FestivalAFRICANA fashion and art show reaches from Paris to Pittsburgh
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A trip to Paris turned into a collaboration with the city of Pittsburgh.
“When I went to Paris I met so many creative people, and we talked about ways we can continue to support black creativity and equity when it comes to fashion,” said Pittsburgh-based Demeatria Boccella, who founded FashionAFRICANA in 2001, a multimedia event series and educational platform that explores Black beauty, culture and history through fashion and art.
Boccella went to Paris to research the standard of beauty. She found a like-minded individual in Nelly Wandji, a Paris-based Cameroonian producer, cultural curator and advocate of Africa’s creative industry. As founder and managing director for MoonLook, a Paris-based company that specializes in African fashion, Wandji and Boccella are co-producing the inaugural FestivalAFRICANA, a virtual global celebration of African style, beauty, design and culture this Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday will showcase fashion and design as well as home décor and beauty and cosmetics and culminate with a live performance of African music.
Sunday’s concentration encompasses culture, food and dance.
The event is free. Registration is recommended.
Curated collections of the looks presented during the festival will be available for purchase via MoonLook’s website.
“We want to support our own and build up communities so we can talk about exploring ways to create a platform to share with Black Americans,” said Boccella.
Wandji said she wants to make a safe place for interactions between nations and continents, “because when we share our culture and creativity with others, we celebrate our authenticity as story tellers and solidify our singularities.”
Boccella met Wandji through Paris-based fashion photographer Mario Epanya who Boccella had worked with in the past. The connection was instant because Boccella had always wanted her event, FashionAFRICANA to go global.
Boccella has wanted FashionAFRICANA go global. She’s worked with international artists and designers and photographers, but this is the perfect opportunity to expand that reach.
“We are happy about the opportunity to celebrate the beautiful body of work and expose our audience in Pittsburgh,” said Boccella, who was able to go to Paris on a grant from Keyword International, in partnership with the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland and the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty, awarded to artists in the region.
This will be the first of a four-part event series.
FestivalAFRICANA will include the premiere of “There is No Place Like Home,” a fashion editorial short film showcasing Ghanaian designers. The story teller is Saran Koly, a London-based Pan-African multifaceted artist and writer who is creative director for the festival. She is a former reporter for the French national newspaper Liberation, where she covered fashion.
“’There’s no place like home,’” Koly said. “It is simple, what would you miss most if you were away from home? We usually miss intangible things, emotions: places, scents, laughter, friendship, food, and joy. There is not a day I don’t think about my village, Kpaya, in Guinea. In this project, I was glad to see so many Ghanaian women entrepreneurs featured. This is inspirational as women do not occupy leadership positions in the fashion industry globally. This project shows the work of these women. They tell us who they are and how they impact the livelihood of so many people. We need more stories like this.”