Join us for a virtual conversation with curator, Vania Kinard, who discusses the art, objects, and ephemera of the Westward Bound: African-American Country Music History & Cowboy Lore exhibit. The exhibit is on display at the Central Library from October 7-December 14, 2024. Local artist and writer, Laili Gohartaj, will facilitate the discussion.
The exhibit tells the visual story of African-American country musicians, genres, and cowboy culture. The exhibit is related to a series of art on the same topic displayed at Freight & Salvage. The exhibit culminates in the Deford Bailey Legacy Music Festival, honoring the harmonica virtuoso and first Black star of the Grand Ole Opry, at the Freight & Salvage in mid-December.
Join us for the conversation here on November 2, at 2:00 PM PST.
Vania Kinard is the curator of the Westward Bound: African American Country Music History & Cowboy Lore exhibit, which includes a comprehensive collection of artifacts, photographs, and items on display at the Berkeley Public Library. Vania Kinard is Dom Flemons wife, manager, and creative collaborator. She is a consultant, curator, producer, and writer. Her curatorial experience includes working with the Artistic Director at the 2020 National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada on an exhibit at the Western Folklife Center called African American Western Pioneers: Past and Present. She has worked on many projects including The Real Wild West Docuseries on CuriosityStream and she is a Producer on the American Songster Radio Show and Podcast, which airs on “America’s Country Station” and “The Radio Home of the Grand Ole Opry” WSM in Nashville, TN.
Laili Gohartaj is a musician, writer, artist, raver, and fundraiser who has served the Bay Area arts community for over ten years. She has a bachelor’s of music in clarinet performance and a master’s of English from Holy Names University. Her experience as a woman of color studying classical music instilled her passion for increasing equity, access, opportunity, and representation for people who have been excluded or marginalized. As a fundraising consultant and board member, Laili has supported artists, organizations, and collectives throughout the Bay Area and has been a grants panelist for the California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, and City of Oakland. Laili won the 2024 Porch Prize for Creative Nonfiction and has published work in SWING, The Hennepin Review, and Longridge Review. Laili was a 2022 Periplus Fellow, a Western States Arts Federation Emerging Leader of Color in 2018 and advisor through 2020, a CAST Cultural Space Ambassador from 2018-2019, and a San Francisco Emerging Arts Professionals Fellow in 2017.