Help Imara afford Ghana Cultural Immersion!
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Akwaaba Everyone! My name is Imara-rose, currently a junior at Bennington college, and I have a kaleidoscopic dream that I need your help to achieve. This dream intertwines public action, the African diaspora, studying globalization from a framework of equity & diversity, and learning from West African practitioners in sustainability.
A year ago, I applied to the SIT programs in Senegal and Ghana focusing on Afro-Diaspora, Afrofuturism, Cultural legacies, and music as a socio-cultural-political tool of resilience and resistance. As a BIPOC student, this journey was inspired by the lack of Black diasporic mentorship in my education and the necessity of seeing mosaic intercultural representation in social reform. The process of acceptance was not easy, there were obstacles both financially and personally which made it seem like this life-changing opportunity would not be possible.
Although the global pandemic situation is constantly shifting, the climate in Accra has remained stable enough for the program to continue with the same depth and richness. The foundation of this inquiry is based on Sankofa, a Ghanaian concept that encourages a strong engagement with the past in order to ensure informed and sustained progress into the future. The traditional discourse of the African continent centers on poverty and civil unrest, I desire to engage and gain new perspectives on West African cosmopolitanism, innovation, intersectionality, and Afro-chic cultural aesthetic to promote a more informed understanding of place and belonging. These are values and courses that I would not have access to within my college curriculum and a central component of the senior collaborative, immersive, installation work that I aim to share upon returning from the spring abroad.
Ghana, a nexus of hiplife and global economic, political, and cultural force, also symbolizes a personal sojourn for discovering my connection to the Transatlantic Slave Trade: with firm ties to ancestry on the coasts of Ghana. Memory intertwines all of our familial bonds and I would like to reclaim selfhood in an environment of collective catharsis - absorbing the knowledge of ancestral homeland and building new definitions of kinship.
How can you help?
- Spread the word: We all have interconnected networks of support - please share this fundraiser out to those who are interested in supporting BIPOC-informed education and student initiatives!
- Any donation helps: This year was competitive for scholarships, after applying for numerous grants, I was unable to gather the funds through this avenue. Optimism is my lifeblood - your financial contribution will go towards tuition, visa costs, textbooks, medical supplies (typhoid vaccination, malaria medicine, extra medicine for host family), meals, transportation, and housing during the spring term. I am so close to being able to afford this study, any little bit helps to bring the Ghana immersion to fruition! The goal for fundraising is by January 2022 when the program orientation begins.
- Get involved with West African programs: The more interest and passion-infused into this area of study,, the more funding is made available to support folks who are committed to highlighting underrepresented voices!
I am so grateful to each and every person who is taking the time to read about this mission - this experience is extremely close to my heart and history, it means the world to know that people care about making it a reality.
Meda wo ase (Thank You in Twi), when I return, I cannot wait to cook you all Fufu, Jollof, and Banku in hearty, flavourful appreciation.
Organizer
Imara Rose
Organizer
Bennington, VT