In the spirit of the exhibition title-SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power, and Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa-Bard Graduate Center (BGC) has invited novelist Maaza Mengiste to create her own sightline-way of seeing the exhibited artworks through time, form, and space. She will be joined in conversation with Bard College Dean of Graduate Studies, Christian Crouch.
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Maaza Mengiste is the author of The Shadow King, shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize and named a Best Book of 2019 by the New York Times, NPR, Time, Elle, and other publications. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, her debut, was selected by the Guardian as one of the ten best contemporary African books. Maaza is a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, DAAD Artists in Berlin program, the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and the Fulbright Scholar program, among others.
Christian Crouch is the Bard College Dean of Graduate Studies; Associate Professor of History and American and Indigenous Studies. She specializes in early modern Atlantic world history, Native American and Indigenous Studies, Atlantic slavery, empire, and material culture. BA, Princeton University; MA, MPhil, PhD, New York University.