Who We Are

Our goal is to tell our stories, from our perspectives, in our way. We do it for us and for the generations to come. We strive to build networks within the community and facilitate exchange and dialogue, reclaiming the past while focusing on the future.

The Southnord team, much like the community of artists and curators of the African diasporan in the Nordics, is a heterogenous group. We value this diversity and wealth of different backgrounds and experiences. We cherish the multiplicity of voices and perspectives, and are constantly working for an inclusive environment.

Team

  • Our Founder and Director, Marcia is a Zimbabwean-born and bred curator, artist and exhibition designer based in Stockholm. As a spatial storyteller, she is passionate about making space for the multitude of narratives that often go untold. In her own artistic practice, her interests lie in our common cultural heritage, using textile techniques as a vehicle to navigate her investigations. Marcia has also run award-winning Fiberspace, an arena focused on textile art, craft and design.

    Photo credit: Ylva Sundgren

  • Our Communicator and Project Coordinator, Rosel Jackson Stern, is a writer and artist based in Stockholm. Their artistic practice puts spirits onto canvas using black archival images from Sweden and beyond, exhibiting at leading arts institutions. 

    They have been working as a journalist since 2019, publishing stories, features and editorial content with the Guardian, gal-dem and the Gay Times. Rosel is passionate about using creativity to imagine new worlds through ancestral lineage.

  • Our Artfest Communicator and Project Coordinator, Georgètte (GiGi to friends) is a Ghanian-born multi-talented creative based in Stockholm. She is also the founder of Rouge Palette, an upscale PR firm specialising in African fashion. Georgètte brings a wealth of expertise in marketing communications, public relations, and visual design. As a brand strategist, she thrives on thinking creatively and strategically to elevate the work of other creatives to new heights. With a deep love for art and culture, and a desire to support and promote African brands, Georgètte is dedicated to helping native and diasporic Africans succeed in a global marketplace through the use of digital technologies.

    Photo credit: Senay Berhe

  • Our Financial Manager, Yvette Akogyeram Nilsson is a business strategist, financial consultant, accountant and creative practitioner. With over two decades of experience, she founded Yaeld Consulting to support culture workers in developing their businesses.

    Yvette is also known as DjFavox, a dancefloor alchemist who blends rhythm, energy and emotion into well-curated electronic mixes for those who appreciate, enjoy and love the ancient art of dance(ing). Drawing both on her creative and business development skills, she brings a holistic understanding of how organisations can thrive with sustainability, confidence and a sense of enjoyment.

Advisory Council

  • Our Curatorial and Strategic Advisor, Andrea is a Jamaican-born, US-bred photographer and visual artist. Her work explores the intersection of the personal, cultural, and political in black women’s hair. She is a founder and creative director of Krull Magazine and has an extensive background in the creative and cultural industries, including running an art gallery. She is currently an exhibitions producer at the National Museums for World Culture, Sweden.

    Photo credit: Isobel Kronlund

  • Our Curatorial Advisor, Neicia is Curator and Programme Director at the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland, currently based in London. She has worked in the cultural fields of the UK and Finland for over 14 years. She holds an MA in Arts Management from Sibelius Academy and has lectured as guest lecturer for institutions and organisations such as the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts. Neicia is one of the founders of Feminist Culture House, an intersectional curatorial feminist organisation based in Helsinki.

    Photo credit: Senay Berhe

  • Our Curatorial Advisor, Daría is an African-American-Icelandic independent curator and art critic currently based between Reykjavík, New York and California. Her curatorial practice is inspired by ideas of rethinking how, where, and in what form, the exhibition concept can be manifested. She works as Associate Director at Listval gallery in Reykjavík and as curatorial director of Studio Sol, her home gallery where she aspires to create a place where life and art merge, to construct a space for experiencing intimacy and quietness, with art, yourself, and others.

    Photo credit: Senay Berhe

  • Our Curatorial Advisor, Mai is a Danish-Zimbabwean cultural worker based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She holds an MA in Modern Culture from The University of Copenhagen and is a part of Marronage, a collective of intersectional feminists who brings forth narratives of resistance through editorial work, articles and events. In addition, she has been involved in various projects initiated by museums and art institutions in Denmark e.g. the exhibition ‘THIS IS NOT AFRICA’ at ARoS and recently the talk-series ‘Becomings’ at Art Hub Copenhagen.

    Photo credit: Dalsgaard Krag

  • Our Curatorial Advisor, Ro (they/she) is a writer, consultant, researcher, and educator centering mindful and intersectional approaches to social, racial, and environmental justice in many fields through UNLRN PRJCT, and in the arts through Rafiki Art Initiatives. Born in Turtle Island/Canada, Ro now calls Sápmi/Northern Norway home, her heritage stretching through diaspora to Jamaica, and to the African continent. Outside of work they can be found in nature, writing and editing in a variety of mediums, on a yoga mat teaching or practicing, and organizing art and wellness retreats like Hearing Home.

    Photo credit: Senay Berhe

  • Our Curatorial Advisor, Ulrika Flink is a Stockholm based curator. She received her MA in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London. She is currently artistic director at Konsthall C, Stockholm. Other recent curatorial work includes curator for Borås Art Biennal (2021) and as one of the curators of Momentum 9 (2017), amongst others. Her earlier held positions are director of Konstfrämjandet Stockholm, assistant curator and producer at Tensta konsthall and co-founder of the Stockholm-based curatorial collective Parallellogram.

    Photo credit: Konsthall C

Previous Team Members + Advisors

  • Our Project Coordinator and Creative Strategist, Nkuli is a South African-born, Swedish-based creative entrepreneur, project manager, organiser and dreamer who is passionate about black culture and women’s empowerment. She is the founder of The Ninevites, a design studio and creative platform that collaborates with makers, artists and brands. Her keen creative mind made her the perfect team member during the research phase in the run up to the Southnord Artfest 2023.

    Photo credit: Kent Andreasen

  • Our Project Coordinator, Vera is a Zimbabwean-born, Swedish-based educator with over three decades of pedagogical practice. Her organisational skill and community engagement made her the perfect team member during the Southnord Artfest 2023.

    Photo credit: Senay Berhe

  • Our Curatorial and Strategic Advisor, Sasha is a Helsinki-based visual artist of Swiss-Haitian heritage. Her work is concerned with the politics of memory and belonging in relation to the colonial residue left in the environment. Connecting history and the present, she uses and responds to archival material within a layered creative practice that encompasses performance-based reparative interventions, video, photography, and collaborations.

    Photo credit: Senay Berhe

  • Our Brand Strategist, Ami is a creative and prolific professional who is beyond classification and impossible to label. A graduate in foreign languages and civilizations, corporate communication and strategic marketing; she multiplies experiences without fear or ego. Working between France, Senegal and Sweden with global projects and clients through her bureau People Along Roads Studio, she has a cosmopolitan and entrepreneurial spirit in her DNA.

    Photo credit: Sandro Miller

  • Our Curatorial Advisor, Nimco is a Helsinki-born Afro-Finn curator and writer based in London, UK, working at the intersection of research, culture, and art. Their praxis draws from postcolonial and queer-feminist perspectives, focusing actively on participatory practices that bring people together through critical, timely and meaningful narratives. Exploring the site of new media and digital visual culture, Nimco facilitates innovative operational modalities and practices together with artists, creative practitioners, and arts institutions.

    Photo credit: Victoria Bennett