About A Declaration of Independence
Barby Asante’s A Declaration of Independence is an ongoing performance/forum bringing together Black and of colour womxn to reflect on how the political affects the personal and how the social, cultural implications of historic declarations, policies and legislations Impact on their everyday lives.
The starting point of A Declaration of Independence is Ama Ata Aidoo’s poem As Always a Painful Declaration of Independence, from her 1992 collection An Angry Letter in January, that declares independence not only from a colonial ruler but also self-determined gendered and racial independence.
Asante says that the ongoing A Declaration of Independence project brings together groups of womxn of colour to “to consider our interdependencies and what the possibilities are for collective actions for the future and to rethink our understanding of monumental moments in world history such as declarations of independence.” Through dialogue and writing, performative declarations are created that reveal stories, dreams, forgotten histories to articulate and imagine strategies and possibilities in a collective ritual of declaration.
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