Ladi Kwali Teaching in Chicago: A Visual Lecture by ebere agwuncha

Please join us on Monday, December 1st, from 1-2:15pm for Ladi Kwali Teaching in Chicago, an online visual lecture by ebere agwuncha. 

Researching Ladi Kwali’s ceramic demonstration tour around the United States in 1972, agwuncha will specifically examine Kwali’s Chicago visit to the Contemporary African Arts Festival at the Field Museum. While these demonstrations outwardly celebrated Kwali’s artistry and cultural significance, they also raised critical questions around authorship, representation, and cultural translation. Through archival material and as an Igbo-American craftsperson and educator, agwuncha reflects on Kwali’s pivotal role in bridging traditional Nigerian pottery techniques to contemporary ceramic practices today. 

This event is presented as part of the gallery exhibition Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art on view through December 6, 2025. 

Image: Ladi Kwali demonstrating outside the Field Museum, Chicago, 1972. Courtesy the Field Museum

About ebere agwuncha

ebere agwuncha is an Igbo-American craftsperson and educator born and based in Chicago. Their independent scholarship researches the histories of various Igbo (an ethnic group of Nigeria) sites, objects, architectures, paying homage to the traditional ‘collective crafting practice’ of Nigerian women. Her craftwork appears as softly domestic through intimate installations that immerse the viewer with functional objects, wall sculptures, video projection, and interactive ritualized portals to their ancestors. They are known for creating precise sculptures with art techniques including ceramics, woodworking, reed basket weaving, cane wrapping, jute fish netting, horsehair rerooting, and willow weaving. In 2025, ebere started the program ‘woven together’, a series of free basket weaving workshops, celebrating the collective memory of hands and craft practices that Igbo-Nigerian women have and continue to steward.