12th Edition of Art Fair to Feature Opening of GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times Exhibit
Austria, 20th Oct 2026 – AfriKin Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art institution based in Miami, will open the 12th edition of AfriKin Art Fair on November 29, 2026, with GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times, an exhibition of an estimated 70 artists of African heritage from more than 35 countries and territories across Africa and the diaspora. Curated by Joseph L. Underwood, Ph.D., of Kent State University, the fair runs through December 6 at Maison AfriKin, 1600 NE 126th Street in Downtown North Miami, during Miami Art Week and alongside Art Basel Miami Beach.
Award-winning actress and art collector CCH Pounder, whose collection includes more than 500 works by Caribbean, African and diaspora artists, will receive the 2026 AfriKin Award of Excellence at the opening Vernissage on November 29.
Now in its twelfth consecutive year, AfriKin Art Fair has become one of the most sought-after destinations during Miami Art Week for collectors acquiring work by emerging and established artists of African heritage. The fair is built on AfriKin’s founding principle that culture creates commerce, commerce strengthens community, and community safeguards culture. In 2025, the fair welcomed 8,955 visitors, generated $188,000 in combined marketplace sales and paid $97,800 directly to participating artists.
“The griot kept the record of the community,” said Alfonso D. Brooks, Founder and Chairman of AfriKin Foundation. “For twelve years, AfriKin has given artists of African heritage a place inside Miami Art Week to keep the record of our time, put it in front of the world’s collectors, and be paid for it. CCH Pounder has spent decades carrying these artists into museums from Philadelphia to London, and we are proud to honor her as GRIOT opens.”
The Exhibition
GRIOT casts contemporary artists as vital members of their communities. The griots of West Africa have historically been responsible for carrying the stories of their communities, asking “Where have we been? What have we accomplished?” They could also carry a word of warning, often using their position of privilege to advocate for the community during the reign of difficult rulers, asking “What are we becoming? Haven’t we learned this lesson yet?”
Working in painting, sculpture, photography, textile and other media, the artists of GRIOT are storytellers who are each remembering, reflecting, critiquing, praising, celebrating, dreaming and encouraging.
The exhibition is divided into smaller sections, or dialogues, where the artworks pose similar questions. Visitors will have a chance to respond on site, engaging in a conversation with the display and re-enacting the call and response of a griot and their audience, like a minister with their congregation.
“Across the dialogues, visitors will encounter the art as a living force for dialogue, not a passive decoration on a wall, but a contemporary griot whose call demands our attention and our response,” said curator Joseph L. Underwood, Ph.D.
2026 Honoree: CCH Pounder, Griot of the Collection
AfriKin Foundation will present the 2026 AfriKin Award of Excellence to CCH Pounder in recognition of a lifetime spent collecting, preserving and presenting the work of Caribbean, African and diaspora artists. In the tradition of the griot, Pounder has built a collection that keeps the record: a living archive of more than 500 works that she has carried into museums across the United States, Europe and Africa.
The CCH Pounder-Koné Collection is concentrated in contemporary art and includes traditional African sculpture. Exhibitions drawn from it include Shared Vision at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Diaspora Stories at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center in Chicago, Queen at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, and, most recently, Brother, Brother at the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta. Works from the collection have also been loaned to the National Portrait Gallery and Somerset House in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, Xavier University of Louisiana, Spelman College Museum of Art, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and the Kent State University Museum.
In 1992, Pounder and her late husband, Boubacar Koné, founded the Musée Boribana in Dakar, the first privately owned contemporary art museum in Senegal, and gifted it to the nation in 2014. In 2022 she was named a Commander of the National Order of the Lion, Senegal’s highest honor. GRIOT curator Dr. Joseph L. Underwood has himself contributed to exhibition projects at the Musée Boribana, a connection that links this year’s honoree and this year’s exhibition through the same institution.
“Artists are the griots of our time. They hold what we cannot afford to forget,” said CCH Pounder. “Every work I have collected carries someone’s story, and a collector’s responsibility is to keep that story moving into museums, into classrooms and into the hands of the next generation. AfriKin has built that kind of home in Miami, and I am honored to stand with these artists during Art Week.”
Originally from Georgetown, Guyana, Pounder is a four-time Emmy® nominee known for her roles as Claudette Wyms on FX’s The Shield and Dr. Loretta Wade on CBS’s NCIS: New Orleans, and for James Cameron’s Avatar films, including Avatar: Fire and Ash. She can currently be seen in The Terror: Devil in Silver on AMC+ and Cape Fear on Apple TV+. She serves on the board of the African Millennium Foundation, was a founding member of Artists for a New South Africa, and holds the Cacique’s Crown of Honour from Guyana and honorary doctorates from the University of Guyana and Ithaca College.
Collectors, patrons and supporters are invited to join the celebration at the Vernissage on November 29, where Pounder will be honored alongside the artists of GRIOT. VIP Preview tickets
Programming
Following the Vernissage, the GRIOT exhibition is open to the public daily from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM, November 30 to December 6, closing at 6:00 PM on Sunday, December 6, with performances, collector preview access, and artist-led workshops open to collectors, students and the public. This year’s AfriKin Talks program is CHANGÁ: Griot Moves on December 3. Signature programs, in date order:
Sunday, November 29 | The Vernissage: An All-White Affair | 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
An evening showcase of multidisciplinary art and an All-White red-carpet gala, the Vernissage opens the 12th edition with a collectors’ preview, first access to the GRIOT exhibition, live performances, immersive installations and the presentation of the 2026 AfriKin Award of Excellence to CCH Pounder. Doors open at 5:30 PM. Dress code: All White with a Splash of AfriKin Chic. VIP Preview and VVIP tickets
Tuesday, December 1 | Rhythm and Soul: Mosaic Workshop | 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
A beginner-friendly mosaic workshop led by Orlando-based glass and metal artist JoKeeta of Stained Glass by JoKeeta. Using pre-cut tiles and provided materials, six to twelve participants each complete a finished piece to take home. RSVP
Thursday, December 3 | CHANGÁ: Griot Moves | 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
A breakfast, screening and conversation built around Changá, a 55-minute documentary that uses the Caribbean game of dominoes to examine how Dutch Caribbean communities create and thrive in the Netherlands. The screening is followed by a conversation between co-director Prof. Dr. Francio Guadeloupe, Endowed Chair in Public Anthropology of Kingdom Relations at the University of Amsterdam and former President of the University of St. Martin, and Prof. Patricia J. Saunders, Professor of English and Hemispheric Caribbean Studies at the University of Miami, President of the Caribbean Studies Association and author of the Bocas Prize-shortlisted Buyers Beware: Epistemologies of Consumption in Caribbean Popular Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2022). The morning closes with a live domino art activation. Register
Saturday, December 5 | African Fashion Week Miami Pop-Up | 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
A designer pop-up previewing the collections of REGENESIS: The African Winter.
Sunday, December 6 | African Fashion Week Miami: REGENESIS: The African Winter | 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
The closing runway presents designers from continental Africa and its diaspora. Following 2025’s Resistance on the Runway, REGENESIS stages a winter collection runway in tropical Miami, presenting sculptural coats, futuristic knits and couture tailoring that position African design as a source of global luxury. Tickets
All programs take place at Maison AfriKin, Scott Galvin Community Center, 1600 NE 126th Street, North Miami, FL 33181. Ticket prices increase November 1. Full details at afrikin.org.
AfriKin Art Fair 2026 is presented with Miami Art Week partners the City of North Miami, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and Art of Black Miami, Dutch Culture USA, Tito’s Handmade Vodka and CNW Network, with additional support from North Miami Parks.
Sponsorship Opportunities
AfriKin is inviting corporate, brand and institutional partners to join its 2026-27 cultural season, which opens with the Art Fair and continues with Black History Month programming in February 2027 and Art, Jazz & Champagne, AfriKin’s Women’s History Month centerpiece, on March 14, 2027.
Sponsors align with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art institution that has paid artists directly, drawn international collectors, diplomats and cultural leaders to North Miami. Partnership includes brand visibility across the season, press reach, and direct access to collectors and artists during Miami Art Week.
Presenting and Premier are single-partner anchor tiers. Diamond through Community tiers are open to multiple partners at each level. Contributions may be tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Sponsorship inquiries: Alfonso D. Brooks, Founder and Chairman, +1 (646) 296-3613, brooks@afrikin.org, afrikin.org/sponsor
About the Curator
Joseph L. Underwood, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Art History at Kent State University and returns as curator of AfriKin Art Fair after leading the 2025 edition. A historian of modern and contemporary art, he focuses on the postwar era, including post-colonialism, (trans)nationalism, globalization and biennialism. His research centers on how artists in Francophone West and North Africa have built transnational networks of influence since the mid-20th century. He has contributed to exhibition projects at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Dakar Biennale for Contemporary African Art and the Musée Boribana in Dakar. Curator profile
About AfriKin Foundation
AfriKin Foundation, Inc. (EIN 85-2592611) is a Miami-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit art institution dedicated to contemporary African and diaspora art and culture. Founded in 2015 by Alfonso D. Brooks, AfriKin has operated Maison AfriKin at the Scott Galvin Community Center in Downtown North Miami since 2022, guided by the principle that culture creates commerce, commerce strengthens community, and community safeguards culture. AfriKin’s work has been recognized by proclamations from the City of Miami, the City of Miami Beach, the City of North Miami and Miami-Dade County, as well as the 2025 Arts and Social Impact Award from the Arts and Business Council of Miami. The 2026-27 season continues with Black History Month programming in February 2027 and Art, Jazz & Champagne on March 14, 2027. In 2025, AfriKin Art Fair paid $97,800 directly to artists and welcomed 8,955 visitors. Learn more at afrikin.org and @afrikinnation.
Press kit and high-resolution images: afrikin.org/media-kit
Media Contact
Organization: AfriKin Foundation
Contact Person: Alfonso D. Brooks
Website: https://afrikin.org
Email: Send Email
Contact Number: +13057605515
Country: Austria
Release id: 50007
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AfriKin Art Fair to Honor Actress & Art Collector CCH Pounder during Miami Art Week
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