Nanci Amaka on Death, Displacement, Motherhood, and Transformative Art

Interdisciplinary conceptual artist and writer Nanci Amaka joins the podcast to discuss her powerful work exploring trauma, memory, migration, grief, motherhood, death, and ancestral healing. Through performance, photography, installation, and text, Amaka examines the body as a site of memory and art as a space for ritual, care, and transformation.In this conversation, Amaka reflects on her childhood in southeastern Nigeria, her migration to the United States, and major works including Cleanse, Ije | Ézè, Anarcha, and Corpse & Mirror. She discusses intergenerational trauma, the violent loss of her mother, the emotional force of performance art, and how confronting death can become a path toward presence, empathy, and renewal.