“In Diaspora… An Exhibition on Festivals and Reflections on Identity
Discover the stories, traditions, and cultural connections that shape who we are through In Diaspora, an exhibition exploring identity, heritage, migration, and the ways we carry our histories across generations.
Presented by DiasporaDNA Story Center, this exhibition invites visitors to reflect on their origins, celebrate the traditions that connect communities, and explore how festivals, collective memories, and cultural expressions preserve our sense of belonging.
Rooted in the stories of the African diaspora and the Global Majority, In Diaspora creates space to consider where we come from, how our identities evolve, and what we choose to carry forward. Through cultural reflections and shared experiences, visitors are invited to see their own stories as part of a larger, interconnected human story.
Whether you're exploring your own heritage or discovering the experiences of others, this exhibition offers an opportunity to connect with the memories, traditions, and stories that make us who we are.
Photo Credit: Anastasia C. Dawan
Photo Credit: Anastasia C. Dawan
Photo Credit: Anastasia C. Dawan
Photo Credit: Anastasia C. Dawan
Photo Credit: Anastasia C. Dawan
In Diaspora... Island KinKeeping is a selection of photographs charting a sustained practice of return to Jamaica—an island of myth, legend, and lore. A historical site of fierce resistance to colonization, it is also a living geography of mindful healing, antithetical to our modern, fast-paced lifestyle. Through repeated solo journeys undertaken for spiritual restoration, photographer Anastasia C. Dawan steps outside the expected frame. The aperture of her gaze documents the island as a place where ancestral knowledge continues to circulate through plant medicine, herbal practice, personal storytelling, and holistic wellness.
Through the sustained acts of looking, walking, remembering, and returning, Anastasia’s work articulates a visual language of KinKeeping—the practice of finding connection with relations and sharing stories of art, spirit, land, food, herbs, water, traditions, and shared memory. “It’s What We Carry,” wherever one stands. In this sense, the photographs embody the core principle of KinKeeping, the heart of the exhibition. Home is not solely a fixed place but a feeling, a set of memories, a spirit one carries and reconstitutes anytime they are near or far—In Diaspora.
Monica O. Montgomery
Curator
Anastasia C. Dawan
Artist
