They are two of the most dedicated, generous, and proactive people I have ever met…from their tireless work arranging for supplies, running workshops, and building a team; to always accompanying me on the twenty minute walk to the tro-tro car home; to insisting on buying my mango when I was in their home turf…to their current efforts at planning for our next program amidst all their school and professional work. Which is not even to mention their beautiful and innovative artwork. Read on, check out the Facebook album, and LIKE Nima: Muhinmanchi Art, facebook.com/nimaart.gh. Tell us what you think on the Facebook page!

MEET OUR ARTIST COORDINATOR YUSSIF AMINU LARRY.

Aminu Larry’s paintings of everyday scenes call attention to the singularness and beauty of the ordinary moment. With subjects as simple as a young girl taking respite over a basket, he draws upon his particular locale as he reflects a universal humanity. Painting in a realist and semi-abstract style, he has a skill for detail and an eye for composition.

Aminu Larry has exhibited in locations in Accra and beyond and worked on murals throughout Ghana, including…
-the Chale Wote street art festival in Jamestown, Accra, with Accra[dot]Alt and the FCA this July
-Koforidua Jackson Park in the Eastern region with the FCA in 2011
-the Youth Institute of Science & Technology, Ejisu-Kumasi this October, with Akosua Boateng from Boogie Down Nima
and more.

Aminu Larry wears many hats. In addition to his vocation as an artist, he works with the MP and assemblymen in Nima on projects for development and sanitation. He targets his community work and his artwork to the youth of Nima, passing on the wisdom he learned from his own teachers, Mozzay and Shamoun. In the meantime, he is in school for business administration and marketing at the Islamic University College, Ghana.

MEET OUR ARTIST COORDINATOR MUSAH SWALLAH.

Musah captures the sights and sounds of daily life by incorporating the materials he finds in it into his work. He mixes bottle caps, clothing, car treads, and nails with acrylic painted on canvas and wood. He depicts the beauty and vibrancy in the movements of the everyday, expressing a pride and joy in the life around him.

Musah is only 25, but he is already making his name known. He has…
-exhibited 11 times in the past decade (at the Goethe Institut, Nubuke Foundation, British Council, and Ghana National Museum)
-led and participated in mural projects with the FCA, Accra; Accra[dot]Alt; and the Youth Institute of Science & Technology, Ejisu-Kumasi
-been invited to the Youth in Action conferences in Spoleto, Italy and Mombassa, Kenya in 2010

Musah has worked with the Junior Art Club since its founding in 2000. He works to carry forward his passion for art to the people and especially the youth in his community. As he begins to educate the next generation of young Nima artists, he looks back to those who inspired him: Mozzay, Shamoun, and later Akirash, his teachers from his hometown of Nima.

Musah's mural at Accra(dot)Alt's Chale Wote street art festival in Jamestown, Accra this July

Musah's mural at the YIST school in Ejisu, Kumasi this October, in a community program run by Akosua Boateng of Boogie Down Nima

(Apologies for showing more of Musah’s work than Aminu Larry’s…It’s not an intentional imbalance, just that Musah has more photographs.)

P.S. Like the JAC page too! (along with Nima: Muhinmanchi Art)

He said he was just looking through his phonebook and thought of me. He’s moved to Accra now. He still thinks of me when he wears the sunglasses I gave him. I asked if they help him see better. I still have the oil he gave me. I think he was looking for a visa, and maybe also a wife, because he asked if I have a boyfriend.

Here is a picture of us from when we met last summer. Euphemia snapped our photo while we were in the middle of a serious theological debate. He said that day would change my life.

Now feast your eyes. Wiz paints ephemeral faces, figures, and abstract shapes with just a foam roller and palette knife to sharpen the edges. Look closely and you’ll see layer upon layer reveal itself. Enjoy.

And while you’re at it, take a look back at Larry’s site (my Ghanaian dad), www.larryotoo.com. His vibrant, abstract paintings capture the rhythm and beat of daily life in Ghana, from sassy market ladies to slick jazz scenes to compositions of adinkra fertility symbols. Larry is known for his use of color, but recently he’s been painting in gray palettes with streaks of gold or bronze. Like his Facebook page, will ya? With seven more fans he can be a real “celeb.”

And happy yesterday birthday to Wiz!

P.S. I’m taking a Twi class at Penn (the most widespread local language in Ghana). Today I finally understood an interaction I had one day with one of the pure water sellers at Nungua while waiting for the tro-tro. I was eating a piece of corn, and she kept calling me something like “mommy” or “mami.” Everyone crowded around laughing, and I was just confused. Well, today I realized that she wasn’t calling me her mom. She was saying “Ma me!” (Give me)

A huge thanks to Alex Akuffo Productions and Bank.foto for the photos (which has its own album from the event here…and some great captions).

Kamal, Musah, and another Nima artist

Btw I’m home safe, everyone. And happy to see friends and family, but missing Ghana already… Going to try to get some Ghana-in-New York at hip life rapper Sarkodie’s first New York concert next weekend, though. Anyone wanna come with??

Last night I dragged a friend to hip life artist D-Black’s send-off party in Harlem. All the great music, almost felt like Ghana again. And finally met Hashim from Boogie Down Nima in person, who connected us with V.I.P. (friend of Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, who came to Haverford last fall to show his film Homegrown: Hip Life in Ghana).

In the meantime, working on making Nima: Muhinmanchi Art an annual event. In touch with lots of media stations, working on proposals…

P.S. Apologies for the blog-absence (blog-sence? blog-a-sence?) toward the end of my time in Ghana. So busy had noo time for internet cafes.

I’m touched by the kindness and support we received — from David, the manager at Paloma Restaurant who drove over half the food packages when our car was too full; to Jane, a waitress who’d helped me with directions last week, and actually came to the event; to Alex Akuffo, our photographer who got married YESTerday but came anyway; to my Ghanaian family the Otoos (they all came to “dangerous” Nima, even the kids); to my professor Jesse Shipley, the only one to be at my Ghana arts events both here and at Haverford (Intersecting Zones in December); to Panji, a hip life music producer I thought might be too busy to come, but ended up staying the whole day and said he’d be behind making this program an annual event. That’s not even the half of it, I can’t begin to thank the artists, students, sponsors, community leaders, and friends who came together today. I’m so lucky to have had Larry and Musah as partners, and Kelvin as my boss. K I’ll stop, sorry for getting sentimental guys.

Now they’re talking about V.I.P. and their new single on the radio. I feel pretty proud to have had them at our event. It was Prodigal’s birthday Thursday btw, happy birthday Prodigal (one of the three members).

Will post pictures later. Mom and Dad, hope you’re ready for all the paintings I bought.

P.S. Our IndieGogo fundraising site shuts down today, but if anyone wants to donate directly…we went a lettle bit over budget. Contact me.

K, here are some photos from today’s meeting at the 441 school to figure out the mural. We met with everrryone working on the mural, not just the four leading workshops (Larry, Musah, Attukwei, Sharif) or the two guiding us (Mozzay and Shamoun, the established Nima artist teachers who are serving as our mentors/directors). The artists are designing the mural, and they’ll guide the students in painting it.

There's Shamoun and Mozzay in white at the back left. Musah's next to them in the hat, with Kamal, another artist pal I've been hearing about from Musah and finally got to meet. Mozzay and Shamoun taught all the young guys who are now working on the project. You can feel the respect when they walk into the room.

We decided on the themes/objects of inspiration for the mural – if only I could spell them. They embody aspects of Nima life that are truly “Nima.” And all positive! Trying to break the perception that Nima is a crime-ridden ghetto. (And it’s not just an outside perception. For the kids doing workshops, in a lot of their sample sketches they showed people smoking, drinking, littering, defecating… We asked them to think more about what they love and value in their community, and they came back with some really wonderful ideas.)

So, on the outside we’ll have:

1) ampe, a clapping/dancing/stomping children’s game that finds its home on the Nima streets (kids were also playing at Chale Wote in Jamestown this weekend)

2) tousafe (spelling??), a kind of corn and cassava dish, I think (nope, it’s not banku)

3) makerate (?), not sure exactly what that is but it has to do with school…

And on the inside:

1) kisu, a typical Nima hairstyle

2) yayi, a local uniform/dress style (different from V.I.P.’s song “Yaayi,” which I used in this video about our event. Yah that took a bit of repeating the words yayi/yaayi on Larry’s part for me to understand)

3) 441 Welfare Association School, something related to the specific activities at the host school, such as carpentry or design

We were checking out the walls to see how the mural will fit and what kind of prep we'll need to do. After much deliberation today, we'd decided to paint directly on the wall outside as opposed to on wooden board, then also have a board on the inside.

Musah and Larry went out late Sunday night to plaster posters all over Nima. Doesn't it look good? I've been walking around with a bag of posters for the past week. People everywhere ask me for a copy.

Musah’s been busy buying supplies at the market. He, Larry, and Sharif met with the kids for more workshops yesterday. (Serge Attukwei Clottey is rejoining us next week once he’s done with his residency.) Musah was telling me about the pieces the students at Adab are doing…a mosque, a typical home in Nima, women fetching water. I can’t wait to see. In the meantime, I have lots of rounds to do, dropping off posters at various media houses and embassies. Can’t believe the event is one week from today.

And now I’m off to Chale Wote, that street art festival in Jamestown I mentioned in a previous post. Musah and Larry are both doing a painting on a building, Attukwei has his own show, and a bunch of my other friends are involved – Ato and Adwoa from the FCA; Bernard Akoi-Jackson whom I finally got to sit down with this week; Toke Olagbaju, a friend of a friend who runs I Heart Accra…and more.

At the Techiman market (he hasn't shaved once since he's been here...and is threatening not to for his last few days in Accra either)

In Kumasi (partway between Techiman and Accra)

On the bright side, Nima’s own hip life music group V.I.P. has agreed to perform. The event itself is going to rock, now we just have to get the funds.

VIP performing at Ghana Meets Nigeria at the Conference Center last Friday...just wait til they hit their home streets of Nima

Workshops started Tuesday. The kids were so into it that Larry stayed at the Anani International School for three hours. When he finally came to meet us, his hands were covered in clay or some kind of white dust. He had to ko na koju allay (“go and bath,” I think – a taxi driver taught me that) before we could film his clip for the video.

P.S. Yesterday my friend Zip showed me this pidgin musical film “Coz Ov Moni,”  of the artists Wanlov and M3NSA (whom prof Jesse Shipley’s filmed videos for) goofing around rapping about a typical day/adventure in Accra. A perfect ode to Ghana. Much of it’s filmed in Nima.

Sharif, Nima teacher and artist, leading a workshop with Ar-Rushideen on Tuesday

Musah leading a session at Adab

Student artists at Kizito, where I also worked with the JAC last year