Lecture Performance by Anguezomo Nzé Mboulou Mba Bikoro with Nane Kahle

Plants as rebels, lovers, healers, archivists, composers, magicians, film actors, crime witnesses and survivors in a transatlantic diasporic history spanning 300 years: their voices will be made heard in the audiovisual lecture performance by Anguezomo Nzé Mboulou Mba Bikoro and Nane Kahle. With Plant-estries and holo-somatic herbal healing practices focusing on de-traumatisation work for BiPOC groups, through storytelling and sonic medicine they shed light on the lesser known histories of Black revolt and feminist ecologies. Using examples of historical court case documents on the impact of environmental extractivism on indigenous populations, their offering reveals reports of feminist resilience, often translated as witchcraft, as part of an untold history of botanical resistance and life-preserving practice. Together both artists work as healers, bridging many elements inside of the performance to create an immersive meditative ritual.

Anguezomo Nzé Mboulou Mba Bikoro is a visual artist, curator and a ritual practitioner for ancestral de-traumatisation and decolonisation in combining somatic practices, plant-estries, and the making of transformational justice through work with Black Indigenous radical feminist archives. Their practice honors queer histories and feminist Black indigenous struggles centering Bakongo cosmology, Obeah and Orixa practices. Mba Bikoro runs Nyabinghi Lab and has shown work at the Dak’Art Biennale and in other international exhibitions. 

Nane Kahle is an artist, musician, and interdisciplinary researcher who has woven her diverse cultural heritage and nomadic journeys into her creative endeavors. Originating from the Ivory Coast and spending her formative years in Senegal and the Caribbean, before passing by in France and finally settling in Berlin. Her compositions resonate with ancestral rhythms and ritualistic chants. She combines her exploration of biochemist science, artificial intelligence and data technologies with ritual practices, to illuminate the dynamic relationship between humanity, nature, and the cosmos.