AKUNYILI CROSBY:  

My name is Njideka Akunyili Crosby. What you’re looking at is a recreation of what happens in a Nigerian traditional wedding.  

SFX: traditional Ibo wedding music fades in under next paragraph and rhythmically weaves in between thoughts 

CROSBY:  

My husband is a Caucasian American from Texas. So what you’re seeing in this piece is the girl, based on me, kneeling in front of her soon-to-be husband … and you offer him the palm wine. And if he accepts it, you’re married.  

SFX: musical break 

CROSBY:  

I’m wearing this orange and blue striped dress. But on top of it, I have a wrapper tied around me that has photographs from our engagement photo. And these are called portrait fabrics. And in Nigeria, we have them done for weddings, burials, campaigns. I’m wearing a portrait fabric, because I didn’t have one for my wedding. And since this is a painting and I can invent anything I want, I decided to imagine I did have a portrait fabric and I went ahead and invented this one. 

In my work, there’s often this point of contact between disparate elements. There are areas that are very noisy next to areas that are very quiet. But also thematically, it’s this meeting of two separate cultures. And I think the handoff of the wine, just that moment where it’s my hand in his hand and we’re coming together, just really encapsulates that.