Art in the Wake II: Repairing, Healing, and Memory

Museu da História e da Cultura Afro-Brasileira
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Saturday, February 28, 2026

Presented by Indigo Arts Alliance in partnership with the Center for the Study of Global Slavery at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC) and organized in collaboration with the Museu da História e da Cultura Afro-Brasileira (MUHCAB) and the Museu Histórico Nacional (MHN).

Art in the Wake II: Repairing, Healing and Memory is the second symposium in a multiyear partnership with the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s (NMAAHC) Center for the Study of Global Slavery (CSGS). Building on the 2023 inaugural program, Art in the Wake: Reckoning and Re-membering, this continued collaboration between Indigo Arts Alliance and NMAAHC, aims to highlight art’s unique ability to hold complexity—processing the weight of slavery and the legacies of colonialism while simultaneously inspiring visions of liberation and renewal. It follows the traveling exhibition, “In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World,” on view now through March 1, 2026, at MHN. The exhibition is centered on the freedom-making practices of Black communities navigating both the histories and the legacies of racial slavery and colonialism.

Convening an interdisciplinary and intergenerational group of artists, curators, and historians from across the United States and Brazil, Art in the Wake II: Repairing, Healing and Memory positions art not only as a critical record of the past, but as a living, generative force shaping the architecture of future possibilities. Through workshops, collaborative art-making sessions, and community conversations, the symposium will invite participants to engage in embodied exploration of themes central to the diasporic experience:

Healing from historical trauma.
Envisioning repair and restoration.
Preserving and reimagining memory.
Building resilient communities.
Crafting pathways to collective freedom.

Presenters

Cicero Antonio de Aleida, Scott Barton, Joyce Candeia, Eliana Alves Cruz, Jordia Benjamin, Yhuri Cruz, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Paul Gardullo, A Gira, Keila Grinberg, Rachel Elizabeth Harding, Chef Leila Leão, Aline Montenegro Magalhães, Daniel Minter, Marcia Minter, Diana Baird N’Diaye, Nilcemar Nogueira, Johanna Obenda, Nayla Oliveira, Lucas Padilha, Gisele de Paula, Valquiria Pires, Antonio Rocha, Sinara Rúbia, Eneida Sanches, Baba Ivanir dos Santos, Edmilson Pereira dos Santos, and Lucas Ururahy.