Performers

Kibibi Ajanku attended Morgan State University, received an MFA in Curatorial Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA); and currently, Ajanku is an Educator in Coppin State University Fine Arts Department and the MICA Fibers Department. Ajanku believes that when presented properly, art is the perfect vehicle to move forward into greater intercultural awareness for the global community.

The Indigo Dye Village is an immersive cultural experience led by artist and cultural historian Kibibi Ajanku, designed to illuminate the African origins of indigo dyeing and its enduring cultural significance in African American communities. This participatory event combines historical education, hands-on artistry, and community engagement, providing a platform for creative expression, cultural preservation, and healing through the arts. The Indigo Dye Village will be a featured activation at the Maryland Folklife Festival, engaging festival attendees in the story of indigo — from its historic significance in the South Carolina Lowcountry plantations to its resilient presence along the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and into contemporary African diasporic art practices in Baltimore.

Kibibi Ajanku makes and presents ethnically charged art. Her passion embodies the thrust of the African Diaspora. Kibibi’s creativity is the ongoing and ever evolving effort of her life journey. Her work is eclectic and innovative. It is ancient while at the same time new-world and always changing. Ajanku’s muscle as a visual artist spans from contemporary fine art to village inspired craft, and the performance. Her artistry is layered with… and entrenched in… indigenous folkways. Her work embodies research, identity, and the gathering of elements of African retention, in hopes of evoking intuitive memories that reach back into ancestral histories and stories that impact the here and the now.