Create and Connect: Let's Talk about Love with Afiwa Afandalo '24

The world at the moment seems to be running non-stop. Every second, we either need to get some work done or be somewhere for a meeting or something else. Through all the running around, we often don’t acknowledge the actions of people who, indirectly, have helped us or are helping us thrive in our path. This workshop’s objective is to take a minute, step back, and honor these individuals. It is also, to reflect on the importance of community and how love manifests through actions.

In this workshop, attendees will first create artwork that celebrates their relationship with people in their life; it could be friends, family, themselves, etc.—the options are endless. Second, they will pair with another attendee and share the meaning of the work they have created. Lastly, the pair will swap their artwork and everyone leaves with another attendee’s artwork.

Afiwa Afandalo '24, a student artist from the Bronx and Togo, is currently a 3rd year undergraduate with double majors in Africana Studies and Women, Gender, & Sexualities Studies with a Studio Art and English double minors at Lehigh University. Interested in what it means to be a human being who happens to be Black and a woman, most of her works focus on creating spaces of affirmation, comfort, joy, and healing for Black girls and Black women. Her work has been shown in the Lehigh University Art Galleries Thinking Through Drawing: Digital Community Exhibition Fall 2021, Lehigh Art, Architecture, and Design Student Exhibition Spring 2022, the Lehigh Institute on Critical Race and Ethnics Studies Art as Activism Spring 2022, and Amaranth, the Lehigh University Literary Journal Spring 2022 Edition.

LUAG Connect & Create workshops offer a brief exploration and creative conversation around a work of art from the LUAG collection, followed by a hands-on activity and/or creative response led by a local teaching artist or student educator.