“Offerings to the island body and water memory” is a ritual-performance in which Mauritian-Canadian poet and performer Kama La Mackerel (they/them) invokes water memories: this fluidity that lives in us, that is present around us, that transforms and reshapes itself but never disappears.

Water, in all its forms, in all of its courses, in all of its bodies, carries history: ecological, geological, mineral, ancestral tellings. Through ritual, performance, movement, multilingual poetry and voice, Kama La Mackerel opens up a space where their birth-island, Mauritius, is in conversation with Gaspésie territories, where the Indian Ocean flows into the Saint Lawrence. Through this offering, the artist invites us to rethink our relationship to spirituality, ecology, history and our own bodies.

The performance will be followed by a reception. Free and open to the public.

You can learn more about Kama La Mackerel’s work at their website, https://lamackerel.net/

Hosted by the Ethiopia, East Africa, and Indian Ocean Research Network, an interdisciplinary, campus wide, collaborative project housed within the Program of African American and African Diaspora Studies

Performance will be held in the Dance Theater, located in the Coleman Building Room 306.

And UNCG students are invited to join this complementary event the following day:

A Reading and Dialogue with Poet, Performer, Translator Kama La Mackerel

Thursday, April 11 | 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | MHRA 3501

Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to join poet, performer, and translator Kama La Mackerel as they read from their published poetry collection, Zom Fam, and engage in dialogue with attendees about their arts practice. Lunch will be provided. Interested participants should reserve a space ahead of time by sending an email to Dr. Neelofer Qadir [email protected]