Join us in celebrating the Fowler exhibition, World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean, during this East African community day featuring free programs for all ages!

1PM | Gallery Talk: Erica P. Jones on World on the Horizon
In this gallery talk, Associate Curator of African Arts Erica P. Jones presents a history of the Indian Ocean world in World on the Horizon.

1–4PM | Fowler Families: Doors to Our Dreams
Discover the elaborately carved doors featured in the exhibition World on the Horizon before illustrating your own door using paper and a variety of mark-making materials. Find inspiration as Fowler Educators reads David Weale’s story Doors in the Air, in which a young boy steps through a doorway that transports him from one world to another. Where will your door lead you?
Readings will take place in the Lucas Gallery at 1pm, 2pm, and 3pm.

2PM | Talk and Performance: Swahili Arts and Culture
UCLA lecturer Sephrine Achesah provides a brief history of Swahili communities in Tanzania, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Africa, and Madagascar. Following her introduction, members of the UCLA East African Student Association will perform a Swahili dance. The program concludes with a poetry reading with students from UCLA’s Swahili I language course.

3PM | Screening
Poetry in Motion: 100 Years of Zanzibar’s Nadi Ikhwan Safaa (2012)
Dir. Ron Mulvihill, 70 min.
In Swahili with English subtitles
Poetry in Motion documents the music, poetry, history, and personalities of the esteemed East African orchestra Nadi Ikhwan Safaa (The True Brotherhood Club) of Zanzibar, Tanzania. One of the oldest orchestras in the world, Nadi Ikhwan Safaa celebrated its 100th anniversary in July 2005. A witness to colonialism, revolution, and widespread social change, the musical club performs taarab, Swahili poetry sung with instrumental accompaniment, as it embraces life’s joys and challenges. With an introduction by director Ron Mulvihill.

Co-presented by UCLA African Studies Center.

Related Exhibition: World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean 
More than 150 artworks from Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Oman, and Yemen demonstrate how the seafaring world of the Swahili coast is a vibrant site of cultural convergence, with historically deep and enduring connections to eastern and central Africa, the port towns of the western Indian Ocean, Europe, and the United States.

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Parking available in UCLA Lot 4, 398 Westwood Plaza, directly off Sunset Blvd | $12/day. Rideshare drop-off 305 Royce Drive.