Bio

Gracia "Cianga" Mwamba (she/they) is a Congolese artist based in California, by way of South Africa. A recipient of the Cave Canem + EcoTheo’s Starshine & Clay Fellowship, Cianga creates interdisciplinary work that seeks to decolonize and disrupt language. They are currently an MFA candidate and have received residency and fellowship support from UC Berkeley’s Arts & Research Center, Brooklyn Poets, and Atlantic Center for the Arts. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in Foglifter Journal, Rappahannock Review, EcoTheo Review and elsewhere. They write, draw, compose, perform with the belief of black art as radical joy and critical protest.

Project

Allegiance is a full length poetry collection that explores the Congolese refugee experience to honor unspoken history and call to attention the harm the mining industry is doing in central Africa. Inspired by Cianga's own journey as a refugee the work seeks to highlight various experiences with the after-effects of imperialism. The time at Faberllul will go towards the writing of these poems and research into relevant histories.