The Amarachi Collection: Uncovering Grace through Chaos

About

Black Mind is following up the national #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek  with a creativity and mental health inspired takeover of the Art Bypass Gallery. 

We are curating an exciting programme of events including an indigenous Igbo queer feminine art exhibit, a live poetry opening party, workshops, collaborative painting & writing, Black-made books for sale and ongoing soul reading sessions. During the exhibition period, Black Mind is using the gallery wall space to curate a debut exhibit of Amarachi Rachel’s first collection – Amarachi: Uncovering Grace through Chaos.
Black Mind will also be featuring 2 healing arts products in the Sweet Art zine library; BadMind, a zine by Black Mind Artists and Little You by Rachel Nwokoro’s debut poetry collection.​

There will also be the opportunity for visitors to contribute to Make Your Mark: Collective poem creation. This will be a welcoming and ongoing open space where people can write collaborative insights from the space into the group poem on the Black Mind iPad or physically write/draw a reflection on our standing canvas. While unmasking through the week, we archive our thoughts on how creative practices can support a journey of homecoming, transformation and safe surrender. Reflecting with dialogue and drawings, we deconstruct the igbo meaning of “A huru m gi n’anya” - I love you and I see you – this year’s national mental health awareness week’s theme is loneliness; we ask - how can community better embrace vulnerability?

Workshops

Create a sacred space

A Black Mind wellbeing workshop where we look at past versions of a divine space and explore how relation to special objects can facilitate healing transformation. Community is invited to paint and imagine what a sacred space could mean to them. Together we decolonise the visualization of mental healthcare using indigenous healing arts. Tickets can be booked here

Akuwamgbe & the elemental self

A Black Mind wellbeing workshop inviting collective self reflection through visualisation, movement and play. Facilitated by Ezenwanyi Amarachi (Rachel Shapes), participants are invited to give names, sounds and creative expression to their abundant and unseen aspects using indigenous healing arts. Tickets can be booked here

Feel the vibes

A Black Mind wellbeing workshop to demystify the ancestral sciences by learning from how Igbo foremothers used to attune to, embrace and alchemise surrounding energy. Community is introduced to how the lunar-based Igbo calendar can be used to manifest an embodied awareness of our inner and outer universe. Tickets can be booked here