Melike Konur (artist//mother)

Brown Moon is an interdisciplinary performance, music, film, and archival project by Melike Vivastine Konur that preserves and reimagines the endangered histories of Afro-Turk matriarchs. Rooted in research, oral history, and community collaboration, the project transforms songs, rituals, recipes, and lived experiences into original music, audiovisual works, performance, and installation.

There are no existing archives of Afro-Turk mothers, their songs, or their rituals. If they are not documented now, they risk vanishing entirely. Through field research in Türkiye and creative development in Pittsburgh, Brown Moon builds a living archive that honors lineage while offering new forms of belonging.

The project unfolds across multiple forms, including community workshops, exhibitions, audiovisual poetry, public art, and a full-evening multidisciplinary stage performance. By weaving together performance, sound, choreography, storytelling, and visual art, Brown Moon invites audiences into a shared experience of cultural preservation, collective memory, and liberation.

At its heart, Brown Moon is an act of devotion to the unrealized voices and desires of the women who came before us, ensuring that stories threatened by erasure continue to live through future generations.