West Africa Cooks Supports Nubian Nights Out
Here is a message from the owners of Nubian Nights Out who put on a photographic art exhibition in July 2015.
Still on a high, how brilliantly our first exhibition went. We can't thank you all enough for the love, support and encouragement. We wanted to say a few words about why we felt the need to put on an exhibition such as this. We feel we needed to say a little bit more than just thank you and hope you enjoyed the all the images and the free food and the drink, now bye.... Lol.
The short answer to why we have put this exhibition together is because right now it is needed and it is necessary. That black woman is the most unprotected, neglected, disrespected person on the planet. Malcolm told us this in the 60's and this is still the case today. The white dominated mainstream media perpetuates the age of stereotypes of sex and fetishism, comparing us to animals and deeming us unattractive and unfeminine. The destructive messages and dehuminisation of black bodies does so much to the psych of young girls who then carry these feelings of self-hatred into adulthood.
Despite how cruelly we are treated, we are an art form in itself. An expression of pain, struggle, strength and beauty. We are the the most culturally innovative beings on the planet in terms of style, creativity, dignity, intellect and language. Our unique physical features and characteristics have been imitated and duplicated by non-black females all over the world. So if we are so unattractive why are other groups trying to emulate us? And I use the word trying because they will never be us, black women.
Nubian Nights Out created this platform because we were tired. Tired of not being positively reflected in the media and in magazines. But how long are we going to sit around and simply just moan that we are always being misrepresented? We took action to create our own content, control our own images to redefine who we are by our own definition. We want to see all black women being unapologetically in love with themselves. We also wanted to reclaim stolen black beauty. Every bit of it, the lips, the thighs, the bums...We’re sure we aren’t the only ones sick of hearing headlines thanking people like J Lo, Iggy & Kim for teaching people to embrace having a big bum. Or giving Kylie credit for having big lips and making them fashionable, all while demonising us for these features that exist naturally on us. We're sick of sitting back while our features and culture, like everything else we have owned, is stripped away from us whilst being told that we are not beautiful. The beauty of being black is how diverse we are, from the palest-pink to the bluest-black.
- We do have some work to do within ourselves though. We need to start changing our behaviour. Firstly, by rejecting the Eurocentric beauty standards that have been forced upon us. We do this by embracing our own. The more we chase European beauty standards the further we move away from our African identity.
- We need to stop seeking approval and validation. We validate ourselves! We shouldn’t be allowing the media to dictate to us, the original woman, what is deemed as beautiful. But more importantly, we need to change how we treat each other.
- We are all still suffering from Willie Lynch Syndrome and we understanding that undoing 500 years of conditioning is a mammoth task but we need to start making small steps. We can start by just noticing each other, complimenting and empowering each other. We are all a reflection of each other.
Black women are the first teachers of the next generation of black children. If we do not love and see the beauty in ourselves and appreciate the gift of melanin that we have been given, how are we supposed to teach our children to do the same?
We hope these words and our exhibition has given you some food for thought. We want this platform we have created to be used to uplift and support our sisters no matter where they are at in their journeys. We also want to encourage and inspire you all to take action in some way that is going to help bring about real change. Nubian Nights Out literally popped up from no where and came and shut it down (we're giving ourselves our props lol). But if we can do it anyone can.
Black women are so powerful, so incredible and when we all accept ourselves as we are, and start being comfortable in our own skin, that’s when we will really start to create some black girl magic!
WE ARE BOLD. WE ARE UNAPOLOGETIC. AND WE HELP OURSELVES. WE ARE NUBIAN NIGHTS OUT.
The team will now be getting back to work planning our future events. Keep an eye out for what we are up to via the links below and don't forget to join our meetup page.
We are also working on our website and shop and we will let everyone know as soon as this goes live!
Please do get in touch with us with any questions in the meantime
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