Zaratan AIR presents:

April 25 at 11:00 | Free Entry*

The Artist Talks offer the community a chance to meet the artists-in-residence at Zaratan and to gain insight into the creative process.
During this encounter The Incredible, Edible, Akynos (NY / DE) introduces her artistic/activistic practice and the imaginary of the exhibition "The Coockout: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner”, exploring themes related to food and its intersections with black experiences about politics race, immigration, class

 

>>> THE INCREDIBLE, EDIBLE, AKYNOS, also known as M.F. AKYNOS (MFA), is a multi-dimensional stripper. Influenced by African dance, the Black diaspora, pop music and the wild womxn spirit of Sex Workers, Akynos’ work is about upending the patriarchy and setting her own terms on what it means to be a womxn in a Black body. She is an autodidact of dance fusing hip-hop, jazz, raqs sharqi and booty-popping to shape her routines and performance concepts. Akynos became a regular dance student of West African dance in her late thirties as a disciple of Maguetta Camara at New York City schools Alvin Ailey & Peridance Dance Center. Currently completing an interdisciplinary Masters of Fine Art (MFA) at Goddard College, forces the representation and re-evaluation of Sex Workers in society using short films such as Whore Logic (2013) and Hor (2018) and her writings for publications such as: Rosa Lux, Rutgers University Press, Ravishingly and her own blog Black Heaux. With live performances across the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, Australia, the Caribbean and South America, she has run the gamut in the adult entertainment industry. An immigrant from Jamaica, raised in the concrete jungle, she has been featured in The New York Times (2018) alongside burlesque rockstar Aurora BoobRealis. Her time as a nude model centerfold and cover girl in the 90s hood classic Black Tail Magazine, would prepare her path of becoming the art coordinator for the Desiree Alliance Conference (2014-2016), leading the arts track where she convened the largest street protest of the conference’s existence in New Orleans, LA 2016. She then took those experiences to spearhead her own philanthropic arts organization and in 2018 created “The Black Sex Worker Collective” as a response to the oppressive legislation against sex workers in the United States. Now globally recognized, the organization uses art activism to address issues on labor rights, gender equality and immigration reform intersecting these themes within sex work. Fleeing the instability of her New York life and embarking on a four continent tour in her search for home, Akynos settled in Berlin in 2019.
[ akynos.com ]

SUPPORT: República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direção-Geral das Artes

[*In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the conversation takes place outdoors in the Zaratan courtyard, with mandatory use of a mask and limited seating, in compliance with hygiene and safety standards.]