by Julia Rosier
The Office of Multicultural Involvement Community Advocacy (MICA) hosted the Women of Color Artists Panel Wednesday night as part of their Black History Month program. The event gave women of color in the art world the opportunity to discuss the ways in which they enact change through their art.
The panel, which took place in the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center, consisted of five panelists – Temilouwa Akisanya, Yngrid A. Chacon, Safiyah Cheatam, Nikita Yogaraj and Jasmin Dixon.
MICA’s goal is to empower students by educating them about race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and religion, according to the Stamp website. The panel was co-sponsored by the NAACP, IGNITE UMD, Masterpiece and the Asian American Student Union.
Before the panel began, the speakers were introduced and the audience was provided with their backgrounds.
Temilouwa Akisanya works in UX (user experience) and published “Let the Stories Begin,” according to her biography during the panel. Akisanya’s work encourages journaling and self-acknowledgment, according to her biography.
Panelist Yngrid A. Chacon is a Honduran-Dominican visual artist and designer who created a project titled “Pop Memes,” according to her panel biography. Chacon’s work is a mix of pop-culture and Latinx identity, according to the biography.
The third panelist was Safiyah Cheatam, a Baltimore-based artist and exhibition designer at UMBC. According to her biography, Cheatam plans to continue her research in media and art by getting involved in educational programming, museums and non-profits.
Panelist Nikita Yogaraj of Houston’s biography says she has a passion for portraiture. Yogaraj’s collections have themes of diverse women-femme bodies and love, according to her biography.
Jasmin Dixon, the final panelist, is an editor for The Vibe Room, a DMV-based publication covering local creatives and spaces, according to her panel biography. Dixon uses The Vibe Room and her art to portray what the DMV has to offer.
MICA coordinator Ghonva Ghauri said she was pleased with how the event unfolded.
“I was really excited about the attendance and how diverse it was. I think there were people from all over campus from different disciplines, there were even several staff and faculty members involved and also community members from off-campus and obviously a lot of students as well,” Ghauri said.
She also said she found it interesting to hear panelists’ differing opinions on certain topics.
“Sometimes you go to panels and all three or all four of the panelists will say the same thing or always agree with one another,” Ghauri said. “And while obviously there was some agreeing that happened, because all five of the women we selected from different racial-ethnic backgrounds, they all had different perspectives.”
Graduate student and lecturer Taylor York attended the panel and encouraged her students in her women in culture class to attend as well. She heard about the panel through her department’s newsletter and the Stamp calendar.
“I think a big takeaway that I had from the panel itself was how everyone kind of touched upon… the transformational quality of art and kind of the possibilities that creating art can have and the ways with which this touches their life and other people’s lives as well as the kind of relationship between their identities and their own artistic practice,” York said.
A reception was held after the panel during which people were able to view the work of the panelists. York said that she bought a few of the pieces and that there were audio mediums, journals, poems and literature included in the artwork.
“I got [to] see a lot of the variety of art that they produced and I thought it was so cool to talk to almost each of them afterward and kind of relate to them beyond what they said at the panel,” York said.
Graduate astronomy student Sara Frederick, a friend of one of the event’s organizers, said she heard about the panel through Instagram and also received an email reminder.
“I consider myself an artist, I consider myself a woman of color partially so I wanted to come here and see what people had to say,” Frederick said.
Sophomore general biology major Madison Ezell attended the panel for her women’s studies class.
“We’re learning about feminism and especially the black feminist movement so this was a great activity to go to,” Ezell said. “I don’t really know much about the program but I’m looking forward to seeing women of color and how their art represents their ideas, especially regarding feminism.”
“I’m very interested in the kind of specificity of the local and know that these are five local artists,” York said. “I think it’s important to know that these things are happening around us and on campus with us.”