A voice of freedom

A three-week expressive-arts process with a village recently freed from debt-bonded slavery invited intergenerational community painting.

The creative process

The project grew from an auction of Benjamin’s live painting at the 2010 Freedom Rocks after-party. Shared imagery in the village’s artworks prompted early reflection on community authorship and culturally situated meaning. The paintings were conceived as a way to communicate the villagers’ voice of freedom beyond Bahari.

People & collaboration

Bahari community members, Benjamin Swatez and Free the Slaves.

A continuing conversation

This project belongs to a wider practice of community-authored expression. Its relationship to Artegenesis is explored as part of Benjamin’s developing research, without assuming identical effects across communities.

Source record: Updated Master CV; Free the Slaves, April 8, 2011.