Arts and Culture in West Africa Featured Alumni
Here is a glimpse at what some of our program alumni are doing now as leaders in their field, and ongoing dedication to our institutional mission of advancing social, economic, and environmental justice.
Eric Herman
Arts and Culture in West Africa 2003
BA Music, Wesleyan University, 2005
Eric is co-founder and President of Modiba Productions in NYC, “a music production, management, licensing, and music supervision company dedicated to international artists and social responsibility.” Modiba Productions manages a number of established and emerging artists, including Bombino, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, and Vieux Farka Touré–son of world-renowned musician Ali Farke Touré–whom Eric met while studying guitar in Bamako with the Arts and Culture in West Africa program. Upon its founding in 2004, Modiba first released the 100% benefit album ASAP: the Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project to critical acclaim, debuting at #1 on the iTunes world music store and has since raised over $140,000 to fund humanitarian groups in Darfur. Recently, Modiba provided music selections for Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill’s documentary In Tahrir Square, which is among the eight shortlisted contenders for the 84th Academy Awards’ Best Documentary Short Subject category.
Rebecca C. Fenton
Arts and Culture in West Africa 2007
BFA Studio Art, Miami University, Ohio, 2008
On the Arts and Culture in West Africa program, Becky studied painting with Frankie Diallo and Fode Coulibaly of the National Arts Institute in Bamako. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Art History at Indiana University, specializing in Mande culture. Becky writes, “I plan to conduct dissertation research in Mali on dress and self-presentation as cultural tools (what I am calling “strategies of everyday elegance”). The breadth of experiences and course topics in the AEA program demonstrates the deep entanglement of many aspects of Mande culture. I know that my research, concerned with what it means to be a well-dressed person, will also touch on oral history, traditional arts, family structure, performance, and philosophies of the body/self, and the AEA approach exemplifies cross-disciplinary learning. Above all, the contacts and wonderful friends I made in Mali motivate me to learn as much as I can and contribute to scholarship on Mande culture.”
Kenya Mitchell
Arts and Culture in West Africa 2007
BA Creative Writing, City College New York, 2008; MA Education, Harvard University, 2012
Kenya currently works as a curriculum consultant for education non-profits, and is co-editor for Harvard Graduate School of Education’s ALANA Anthology, while pursuing a PhD in Education at the University of California, Davis. She had two books published in 2010: Blue Line To Wonderland and Aftermath of a Sociopath. Warrior of Mande, a young adult gamebook based on pre-colonial Malian culture that she began while in Bamako in 2007, is currently in the editing phase.
Ross Beck
Arts and Culture in West Africa 2007
BA Humanities, Florida State University, 2008; RN, Tallahassee Community College, 2012
Ross writes, “while in Mali, my host mentor Daye Kone, a jeli musician, worked for a public health NGO dedicated to stopping the practice of female excision (www.stopexcision.net). They did great work setting up performances in villages and had produced a CD. I had kept up with the NGO’s primary American liaison, and helped them start a Facebook page. I recognized the importance of this health campaign and really discovered the need to help people. This led me to my career in nursing. I made a return visit to Bamako in December 2010 and spent a month living with my host family again. It was such a great experience. I learned a second Mande instrument, the ntamani or talking drum, and spent lots of time playing weddings and doing all of the work of the Jeli… I’m looking forward to my new career in surgery… this experience did help me find a niche in the world.”
Jessica Lucas
Arts and Culture in West Africa 2008
BA Fine Arts & Anthropological Studies, Austin College, 2009; MA Visual Anthropology, University of Kent (Canterbury, England)
“I have been employed since 2011 as a member of staff at the University of Kent, where I work as a Corporate Anthropologist on a ‘Knowledge Transfer Partnership’ between the University and the local site of a corporate pharmaceutical company. In 2008, I worked alongside Fatoumata Diabaté on documentary photographic studies of Bozo fishermen in and around Bamako. Through this project, I gained practical experience in collaborative arts practice, ultimately producing a joint exhibition with Ms. Diabaté for the final show at l’Institut National des Arts in Bamako. A final qualification for my Fine Arts degree, I mounted a solo exhibition of this work, “Bozo: Les Pacheurs du Mali (Fishermen of Mali)” at Austin College in 2009. As a part of my arts portfolio, this work was highly influential in helping me to secure a place in the postgraduate Visual Anthropology program at the University of Kent. Further, as international fieldwork experience and an opportunity to evidence my abilities to interact in multicultural environments, my work in Mali helped me to secure my current post as a practicing anthropologist.”
