DIASPORN CURATOR COMES HOME TO KENYA

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted january 10, 2023) Mueni Loko-Rudd is a Kenyan-American curator whose home is in Austin, Texas, but who periodically comes to see her relations living in Kibera, Eastleigh, and Mwingi in Ukambani. We met at Village Market where I saw this striking young woman with beautifully coiffed Afro hair. I couldn’t resist. I had to tap her on the arm and apologize before asking if hers was her natural hair? We were in an art gallery, so the situation looked nonthreatening and gentile. She looked amused and said “Yes,” in an accent I couldn’t quite identify. “This is all my hair.” I couldn’t resist asking my follow-up question. “Are you Kenyan?” This is when the quip turned into a conversation. “Yes and no” is essentially what she said. That’s because she lives in Texas near her mom, but her dad, an American, lives and works here in Kenya. And whose work does she curate? No Kenyans as yet, but she’s open to that possibility. Meanwhile, she has two exhibitions closing this week at Martha’s Contemporary Gallery in Austin, featuring four African American artists. “Three in the front gallery, and one in the back,” she says. Of the three, two are painters and one is a photographer. “I meet photographers through my modeling,” she says casually, posing with a natural and lean look that’s distinctive and attractive. I don’t have to ask what she models since this 29-year-old has a natural grace that one imagines can model anything. It’s true, as she tells me she models everything from hair and hands to shoes and elegant gowns. But she says she doesn’t have much time for modelling. She’s far more interested in curating shows that support black artists like Emily Manwaring, the Haitian American artist whose work she’s exhibiting in the back gallery at Martha’s Contemporary.

Having attending an Historically Black University in Austin, Mueni actually majored in Sociology, and then got a Masters in Social work. But she’d been introduced to the arts as a child by her mother, who Mueni says used to take her to all the galleries and museums in Austin. It was in graduate school that she took a course in Grants writing, which she has utilized ever since to raise funds to put on the shows that can benefit both the artists and the wider community as well. For instance, she is currently working on a public art project to create a large mural that’s being funded by the city of Austin. She has even gotten a grant to run two multimedia exhibitions, including both black musicians and visual artists. “That way we were able to pay the artists, and the funds we raised from ticket sales, we were able to donate to group [NGO] called the ‘Black Mamas’ who train local midwives and work in mainly black and brown communities in reproductive health,” she says. Mueni’s initial experience with fund raising began during her second year at university where her school is part of the United Negro College Fund (UNCL). Every year the fund hosts a pageant and the student who raises the most money for the fund wins the title of UNCL Queen. By doing everything from emailing corporates to going door-to-door, Mueni networked with all kinds and won the crown. “I realized how much I enjoyed networking,” she says. “But the prize itself included free room and board for the whole of my junior year,” she adds. And in order to make her pageant fun, she brought a Jazz ensemble to perform as well as a dance troupe that danced to the poetry of Gil Scott Heron (who wrote ‘The Revolution will not be televised’). Mueni was just 18 when she was crowned UNCL queen. She was still based mainly in Austin, a city that considers itself the ‘music capital of the world’. But since then, she has worked with artists from all across the country. ”I wrote a grant in support of a group called CARE, Companions and Animals for Reform and Equity, that’s based in Baltimore and assists black and brown people with disabilities, and assisted by pets. Mueni has even had the opportunity to conduct workshops for young students in Pakistan, hired by her sociology professor. “I was part of a group that ran workshops on skills in research and best practice,” she recalls. “So while I majored in sociology, I’m able to apply those skills in my work for Black artists,” Mueni says. Hopefully, Kenyans will be among them.