Spirit of Viche: Black Ancestral Traditions in the Colombian Pacific is an exhibition organized by LLILAS master’s student Camille Carr in collaboration with Benson Exhibitions Curator Veronica Valarino. Viche is an artisanal drink distilled from sugarcane whose recipe was brought to Colombia by enslaved African women and has been passed down through generations. Carr’s research and acquisition of materials was funded by a 2023 Archiving Black América–Black Diaspora Archive Acquisitions Grant and resulted in the Scenes of Black Life and Cultural Expression in the Colombian Pacific archival collection.
The opening included remarks by LLILAS Director Adela Pineda Franco, curator Camille Carr, and visiting scholar Dr. William Mina Aragón, School of Law, Social, and Political Sciences, Universidad de Cauca, Popayán, Colombia, and director of the newly established Biblioteca Afrocolombiana de las Ciencias Sociales at Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia.
Spirit of Viche: Black Ancestral Traditions in the Colombian Pacific is on view in the Benson Rare Books & Manuscripts Reading Room from February 2-August 31, 2024. Free and open to the public.