በርካ (be-re-ka) describes the third, and typically final, round of coffee in a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. The term also means blessings. In this piece, I memorialize my father through fabric and material art.
My father, Kenfe Bellay, lived in Ethiopia during the Derg regime, a politically violent chapter of Ethiopia's history marked by the incarceration and execution of innocent civilians, civil unrest, and political corruption. He escaped Ethiopia in the '80s, only for his mother to pass away shortly after his migration to Germany. After ten years there, he moved to the United States, where he worked as a taxi driver until he could afford to open a coffee shop. Sidamo Coffee and Tea served as a bridge between his worlds, allowing him to plant seeds of Ethiopian coffee culture and communal practices into the fabric of one of DC's busiest corridors.
After my father's death, he came to me in a dream. He told me it was his final goodbye, and that he was on his way to see his mother for the first time in 40 years. This piece, በርካ, is a material memory of that dream. Its process integrates elements of my father's story and identity.
The piece includes cyanotypes of my father, his German passport, his mother, and the cross he carried with him for the entirety of his life in the US. Each cyanotype was toned in coffee and sewn onto a burlap coffee bag from his own shop. My father died of a rare form of blood cancer, and I used red thread to connect elements of his life back to his mother. Thread, like blood, traces everything back to where it began. This is በርካ, the final round, the blessing, his return to her after 40 years apart.
Materials: cyanotype, coffee, burlap, cotton