Ethiopia at the Crossroads Performances

Location: Sculpture Court
Registration requested, not required.

2–2:45 p.m.: Music performance by Munit and z Lovebugs
3–3:45 p.m.: Dance performance led by Dereje Bekele
4:15–4:45 p.m.: Performance art by SAFRA

Bring your family and friends to an engaging afternoon of music, dancing, and performance art celebrating Ethiopian identity, culture, and art. Join us for three performances, including live music by an intergenerational band Munit and z Lovebugs, a dance performance led by Dereje Bekele, and a performance art piece by indigenous performance artist and storyteller SAFRA. This program is curated by artist Tsedaye Makonnen, guest contemporary curator of Ethiopia at the Crossroads, an exhibition celebrating Ethiopian art from their origins to the present day, which is on view in our Temporary Exhibition gallery from December 3, 2023–March 3, 2024.

About the artists:

Tsedaye Makonnen is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, researcher, and cultural producer. Makonnen’s practice is driven by Black feminist theory, firsthand site-specific research, and ethical social practice techniques, which become solo and collaborative site-sensitive performances, objects, installations, and films. Her studio primarily focuses on intersectional feminism, reproductive health, and migration. Tsedaye’s personal history is as a mother, the daughter of Ethiopian refugees, a doula, and a sanctuary builder. Makonnen has staged interventions and performed at the Venice Biennale, published a book titled Black Women as/and the Living Archive, and has work in the collection of the Smithsonian. In 2023, Makonnen will be exhibiting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bard Graduate Center, and the Walters Art Museum, where she will also guest curate. She is currently represented by Addis Fine Art. She lives between DC and London with her partner and children.

Munit and z Lovebugs are an Ethio-Haitian-American family band born of the time spent together during the pandemic. The band consists of Munit on voice, ukulele, and drums; Gabriel on bass; Meezan on ukulele, trumpet, and voice; and Ayana on voice (they’re also the dancing machine of the band). The band plays songs that leave people 3 to 103 feeling better than they did when they came in—songs of love, peace, positivity, and joy; songs about our place on our planet Earth sung in English, Amharic, French, and Spanish. The band loves to see audiences around them singing along and joining in as they perform their originals as well as classics. Munit z and Lovebugs have performed at festivals, community sings, libraries, and schools in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Here’s to singing together, sharing stories, and making memories across the generations with Munit and z Lovebugs!

SAFRA is an indigenous performance artist/storyteller using sound and movement to convey their relationship with nature and the multitude of worlds they exist in. Safra is the shapeshifter, a hybrid of “GodHeads” as she transforms herself into her primordial state, her first incarnation. Their movements are an expression of the occult and symbolize forms of life beyond the human realm. She allows herself to not just shapeshift her physical body but also the energies she occupies and all those who witness. Safra is a primordial messenger, a descendant of the African Sibyls or Prophetess. She is a song carrier and utters with her sacred heca ancestral messages to enable a global spiritual intervention. Safra is an activist and a love-body, ushering us into a Matrifocal future.