Art Rooted in Who We Are: Mika Manning Interviewed by Teresa Donck

I got to know Mika when we attended a film screened at Vanity Theatre’s “Film Studies” series. This week we chatted over zoom, and although the connection was choppy, Mika’s joy when talking about the arts emanated through the screen. Trained as a dancer from a young age, she is now taking a step back from creating art in order to “gather knowledge and become more rounded.” 

While continually negotiating her various identities—half-black, half-white, and a dual citizen of the US and Canada—she is also discovering where she wants to sit in the art world. Mika is enrolled in the Art, Performance, and Cinema Studies program at SFU, teaches dance, and does photography. We spoke about art’s power to reclaim, to include, and to show our genuine humanity.

Teresa: What are you interested in at the moment?

Mika: Something that I’m obsessed with right now is Afrofuturism. [Afrotuturism is a genre of artistic work that imagines a futuristic world as seen through a black lens in which black people are central] I find it really cool, I’m kind of a nerd for Sci-Fi! Afrofuturism is a great way for black people to voice injustices in a creative way. It’s a way of owning their stereotypes and owning what they have suffered and turning it into story and reclaiming their history.

T: What do you dislike about the art world?

M: It’s definitely not all-inclusive yet, just like the rest of the world. I would like to see more inclusivity, and I would like to see more art in communities and community based art rather than only in art galleries where rich people can look at it. Most art is only considered valuable because a rich, white, institution decided that it’s valuable, especially Indigenous art and Black art.

T: Do you feel like you are trying to better position yourself to change that?

M: Maybe, it hasn’t come up in my thought process until now, but I guess I am trying to support diversity and inclusivity in whatever I do. So if I were to be an administrator for say, an art gallery, then I can push the things that I want to see. I could direct my sliver of the art world in the way that is inclusive and supportive.

T: Why is art important? 

M: It’s the best way to express humanity. It is the most genuine, it can be an abstract, or not, kind of expression of what it means to be human. I feel like that’s really important to us as a society. It’s something that was developed way back when we were like, Neanderthals! Storytelling, and the arts, and dance, and song, are things that are just rooted in who we are. It feels like you are getting to a special core nugget of something within people when you look at their art. It just feels like a safe way to express our genuine humanity. Art, and history, and the world are all just paired together. It shifts and changes with the world.

Taken in Mika's home during COVID-19 lockdown. 

Dancer: Mika Manning. Photo: Mika Manning. 

Appeared in Dance Current Magazine.