Scholar and collector Oscar Mokeme, the founder of the Museum of African Culture in Portland, discusses favorite works in the exhibition Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa and performs a masquerade.

Mokeme is the founder and executive director for the Museum of African Culture in Portland, Maine. Born in Nigeria to Igbo parents, he apprenticed traditional Igbo healing medicine, studied business administration at the Oxford School of Business in Oxford, England, earned an undergraduate degree in Humanities at Southern New Hampshire University, and earned a Master’s degree in Psychology at Union Institute. He is the recipient of several awards and grants, from the Maine Arts Commission, Maine Humanities Council, Maine Community Foundation, and the United Way.

In addition to preserving, interpreting, and curating all the Museum’s exhibitions, Mokeme practices traditional pluralistic trans-cultural Igbo complementary therapies and healing rituals. He hosts workshops, performances, and lectures on African arts and culture for educational institutions and organizations.

This presentation is hosted by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and offered as a free community event by the Camden Conference and World Affairs Council of Maine in anticipation of the 29th Annual Camden Conference: The New Africa, February 19-21, 2016.