American Gurl

Co-curated by Zehra Zehra and Kilo Kish

American Gurl is an ongoing curatorial project featuring work that explores all shades of American dreaming. This installment of the project will take shape as a film exhibition at Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture that will present eight films by intergenerational artists with curiosity around the perspectives and nuances within the Black feminine experience and our relationships with beauty, success, freedom, and power in America. American Gurl is presented in collaboration with Womxn in Windows, a platform whose mission is to share the perspectives of women of color through video, art, film, and performance.

Artists and Films

• Ayanna Dozier - Forever Your Girl, 2022, 8 minutes
• Ja’Tovia Gary - Quiet As It’s Kept, 2023, 26 minutes
• Kilo Kish - Death Fantasy, 2022, 2:10 minutes
• Savanah Leaf - run, 2023, 9:06 minutes
• LaJuné McMillian in collaboration with Marguerite Hemmings - Antidote, 2022, 21:38 minutes
• Lorna Simpson - The Institute, 2007, 5:14 minutes
• Martine Syms - Kita Meditating, 2021, 4:19 minutes
• Carrie Mae Weems - Afro-Chic, 2009 - 2010, 5 minutes

Zehra Ahmed (Zehra Zehra) is the founder of Womxn in Windows (WxW), a curator, and cultural producer with over a decade's experience in the art and design world. She founded WxW in 2019 to be an ever-evolving platform that presents video-based art and film when she saw a need for more women (cis, trans, and non-binary inclusive) of diverse backgrounds to have opportunities to both show their work in public spaces and engage with one another.

Kish Robinson (Kilo Kish) is an interdisciplinary artist and performer working in music, film, installation, performance, and the written word. Kish works in a project-based format, diving into various genres and mediums to dissect her unsettled view of millennial life. Her work is characterized by existentialism, absurdity, and humor, explored through popular media formats like songs and music videos.