VOODOO CHILD

Hall. Entry will be refused to those who are not registered. Please note that access will not be permitted 15 minutes after the start of the event.

This event will be held in English.

Organized by the Columbia Global Paris Center and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination.

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This is a story of a Black African child, blessed with the gift of dreaming — dreaming like everyone else in this beautiful world, yet unlike any other. An animistic and avant-garde installation/performance, spectators are invited and challenged to be present.

One day, a chorus of dreams approached, their ethereal fingers knocking softly. But silence was the only response. The dreams continued their persistent rhythm—knocking, waiting, hoping.

Hours melted into days,

Days dissolved into weeks,

Weeks stretched into months,

Months aged into years.

And he—the dreamer—remained unmoved, unresponsive, locked in a fortress of inaction.

when life's candle flickered its last trembling light, the dreams appeared — spectral and accusatory. They hovered above his dying form, their voices whispered;

"We came to you

hoping you would bring us to life

We traveled through time's corridors,

Carried on wings of potential and hope.

But look now—you fade, we fade with you

Unrealized. Unborn.

What is it that kills hope and dreams of the African child?

Performer

Haman Mpadire is a performance artist, dancer, and researcher born in Eastern Uganda, originally from the Busoga tribe. He graduated with a Masters degree of Arts, Literature and Languages in Dance from CCN - Paul Valéry University. He received the Pina Bausch Fellowship in 2023, following his participation in the Fondation d'entreprise Hermès “Artists in the Community” bursary scheme and the Institut français “Visas pour la création” program. His artistic practices probe experimental research around colonial systems and post-colonial theories. In his current projects, Haman is exploring animistic notions of the ancient Busoga kingdom and beyond along with the complex relationships between identity and visibility for black African bodies.

Mpadire is a 2024 – 2025 resident of the Reid Hall Displaced Artists Initiative, a program co-sponsored by the Columbia Global Paris Center and Institute for Ideas and Imagination, designed to support artists who have had to leave their countries of origin due to extreme circumstances (war, natural disaster, political oppression).

Venue

This event will take place in Reid Hall’s Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc, built in 1912 and extensively renovated in 2023 thanks to the generous support of Judith Ginsberg and Paul LeClerc.

Reid Hall, the Columbia Global Paris Center, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination are not responsible for the views and opinions expressed by their speakers and guests.