{"id":69904,"date":"2013-11-07T13:53:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T18:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=69904"},"modified":"2021-02-09T17:09:18","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T22:09:18","slug":"third-annual-inside-africa-fashion-show-celebrates-diversity-within-the-continent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2013\/11\/07\/third-annual-inside-africa-fashion-show-celebrates-diversity-within-the-continent\/","title":{"rendered":"Third annual Inside Africa Fashion Show celebrates diversity within the continent"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fatima<\/a>

Fatima Sacko \u201817 of New York City models an outfit during the Inside Africa Fashion Show held Nov. 8, 2013. (Sarah Crosby\/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Celebrating the depth and variety of African culture and art, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College presents the third annual Inside Africa Fashion Show at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.<\/p>\n

The Africana Club, a student group, sponsors the event. It is free and open to the public, but tickets are required, available at bit.ly\/insideafrica<\/a>. For more information, please contact nkanu@bates.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While previous Inside Africa shows included song and modern-style dance, this year’s goes deeper in those directions and will include traditional dances as well as spoken-word poetry, says event founder Nicole Kanu, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ junior from Little Rock, Ark.<\/p>\n

Too many people see Africa as a single country, she says. “A lot of our participants wanted to see other art forms in the show as a way to emphasize the idea of diversity within Africa.” In addition, this year’s show focuses on fashion as it relates to social justice issues.<\/p>\n

And the show is more timely than ever, given the growing African influence in Western fashion — witness J.C. Penney’s engaging of Nigerian designer Duro Olowu as the department store chain’s first seasonal designer in 2012.<\/p>\n

This year’s Inside Africa will present 15 to 25 student models showcasing traditional and modern garb from a multitude of nations and walks of life. They will model to music from the country or region they are representing.<\/p>\n

In total, about 10 students involved in the show are from Africa or of African descent while about 15 others are of Asian, Latin\/Spanish and other European descent. Kanu, whose parents are Nigerian, started Inside Africa her first year at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and looks forward to passing responsibility for the event along to underclassmen so they can make it their own.<\/p>\n

“The first-years and sophomores are heavily invested in it and want to tell their own stories,” she says. As a rhetoric major, Kanu sees her role as being a person who renders the cultural themes of the event into artistic terms that both engage and inform.<\/p>\n

Kanu hopes local residents will make a point of attending Inside Africa. “We welcome community members, especially considering the presence of the Somali community in Lewiston,” she says. Somali culture and fashion will have a place in the show.<\/p>\n

By using fashion to shift the conversation toward cultural celebration, the Africana Club hopes to entice social scientists and fashionistas alike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrating the depth and variety of African culture, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ presents the third annual Inside Africa Fashion Show on Nov. 8<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":69905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"bates_author_byline_override":"","_estimated-read-time":"","_post-template":"","_header-color":"","_photo-credit":"","_header-effect":"","override_related_with_tag":"","_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[11010,133,11009],"tags":[10771,652,9540,11014,6889,9087],"class_list":["post-69904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-creativity","category-the-college","tag-africa","tag-africana-club","tag-fashion","tag-international","tag-performing-and-visual-arts","tag-visual-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69904"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82670,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69904\/revisions\/82670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}