Hear from photographer Pok Chi Lau who has been documenting the Chinese diaspora for over fifty years. This exhibit depicts the African slave diaspora and descendants' desires to find their roots.
Join us for a meet and greet from 5:30-6pm by the first floor gallery area (by south entrance) followed by an artist talk and presentation at 6pm in Events Room A!
About the Artist and the exhibit:
Photographer Pok Chi Lau has been photographing in depth the Chinese diaspora for over fifty years, covering S.E. Asia, North and Central America. This work is a depiction of African slave diaspora based on Africans and their descendants' desires to find their roots. He researched a remote area in northern Togo, West Africa, where he photographed the isolated Batamari-ba Tribe.
The large images in this exhibit are paired - a portrait of a tribal member holding an historical image of an African American slave is paired with an icon representing their tribal home setting, occupation, or sea/river landscapes near slave embarkation sites.
Slaves were forced to toil in construction, mining, land clearance and plantation work: sugar cane, cotton, tobacco, cocoa, rice, coffee, corn, indigo dyes, rubber and timber. These were products of the colonial period. And cassava, yam and sweet potato, called Été in Africa, are the basic foods in Africa. These are icons. Regrettably, the diaspora situation is still going on now. Africans enter Europe, America and Hong Kong through various channels, legal or otherwise.
The exhibit will be available for viewing the entire month of August.
Curated by Robert Lloyd, Our Stories Our Visions
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We strive to make events welcoming for people of all abilities. To request accommodations (i.e. hearing assistance, ASL requests, or other ADA inquiries), email sday@spokanelibrary.org.
For all event information inquiries, email telref@spokanelibrary.org or call 509-444-5300.
AGE GROUP: | Middle School | High School | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Learning & Lectures | Current Affairs | Arts & Culture |
Mon, Sep 09 | 9:00AM to 7:00PM |
Tue, Sep 10 | 9:00AM to 7:00PM |
Wed, Sep 11 | 9:00AM to 7:00PM |
Thu, Sep 12 | 9:00AM to 7:00PM |
Fri, Sep 13 | 10:00AM to 5:00PM |
Sat, Sep 14 | 10:00AM to 5:00PM |
Sun, Sep 15 | 12:00PM to 4:00PM |
COMPUTERS & TECHNOLOGY
66 public computer stations
MEETING & STUDY ROOMS
300 person capacity nxʷyxʷyetkʷ Hall (pronounced: inn-whi-whi-ettk, a Salish word meaning Life in the Water)
256 capacity combined event space on the 1st floor
34 person capacity maker studio
2 conference rooms
2 reservable co-working spaces in the Business Lab
5 study rooms
Media Studios – production studio, recording studio, and video studio
SERVICES
Friends of the Library used book store
New Leaf Café
Business Lab with Bloomberg Terminal & Coworking Space
Computer Lab (Faxing, copying, scanning, printing)
Inland Northwest Special Collections
KYRS Radio
Shimmer (public art) by John Rogers
River Rumpus Children’s Playspace
Serenity Room