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Panel Discussion: The Living Archive

Capturing Eritrean & Ethiopian Stories Through Art & Fiction

Join us for a panel discussion bringing together literary and artistic perspectives from storytellers in the Eritrean and Ethiopian diasporas

Eritrean and Ethiopian immigrants have created vibrant communities that have left their mark on Washington, D.C. and the nation through their historical experiences and distinct cultural traditions. In a panel discussion moderated by diaspora thought leader Semhar Araia, visual artists Tsedaye Makonnen and Redeat Wondemu and writer Bsrat Mezghebe will explore why they feel compelled to capture stories from these diasporas and their homelands and how they approach their artistic practices and archival work. The discussion will also reflect on how these communities have shaped and been shaped by the Washington, D.C. area. This talk is presented in conjunction with the exhibition District Vibes, American Pride: How D.C. Changed American Culture as well as the exhibit Art Bank: New Work from the Collection, both currently on view at the MLK Library.

This work is presented in collaboration with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

About the panelists:

Bsrat Mezghebe

Bsrat Mezghebe is a writer from Washington, D.C. Her debut novel, I Hope You Find What You’re Looking For, delves into the secret lives of three women on the eve of Eritrean independence. The novel has been included in Oprah Daily’s Best Books of Spring 2026 and People’s Best Books of February 2026, and named one of the most anticipated books of the year by Apple Books and The Skimm. Bsrat received an MFA from New York University and the Harper-Wood Creative Writing and Travel Award from Cambridge University.

Semhar Aria

Semhar Araia is an entrepreneur, lawyer and the daughter of Eritrean immigrants who organized, advocated, and gave everything they had to a country still fighting to exist. She is the founder of The Diaspora Academy. She was born in New York City to Eritrean immigrant parents and is based in Washington, D.C. Semhar has testified before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She delivered the keynote at the IOM Global Diaspora Summit and has been featured in the Financial Times, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and The Root.

Redeat Wondemu

Redeat Wondemu is an Eritrean-born, Ethiopian American lens-based artist living and working in Washington, D.C. Working primarily with medium-format film, she hand-processes and prints her photographs using traditional darkroom and alternative photographic processes, including gelatin silver, platinum/palladium, and cyanotype. Rooted in a tactile, process-driven approach, her practice centers on the materiality of photography, embracing slowness, repetition, and the physical act of making as a way to engage time. Her work explores themes of memory, identity, and place, weaving personal and cultural narratives between Washington, D.C. and Ethiopia. Her work is on view in the exhibit Art Bank: New Work from the Collection and is a recent acquisition of the Commission on the Arts & Humanities' Art Bank Collection.

Tsedaye Makonnen

Tsedaye Makonnen is an award-winning and published interdisciplinary artist, artistic director and designer. Tsedaye’s sculptures, textiles, reliquaries and performance art function as a contemporary reflection of Byzantine and Medieval art, particularly through her engagement with spiritual symbolism and technologies, sacred aesthetics, and embodied ritual practices. Makonnen reclaims, reinterprets, and reactivates visual and spiritual lineages historically sidelined by Western art canons. Her works are in several permanent collections including the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the Smithsonian, the Studio Museum in Harlem and more. She exhibited and performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s for the groundbreaking Africa and Byzantium exhibition where she was one of two living artists commissioned to make new works. Currently she has a solo exhibition in D.C. at the National Museum of African Art titled Sanctuary :: መቅደስ :: Mekdes, alongside East African Medieval and contemporary objects from the museum’s collection. Also in Baltimore, her site-specific commissioned light sculptures, Sacred :: የተቀደሰ :: Yetekedse, are permanently on display in The Walters Art Museum’s Medieval gallery. Her other recent studio engagements include Williams College Museum of Art, The Clark Art Institute, the Venice Biennale and more. In 2024 she archived oral histories of Ethiopian communities in D.C. with support from the Library of Congress, and is now working with an Ethiopian and Eritrean collective from the diaspora to expand the archive with support from the Mellon Foundation and other organizations.

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