in The Language of the Streets (page 7). FEB 16 / 5:30 PM ALLEN AFTER HOURS / AFRICANA ROCKING CHAIR: A CONVERSATION AND PERFORMANCE WITH NORMAN TEAGUE Norman Teague is a Chicago-based artist and designer who is changing the field for young Black creatives. Teague’s community-based practice addresses systemic inequities and the complexities of urban experience through design, pedagogy, and collaboration. The co-founder of blkHaUs Studios and founder of Norman Teague Design Studios, Teague will represent the United States in a group exhibition at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. Join us for a conversation between Teague and SamAdams, Ellen Johnson ’33 Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Following the talk, Teague will inscribe Africana Rocking Chair, a recent Allen acquisition featured in Like a Good Armchair (page 6). MAR 9 / 5:30 PM ALLEN AFTER HOURS / ART AND ARTLESSNESS: THE AESTHETICS OF LIFE AND ART In the Analects, Confucius remarked, “Wildness results when nature overpowers refinement. Superficiality results when refinement overpowers nature. One can only become a gentleman when refinement and nature are balanced.” While Confucius was reflecting on how to live one’s life, practicing artist ManshengWang believes this philosophy applies equally to art. Join us for a talk in which Mansheng discusses a balance between the refined and the natural—between art and artlessness—as the aesthetic sense he strives for in his artistic practice. CALENDAR OF EVENTS Left: Shannon Finnegan, Do you want us here or not (MHR)—Bench, 2021. Plywood, paint. MuseumFriends Fund, 2022.38. Below: Yorùbá peoples, Nigeria, Helmet Mask (Gelede), 20th century. Wood, paint, and kaolin. Gift in honor of Alexandra Gould (OC 2011), 2011.26.47. ULRICH GEBERT, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND DEBORAH SCHAMONI MAR 14 / 3 PM TUESDAY TEA / OUR MOTHERS The Helmet Mask (Gelede) in the Allen’s collection is part of a larger ensemble with which men in southern Nigeria embody and reenact the divine lifecreating force of “our mothers,” women who having passed their reproductive years are the source of both humans and gods in Yorùbá cosmology. Visiting assistant professor Fernanda Villarroel Lamoza will discuss howGelede festivals provide a conceptual framework to engage with our mothers as an abstract principle. In doing so, she will outline an in-depth analysis of the intricate arrangement of snakes, birds, and knives layered in tiers in this mask, as a form of coiffure framing the serene facial features distinctive of Gelede. APR 6 / 5:30 PM ALLEN AFTER HOURS / ACCESSIBILITY DREAMS Join us for a presentation by Shannon Finnegan, an artist experimenting with forms of access that intervene in ableist structures with humor, earnestness, and rage. Through their art practice, Finnegan thinks about howwe, as communities, can move towards more nuanced andmore transformative approaches to access. Instead of focusing on compliance and doing the ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION These events are held in a wheelchair- and rolling walker-accessible building. The lecture space is wheelchair accessible, with moveable seating, and near wheelchair-accessible restrooms. Restrooms are gender-specific; visitors are invited to use the restroom of their preference. Listening devices will be available for use during the presentation, but ASL interpretation will not be offered. Most talks will be recorded and available with closed captions on the museum’s Vimeo page after the event. Please email access questions to Jill Greenwood, jgreenwo@oberlin.edu.
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