GENDER TRAVELS GLOBAL EXHIBITIONS OF
‘YOUTH UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED’
Bauchi, Nigeria
April 2025
A, exhibition of ‘Youth United Will Never Be Defeated’ is held in Bauchi State, Northern Nigeria, in the Community Information and Epidemiological Technologies (CIET) & Federation of Muslim Women Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN) office. The exhibition is part of a three-day training for the CIET/FOMWAN Team in Bauchi, facilitated by Sani Abdullahi and Bilkisu Joga who were both part of the Transnational Summit held in February 2025 in Durban, South Africa. The initial intention was to hold the exhibition in the outside courtyard, but windy conditions resulted in an indoors setup. 23 youth participants and junior team members alongside five senior core team members attended the exhibition.
Bauchi, Nigeria
April 2025
The Bauchi team reflect that a sense of global connection arose from viewing the exhibition. Each photo is powerful and by using photos, young people regardless of gender can unite with a loud voice to disrupt gender norms. Every individual should have the right and freedom to express their identity without fear, discrimination, or judgement. Regardless of ones gender, there should be equity and inclusivity in every society.
Malawi
April 2025
In Malawi, two young people who attended the TRANSFORM youth summit in Durban, South Africa went on to facilitate activities in the Dowa and Ntchisi Districts in in April 2025.. These sessions used the Youth United Will Never Be Defeated exhibition to teach members of the Youth Advisory committee of the IHEARD project about arts-based methods of telling stories (photovoice, drawing and cellphilms).
Malawi
April 2025
Participants learned about new approaches in telling their stories, sharing their perspectives and becoming agents of change.. The training in both the Dowa and Ntchisi districts were attended by 52 people, including government officials, IHEARD partners and 30 young people.
Mexico City, Mexico
June 2025
Process images from the embrpoidery group.
Brenda, Miguel and Graciela create a feminist embroidery collective ‘Transform(émonos)’ and hold weekly meetings at the Centro de Investigaciones sobre América del Norte (CISAN) at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). The group has 12 members, all young adult students and staff from UNAM. The group chooses images from the ‘Youth United Will Never Be Defeated’ exhibition and reprints these on cotton. They embroider slogans on the chosen images to transform the original photovoice and layer meaning.
Mexico City, Mexico
June 2025
Exhibition poster.
The group hold an exhibition of their embroidered images alongside the original ‘Youth United Will Never Be Defeated’ exhibition at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). They launch the exhibition during Pride month, running from June 03 throughout. The group plans to take part in a quilting project entitled “The healing blanket” and is looking for more opportunities to exhibit their work.
Mexico City, Mexico
June 2025
Group members Brenda and Miguel, who both participated in the Transnational Summit in Durban, South Africa, collaborate with Tsanda (curator) Ara and Xaneri (textile artists) to plan the exhibition. The group is supprted by Graciela Martínez-Zalce Sánchez, Director at CISAN.
Mexico City, Mexico
Original images from the ‘Youth United Will Never Be Defeated’ travelling exhibition kit are exhibited.
June 2025
Mexico City, Mexico
June 2025
An exhibition program of the UNAM group’s photovoice activities is made available. The transformed embroidered works on cotton are hung at CISAN,
Mexico City, Mexico
The artists write personal captions to accompany the transformed images.
June 2025
Mexico City, Mexico
June 2025
Mexico City, Mexico
June 2025
Mexico City, Mexico
June 2025
July 2025
Jos, Nigeria
Images from a meeting to prepare for the exhibition at Jenta Reads Community Library, Jos
The Transform Youth Make History 2.0 (Photo Exhibition) program was held with active participation of youth from four different communities in Jos. The event began with an opening prayer, setting the tone for a day of critical dialogue, creativity, and reflection on youth and gender issues across Africa. Khalid Adam and Blessing Moses shared a report and a story of what happened at the Transnational Youth Summit in Durban South Africa in February.They shared their experiences of South Africa with the participants and observed that most of the countries present during the summit seemed tom experience the same challenges, but that the solutions differed, perhaps due to different norms of the nations, tribes, and country laws.
Jos, Nigeria
Images from a meeting to prepare for the exhibition at Jenta Reads Community Library, Jos
July 2025
Jos, Nigeria
Images from the Transform Youth Make History 2.0 (Photo Exhibition) at Jenta Reads Community Library, Jos
July 2025
Jos, Nigeria
Images from the Transform Youth Make History 2.0 (Photo Exhibition) at Jenta Reads Community Library, Jos
July 2025
July 2025
Jos, Nigeria
Images from the Transform Youth Make History 2.0 (Photo Exhibition) at Jenta Reads Community Library, Jos
Freetown, Sierra Leone
July 2025
Images from the exhibition in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The first exhibition in Sierra Leone exhibition took place at a local college, engaging the students that were on-site during their second semester assessments. It wasn’t easy, because we didn't have a place to tie the rope and hang the photos. We instead displayed the large poster of our photovoice submissions from the Summit and then we asked the students present to hold the smaller images while we discussed what photovoice is, how it can be used in transformative ways to bring awareness about certain things affecting the youth.
Freetown, Sierra Leone
July 2025
Images from the exhibition in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The participants expressed interest to join in the work of the TRANSFORM projecy and create their own photovoice responses. Other exhibitions are planned to tale place in secondary schools in the eastern part of Freetown.
Monduli, Tanzania
July 2025
Images from day 1 of the school-based exhibition in Mwasi in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania
With the eager help of many girls and boys, Monica Shank Lauwo, placed the Youth United exhibition at the school in Mwasi in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. The exhibition was envisioned to be part of the Hadithi Zetu after-school girls' club, however most of the school ended up coming to view, including some teachers. Everyone was just so fascinated and curious. When engaging with the images, Monica heard comments like, 'Is this Mwasi?' 'Is this Monduli?' The images seemed to have a sense of familiarity.
Monduli, Tanzania
July 2025
Images from day 2 of the school-based exhibition in Mwasi in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania
The exhibition was erected for a second time so that the Hadithi Zetu after-school girls' club could engage more fully. Monica had recently worked with the girls on a photovoice project on the theme of Ndoto Zetu (our dreams), On Day 2 of the exhibition, some of the photos the girls themselves had taken, were displayed alongside the Youth United will Never Be Defeated exhibition. Monica reflects “ With the help of these images, we were able to have some conversations about topics that are somewhat taboo, or at least very challenging to broach otherwise, such as the importance of sex ed, drug addiction, early pregnancy, early marriage, patriarchy and how it impacts both women and men, dangers that girls are exposed to when fetching firewood, and deep gender inequalities in household labour. Powerful!”
Kjipuktuk, Halifax, Canada
September 2025
Images from Treaty Space Gallery, NSCAD, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Travelling Images: Mi'kma'ki, is the first Canadian stop of the touring exhibition Youth United Will Never Be Defeatedd, held at he Treaty Space Gallery, an Indigenous-focused exhibition space at Nova Scotia college of Art & Design (NSCAD). Youth researchers from Eskasoni First Nation hosted the exhibition as a creative conversation between their creative publications, the Youth United Will Never Be Defeated exhibition, and the embroidered images from Transform(émonos) Mexico-based embroidery collective.
Kjipuktuk, Halifax, Canada
September 2025
Images from Treaty Space Gallery, NSCAD, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The exhibition was installed for two weeks and incorporated an opening reception, a book launch of Sacred Paths, an embroidery workshop led by Dr. Graciela Martínez-Zalce Sánchez from the Transform(émonos) group in Mexico and culminated with a harvest feast.