Gather me in knots: A collective meditation on RUSUNUNGUKO (liberty / independence / freedom) and Shining Light on Truth: Black Lives at Yale & in New Haven

In this culminating conversation, graphic designers Nontsikelelo Mutiti ’12 ART, director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design, and assistant professor at Yale School of Art, and David Jon Walker ’23 ART, exhibition designer for Shining Light on Truth: Black Lives at Yale & in New Haven share inspirations for their work and how their individual practices are shaped by the collective, by mentorship, and by history. 

Poet Tobi Kassim, composer, healer, and scholar Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa, and Lacina Coulibaly, lecturer in the department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, will join Mutiti and Walker in a polyrhythmic reflection on the history of Black liberation practices rooted in music, poetry and movement. 

This activation considers the importance of participation whilst leaving room for all to bear witness to their own singular presence and agency as we fall in and out of our relationship with the collective. 

Nontsikelelo Mutiti's work, RUSUNUNGUKO (liberty / independence / freedom), is on view in The Dome Gallery. David Jon Walker is the lead designer for Shining Light on Truth: Black Lives at Yale & in New Haven on view in The Presidents' Gallery and the Underground Gallery. Both works are free and open to the public and on view at Yale Schwarzman Center during the building's open hours.