Barby Asante is an artist, curator, educator and healer in training.  Her practice is concerned the politics of place, space and the ever-present histories and legacies of slavery and colonialism.  Her work explores memory and archival injustice through re-collecting, collating, excavating and mapping stories and narratives, through collective writing, re-enactment and creating spaces for transformation, ritual and healing.

With a deep interest in black feminist and decolonial methodologies, Barby also embeds within her work notions of collective study, countless ways of knowing and dialogical practices that embrace being together and breathing together.  Declaration of Independence is an ongoing collaborative project with different iterations being performed in the Diaspora Pavilion, Venice (2017); Library of Performing Rights, Live Art Development Agency, London (2018); BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Arts, Gateshead, (2019); Bergen Kunstall, Norway (2020) and other places. Since 2017 over 70 womxn from across the world have been involved in performances and rituals around the Declaration of Independence.