A few days after celebrating her birthday in Gorée, Naomi Campbell was joined in Senegal by Alicia Keys and her husband, Swizz Beatz. These stars are in Senegal as part of “Black Rock Senegal”, a project that aims to bring together artists, writers and filmmakers from various backgrounds in an artistic complex. An initiative by Kehinde Wiley, a Ghanaian artist.
Participants in this project will be invited to Dakar for three months to live and create art. During their stay, they will be presented to Senegalese and international artists.
“Black Rock Senegal was born out of a direct need to engage Africa in a much more personal way,” Wiley said in a recent interview. I discovered Dakar during 1997 when Air Afrique was the only airline offering flights from West Africa to Nigeria. It was my first visit to Africa and I was immediately enchanted by Senegalese language, food, art, culture and traditions. After years of exploring the many cultures and countries of the continent, I personally wanted to create a workspace in West Africa. Black Rock is the direct response to my desire to have a direct relationship with Africa, a way to fill a big void that I share with many African Americans. ”
See the celebrities living it up below.
