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Current Work
Shot in the United States, the Netherlands, and South Africa, SUNSHINE BOUTIQUE explores the creative sources of African descent women artists in the context of daily racial, xenophobic and heterosexist violence. This experimental video was partly inspired by New York community responses to the murder of Amadou Diallo in the context of centuries of state-sanctioned violence against people of color in this and other countries.
SUNSHINE BOUTIQUE celebrates the leadership of women and people of all sexualities, spiritual beliefs, and political orientations in our myriad overlapping movements for social justice and peace. The examination of daily intersections between racism and heterosexism is central to SUNSHINE BOUTIQUE, which explores some beautiful ways that Black women challenge pervasive societal oppression and morph it into daily creative expressions of hope.
Past work: VIA NEW YORK, 1995/USA/10 minutes/video
Drawing from memory and narrative, VIA NEW YORK explores the politicization of African students in New York and the participation of South African lesbians and gays in the anti-apartheid movement. VIA NEW YORK is a snapshot of African lesbian and gay lives through the lens of migration and the pursuit of formal education. The video illustrates how both can function as catalysts for self-transformation and social change. |
Short Bio
Kagendo Murungi is a Kenyan feminist who works in independent partnership with artists and activists around the world to develop and produce independent film projects, festivals and other sites for creative cultural agency. She helped institute the position of Africa program officer at the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).
A former international grants panel member of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Ms. Murungi continues to work in community with PanAfrican immigrants on grassroots initiatives and in support of sexual and political dissidents. Kagendo received her BA in Women’s Studies from Rutgers University and her MA in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research.
She was greatly honored to have her essay "Small Axe at the Crossroads: A Reflection on African Sexualities and Human Rights," published in Sing, Whisper, Shout, Pray!: Feminist Visions for a Just World, ed. M. Jacqui Alexander, Lisa Albrecht, Sharon Day, and Mab Segrest (EdgeWork Books, 2003), 489-501.
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Honors
Phi Beta Kappa Society, Golden Key International Honors Society |
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Artist Location
New York, NY
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Art forms
Film/Video, Literary, Multidisciplinary, Visual/Graphic, Other
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Type of artist
Director, Editor, Writer, Other
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General Themes
Activism/Social Justice, International/Global, Sexuality, Race/Ethnicity/Cultural Identity, Feminism/Gender Issues |
Keywords
Africa, African health, Spirituality,
Anti-violence, LGBT human rights |
| Last updated on October 10th, 2005 |
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