“Coffee//Kool Aid & the Tabernacle of (Re)Memory was mounted at the Community Artists Collective in the Spring of 2022 for nine weeks in the historic 3rd ward neighborhood in the artists hometown of Houston TX, the exhibition featured an immersive installation highlighting the artists material archive and collage/assemblage compositions that celebrate and examine African American pre urban cultural practices.
This research and found object based creative arts initiative is designed to collect and reinterpret cultural data relating to the migration histories, memories and archives of African American urban settlers and their ancestral rural settlements. The exhibition also featured a series of semi-public workshops and interventions that explored conceptual and material themes around notions of preservation, genealogy, ecology, reparations and ritual theater. Through the accumulation of these rich cultural artifacts, Givens seeks to create spaces & media that inspire the activation of cultural and spiritual (re)memory in relation to Africa and its Diaspora.
*** Note both Coolaid and Koffee are stand in metaphors for elixirs used to negotiate comfort. Be it a morning cup of Java or tall glass of colored sugar water after hard playing outside-- Both are liquid substances when too sweet- when not carefully considered -- pose a subtle and quiet danger. At its core this investigation begs to explore what aspects of culture are worth preserving and what elements deserve revision and reconsideration.
This research and found object based creative arts initiative is designed to collect and reinterpret cultural data relating to the migration histories, memories and archives of African American urban settlers and their ancestral rural settlements. The exhibition also featured a series of semi-public workshops and interventions that explored conceptual and material themes around notions of preservation, genealogy, ecology, reparations and ritual theater. Through the accumulation of these rich cultural artifacts, Givens seeks to create spaces & media that inspire the activation of cultural and spiritual (re)memory in relation to Africa and its Diaspora.
*** Note both Coolaid and Koffee are stand in metaphors for elixirs used to negotiate comfort. Be it a morning cup of Java or tall glass of colored sugar water after hard playing outside-- Both are liquid substances when too sweet- when not carefully considered -- pose a subtle and quiet danger. At its core this investigation begs to explore what aspects of culture are worth preserving and what elements deserve revision and reconsideration.
