Vocal Roots

A few moments from opening night ✨

If you haven’t made it through yet, Thursday is your last chance to experience this gorgeous, joyful exhibition celebrating Black creativity, storytelling, and community.

We’ll be open from 6pm–7:30pm for the final evening. Come through, bring a friend, and spend some time with the works before the exhibition closes. 🖤 ✨🎨

📸 photos by

Happy Africa Day 🌍✨🥳

It feels especially timely that this month Auckland Libraries released their African Voices – Stories of the Lands collection.

It was an incredible experience to delve into the work of research, archiving, and oral histories throughout this process. Oral histories play an important role across many African cultures and customs, and to see our communities reflected and preserved in this way felt deeply special.

Vocal Roots had the role of culturally advising on the project, helping ensure the stories were approached with care, authenticity, and respect for the communities involved.

Thank you to Lema, Mahad, Love, Boubacar, and Tina for trusting us throughout this journey, and thank you to Synthia Bahati / for capturing them so beautifully.

Huge thanks and for all their hard work interviewing and transcribing and to the Auckland Libraries Research Team for their initiative, for sharing this idea with us, and for including us in the journey from the beginning.

Celebrating your heritage, culture, and days like this can look however you want it to, and storytelling is undeniably a part of that.

Have a listen to the collection by searching African Voices – Stories of the Lands on Kura Collections or via the link in our bio.

Change of locations for our community panel on Sunday!

We’ll be hosting the panel discussion in the Akozone, level 1 of Auckland Central City Library from 2pm-4pm.

Conversations will include panelists from arts, community, creative and academic backgrounds led by our emerging curators. Come listen in, join in and reflect on the questions and answers over afternoon tea. Registration link is in our bio ✨

Meet panelist Andrea Edwards 🌍✨

Andrea Edwards is Head of Standards at Eco Choice Aotearoa and a passionate advocate for environmental justice, community empowerment, and sustainable futures. She earned her PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Auckland in 2022, with research exploring the environmental and social impacts of the Huntly Power Station. Through extensive archival work, Andrea uncovered historical documents, stories, and records that illuminate the intersection of energy development and environmental injustice in Aotearoa.

That same year, Andrea joined the Working to End Racial Oppression (WERO) programme, leading research into the drivers and effects of environmental injustice experienced by ethnic communities in Tāmaki Makaurau. She has since completed the project and is in the process of publishing her findings.

Beyond her environmental work, Andrea is a skilled facilitator who contracts with the Peace Foundation, teaching conflict resolution and peer mediation to secondary school students across Auckland. This work has led her to facilitate an annual two-day workshop for Tautai Pacific Arts Trust over the past five years, focused on cultural safety and conflict resolution within the arts space.

At the heart of all Andrea’s work is a belief that justice, safety, and belonging are not abstract ideals — they are the conditions under which communities truly thrive. It is from this foundation that she brings her voice to the Black Joy workshop: a space that refuses to let struggle be the only story. Because when we dismantle the systems that harm, protect the environments we live in, and create the safety to be fully ourselves, joy is not just possible — it becomes an act of resistance.

Meet the creatives behind The Black Community Project 🤝🏿✨📸

Beth Teklezgi
Born in Ethiopia, Beth is a storyteller and writer whose work explores the experiences, identities, and realities of Black communities through both written and visual storytelling. Her practice is grounded in themes of community, migration, belonging, visibility, and social justice, drawing from lived experience and the stories that exist within everyday moments.

Naledi Mthembu
Naledi Mthembu is a South African filmmaker and visual collaborator whose work explores storytelling as a tool for empathy, connection, and cultural reflection.

Through a humanistic lens, she is interested in documenting diverse lives, perspectives, and experiences, using film and visual media to foster shared understanding across cultures and communities.

Renati Waka
A Māori photographer of Te Arawa, Tainui, and Te Aupōuri descent, raised in Whakatāne, Whanganui, and Rotorua, and based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa New Zealand. I work across fine art and documentary photography.

Renati’s practice examines photography’s role in the colonial construction of Indigenous identity in Aotearoa. Historically used to classify and objectify, the medium continues to shape how Indigenous bodies and histories are represented. He uses photography to intervene in this legacy by producing images grounded in Māori perspectives, asserting authorship and self-determination.

Including Māori perspectives in this work was important as a way of acknowledging Tangata Whenua and recognising the significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi within conversations around identity, community, and visibility in Aotearoa.

Meet panelist 🏠✨

Evelyn (Eve) Park is a Zambian-born community leader, entrepreneur, mentor, and property professional based in Auckland, New Zealand. With more than 30 years of experience spanning hospitality, beauty, real estate, leadership, and community advocacy, Eve is passionate about creating spaces where people feel seen, empowered, and connected.

She served as President of the African Communities Forum Inc. from 2020–2025, helping lead and advocate for African communities across Aotearoa during and beyond the COVID-19 period. Her work has focused strongly on cultural identity, leadership development, migrant empowerment, and building bridges between African communities and wider New Zealand society.

Eve is also the founder of MyReliablePro and is developing initiatives that connect leadership, storytelling, business, and emerging opportunities between Africa and New Zealand. She brings to this panel a deeply personal perspective shaped by migration, resilience, entrepreneurship, womanhood, faith, and community leadership. She holds a strong belief in the power of authentic conversations and collective healing, and she is excited to be on the panel exploring why it is important for Black voices in Aotearoa to speak up unapologetically and take up space.

Meet panelist 🎶✨

Tusekah is a South African born singer/songwriter who releases music with the sounds of RnB/NeoSoul/Pop. She has performed all over New Zealand and parts of Australia including during her first headline tour of New Zealand in January 2024 and Australia/New Zealand in October 2025.

Tusekah has opened for local musicians such as Deva Mahal and Jess B. She has also been tour support for grammy award winners PJ Morton and Olivia Dean. Tusekah’s music has received support from many local publications such as Sniffers and Rolling Stone Australia but also internationally on Slikour on Life in South Africa and iMullar in Ghana.

Internationally, Tusekah’s music has been played on BBC Radio 1 in the UK along with Triple J and CADA in Australia. Locally, Tusekah’s music has been played on various student and community radio stations alongside mainstream stations such as The Edge and ZM.

Meet panelist Mary Adeosun 🖌️✨

Based in Tāmaki Makaurau, is a multidisciplinary creative of Yoruba and Igbo descent whose practice explores the intersections of Blackness, diaspora, q***r identity, and ancestral memory. Centering her work on braiding, hair sculpture, and storytelling, she crafts sculptural pieces, zines, and wearables that balance whimsy with poignant dialogues on anti-Blackness and belonging.

Her most recent projects include ADE | Crown and Braid & Bottlecaps, a collaboration with artist Tristan reimagining African artifacts through discarded materials. Mary recently brought textured hair artistry to the NZFW25 runway with Adrion Atelier and continues to engage the community through local markets, selling sapphic zines and handcrafted accessories.

Currently navigating a self-described creative “flop era” Mary works within q***r and Indigenous art organisations. This intentional season of slowing down allows her to support fellow creatives and draw inspiration from collective energy, fostering a more mindful approach to her evolving artistic journey.