Enekpe: African Goddess of Family
Goddess Enekpe: African Goddess of Family
Anna Msowoya-Keys was one of the women Lisa photographed and chose to be on 1 of the 5 banners to be displayed. Anna is from Malawi, and goes back and forth from Africa where her roots are, to Valley Cottage, New York where her immediate family resides. In her words, “I am a Malawian woman, happy to be in America. But as much as I love life here, I have not forgotten my roots, the small village where I come from in northern Malawi. The closeness of family and the importance of community I experienced in Malawi sustains me to this day. I now live in two worlds. One is not better than the other. They’re just different. Don’t ask me to chose, but do give me the space to live fully in both.” Anna is a wife, mother, friend, sister, development activist, and founder of Mzuzu Academy, the Northern Region’s first internationally accredited secondary boarding school. The schools vision is to provide the highest quality education for 400 children. Their goal is provide full scholarships to the brightest and most needy children so that they can receive an education that they would have never dreamed possible. This is a woman that went after her dreams and with much hard work saw them come to fruition. She is a beautiful picture of strength, fullness of life, warmth and joy. I am proud to say she is a Woman of Rockland.
In two weeks Lisa will be traveling to Malawi with Anna to photograph the opening of a new school. Lisa will be there for ten days getting to know the Malawian culture and Anna’s hometown, along with taking many pictures of people and places in this African country. Stories and pictures will follow suit when Lisa gets back! If you would like to learn more about Anna and the Mzuzu Academy in Malawi, you can take a look at the website: http://www.malotoinc.org/index.html. Check in for another update on Goddess number 2 of the 5, and more on Lisa’s trip to Africa!
Women of Rockland Events
I’m back with another update for you all!
Now I can say ‘you all’ because I am from Minnesota, which isn’t exactly the South, but close enough, right? I never thought I had an accent until I came to the East Coast, and now I get ridiculed for the stretching of my vowels and saying things like, “pop” and “ruff” instead of ‘roof.’ Anyhow, although the ponderings of accents and pronunciation are pretty interesting and could be mused over for a good while, I have come to share with you something more exciting on this fine spring morning!
When Lisa received the grant, The Journal News Newspaper wrote an article on the awarded groups, and featured her project and picture on the front cover. Quite the honor!
Now that you and I are more familiar with Lisa Levart and the unique work she has been creating, you should know where her work will be seen in the upcoming months. The Women of Rockland Exhibition will have an Opening Reception at the Nyack Center on Saturday, April 17th from 10-12 noon for the Women of Leadership and Vision Brunch. Unfortunately, Lisa won’t be there because she will be in Malawi, Africa, where she will be photographing one of her Women of Rockland subjects; Anna Msowoya-Keys, at the opening of her new school, the Mzuzu Acaedmy. The show stays at the Nyack Center until April 28th – this is a great chance to see the installation up close and personal.
From there, the show can be seen at The Rockland Country Day School from April 30 – May 21.
On June 1st, 
comes to the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack where these extraordinary banners will be suspended between four floors in an open atrium (!!!!). The opening is from 6-7pm and everyone is welcome to stop by. The installation will be at the Palisades Mall through July 31st.
Whether you’re pondering accents, irrigation systems, or politics today, I hope you enjoy your afternoon, and speaking for Lisa, we hope to see you in a couple weeks at one of the events!
Lydia
Lydia the Intern’s First Post!
A blog to keep up with the ins and outs of Lisa Levart’s photographic project-Goddess on Earth…
What a brilliant idea! As Lisa’s intern for the next two months, we have decided a blog would be the best way to communicate all that Lisa has been doing the past seven years with this project, including updates on her photo shoots and a way to keep up with this project that continues to spiral down the path of growth, attention and great appreciation. I will be writing regularly about Lisa’s photo shoots, the adventures that accompany them and the exciting plans for the future concerning Goddess on Earth.
For those of you that are new to Lisa’s work, I will fill you in.
Lisa’s idea for the Women of Rockland all started with her fascination with the diversity in her own community. Lisa was a given a grant from the Arts Council of Rockland to pursue her project and bring it to fruition.
In her own words; “As a community, Rockland County is evolving, and increasingly becoming diverse in the cultures, faiths and languages of its residents. Yet, even within this amazing mosaic, we often know little about the sacred myths and poetic life stories of our neighbors,” said Levart. “When we reach back into the early myths and stories of all cultures, we often have more similarities than differences. By sharing these photographs with the public, I hope to set the stage for increased dialogue and communication within the Rockland community, as well as an appreciation for the basic connectiveness between the different traditions that help shape our world.”
Beautifully put. Lisa’s idea behind the gist of this is getting at something deeper. She sees the ways in which we are all more similar and interconnected than we think. We all have stories and beliefs we live and stand by, and the more we shed our fears and get to a deeper level of exposure, we find that we share common ground and life with people all around us.
Through photographs Lisa has brought to life the beauty and uniqueness not only in the wonders of femininity and spirituality, but in each woman’s story and personal life as well. As you look at her pictures and read the descriptions of the photographs, you will find them to truly capture and celebrate the feminine whole in all that we were created to be, and the potential we have to draw from our souls and celebrate our inherent strengths of being a woman.
This snap shot hopefully gives you a glimpse into the intentions of Lisa and her art, along with her deeper meaning and vision.
There will be more where this came from- but until next time,
Lydia