FIAF To Present Kaneza Schaal's KLII

The French Institute Alliance Française celebrates the final week of its 2021 Crossing The Line Festival with Kaneza Schaal's KLII, a work-in-progress performance at FIAF's Florence Gould Hall (55 East 59th Street) in New York City.

KLII takes place on Thursday, November 4 at 7:30pm, Friday, November 5 at 7:30pm and Saturday, November 6 at 5pm & 7:30pm.

Kaneza Schaal exorcises the ghost of King Leopold II through a mytho-biographical performance. Building off Mark Twain's King Leopold's Soliloquy, a fictional monologue written after Twain's visit to Congo Free State and published in 1905, and Patrice Lumumba's 1960 independence speech in Congo, KLII considers the residue of colonialism in our everyday lives.

The performance draws on archival footage from Belgian filmmaker André Cauvin's documentary Bwana Kitoko, and mixes colonial aesthetics with traditional East African design to create a heightened visual persona. The open rehearsal offers audiences a unique chance to watch an interdisciplinary project take creative shape.

The Crossing The Line Festival celebrates Africa's cultural renaissance with works by interdisciplinary artists coming out of the continent and diaspora. For its 14th edition, curators Courtney Geraghty and Claude Grunitzky have brought together a lineup of compelling artists to perform at venues throughout NYC-intriguing experiences that will spark new conversations about the global Black experience.

For more info on the festival visit https://fiaf.org/2021-crossing-the-line-festival.