NiceNasty – Affrilachian Art Experience

Valeria Watson-Doost will present new works at the Pink Dog Creative Gallery, 348 Depot Street in Asheville’s River Arts District.

Staff Reports

Valeria Watson-Doost’s mixed media exhibition “NiceNasty” will open October 8 and run through November 20 at the Pink Dog Creative Gallery at 348 Depot Street in Asheville.

“‘NiceNasty’ is a word my grandmother spoke to describe folks that were one way on the outside, and another way on the inside,” says Watson-Doost. It described everything—including wearing dirty underwear under a nice clean pretty dress!”

Watson-Doost has recently been included in a regional show about the Affrilachian experience, a term coined by poet Frank X. Walker to describe African Americans living, or born in, Appalachia. “Ghosts of the South” is a performance art piece in an Affrilachian Butoh style that will pay homage to the many African Americans in Asheville who were displaced during the 1960s and thereafter. Watson-Doost says she is “particularly happy to be Affrilachian,” being a descendant of slaves and slave masters from Western North Carolina and Tennessee.

The “NiceNasty” exhibit will also include a workshop given by Julie
Becton Gillum on Butoh, a Japanese dance style that emerged after World
War II; the workshop will be from 1 to 4 p.m., followed by a break for
participants to eat, if desired, and prepare to be part of the
procession. “It should be an event to open us and connect to our
ancestral roots,” Watson-Doost says.

Workshop participants are asked to pay a $30 donation, though the amount
can be reduced based on ability to pay. Watson-Doost encourages those
for whom the donation might be prohibitive to participate for what they
can afford. “[Julie and I] don’t want the donation to stop you from
experiencing our collaboration in a dance form that we will use to deal
with the African American experience,” she says.

A second performance entitled “Ghosts of the South” will take place on
November 12 at 3 p.m. during the seven-week exhibit. “I will be bringing
African fabrics and costumes to help us resurrect the ‘Ghosts of the
South,’” Watson-Doost says. “I’m so excited. This is my first show in 35
years, after taking a long break to be a mother and a social activist.
Please come and share this moment with me,” concluded Watson-Doost.