POSTPONED – Saki Mafundikwa Lecture: ZIVA: 20 years of design education against all odds

UPDATE MARCH 12 – This event is POSTPONED.

Saki Mafundikwa, founder and director of the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA), will give a free public lecture, ZIVA: 20 years of design education against all odds, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, in Highsmith Student Union, Alumni Hall.

A graphic designer with an MFA from Yale University who had worked in publishing in New York, Mafundikwa is the author of the book Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Africa. He returned to his native Zimbabwe in 1998 to open ZIVA, based in Harare. With “Vigital” meaning the visual arts taught using digital tools, ZIVA offers two-year diplomas in graphic design, new media and animation.

ZIVA, says its website, is dedicated to remedying Zimbabwe’s “acute brain drain … creating a pool of skilled people who fill up the void left by those who choose to leave. It is our strong belief that education and sustainable training will save our country even as it continues its free-fall economically.”

Mafundikwa also will lead these two events on Thursday, March 19:

• Master Class with Saki Mafundikwa – 10 a.m., UNC Asheville Highsmith Student Union, Mountain Suites.
• Film Screening: Shungu: The Resilience of a People – Mafundikwa’s 2009 documentary film, selected by many film festivals and winner of awards in Kenya and Zanzibar, is a narrative of the strategies ordinary people use to survive in Zimbabwe despite political turmoil, economic meltdown and health care collapse – 7:30 p.m., REVOLVE at Ramp South Studio, 821 Riverside Dr., Asheville.

For more information, please contact UNC Asheville Lecturer in English Leslee Johnson, ljohnso5@unca.edu or 828.251.6581.

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