Translating Culture into Systems for Heritage, Health & Global Development | Founder | Cultural Strategist | Historian | @kiyanawraps đȘ@caffoundationuk
THE RIVER RUNS DEEP | Expressing The Headwrap Rituals as Performance Art :
For this piece, entitled âThe River Runs Deepâ , we wanted to tell a proliferating, musical and captivating vision of @KiyanaWraps - and make it eminently teachable too.
The performance is a creative display of head wrapping techniques, driven by the folkloric music - a romanticised image of beauty and lamentation drawn from the African landscape; a voyage of discovery. It begins dramatically with four ladies zigzagging through the crowd like a tributary until they feed onto the stage and take position to be wrapped one by one.
âItâs a human experience filled with poetic imagination,â says Kiyana Wraps founder Madeleine Laini. The headwrap ritual signifies an aesthetic with diverse cultural backgrounds, an emblematic memory of an imagined homeland that invites the audience to experience the Congolese story. âWeâve all come from somewhere, weâre all trying to find our way home.â
Madeleine uses the mighty river as a metaphor to construct a sense of Africanness and Blackness. The wax prints offer her a connection to the DRC which she uses to explore the complex realities and fantasies of what it means to be a âmodernâ Congolese woman in The Diaspora. âThe Congo river provides vital connections across the country, across the ages, across the histories, the fables and people that live alongside it.â There is also this vulnerable side to the river, a landscape of solitude and layers of silence, conjuring up thoughts of infinity and desire to dream of alternative African futures. âFabrics also move in fluid motions, theyâre fragile yet strong with full of [style] possibilities - like a riverâ, she says.
The beauty of the head wrap explored in âThe River Runs Deepâ is a language of unexpected juxtapositions. âThe river has formed me. I feel a deep connection to itâ.
Kiyana Wraps Stage Performance At The Focus Organisation 8th Anniversary, Rich Mix, London, 2018
#UnveilingKiyana #congoleseandfabulous #CongoRiver
HEALTH | Risking my life (in this case âlifeâ = my ankles)! Because our #headwrap practice received an award for our groundbreaking work in dementia through @kiyanawraps at the UK Dementia Awards 2026 recently in Coventry!
I couldnât be any happier. Can you tell?
#Hurrah #DeepJoy #UnveilingKiyana
SIGNATURE | The items in my wardrobe that I couldnât live without are a blazer and a scarf of some sort - works as a jewel peice, hair band AND keeps me warm. They donât go out of style and make me feel put together, even if Iâm wearing jeans. This particular polka dot scarf is over 15 years old đ§
#stylefile #stylefiles #OOTD #stylearchives #classicstyle
I try to document moments of our lives. I find myself wondering whether I would have been so driven and determined had it not been for the setbacks I have overcome.
Setbacks make you understand what life is about - and what there is to lose. But also your capabilitites to rise above the surface. And breathe.
@kiyanawraps is where I learned to be a leader⊠itâs an active decision in our persuit and vision.
For there is an ending, more glorious than not.
The obstacles in our path might not only be surmountable, but they may also be the springboard needed to pivot to the version of you.
That you have been waiting to meet.
⊠Bounce awayâŠ
M. xo
ATONEMENT | What does the atonement mean?
It came to me just now,
looking at my own photograph.
My photos are inspirations of thoughts, more often than not, the doors to whispers from within that guide execution. Poses are the shape of emotions in motion at the exact moment it arrived. I perform. Performance.
We perform.
But when I am with you-
then the performance falls away.
Then it becomes a celebration.
Of us.
Joy.
Deep joy.
The kind that doesnât need a witness to be real.
Maybe it means at-one-ment.
The long way back to yourself.
Not erasing the wound(s)-
but learning to hold it without bleeding on everything.
So in the end?
I live a lot in my head.
But even there
especially there
atonement might simply be this:
seeing myself,
and not turning away.
M.xo
#AThousandFailedSelfies #CommunityBuilding #Selfhood #NextSteps #FindingJoy
![THE RIVER RUNS DEEP | Expressing The Headwrap Rituals as Performance Art :For this piece, entitled âThe River Runs Deepâ , we wanted to tell a proliferating, musical and captivating vision of @KiyanaWraps - and make it eminently teachable too.The performance is a creative display of head wrapping techniques, driven by the folkloric music - a romanticised image of beauty and lamentation drawn from the African landscape; a voyage of discovery. It begins dramatically with four ladies zigzagging through the crowd like a tributary until they feed onto the stage and take position to be wrapped one by one.âItâs a human experience filled with poetic imagination,â says Kiyana Wraps founder Madeleine Laini. The headwrap ritual signifies an aesthetic with diverse cultural backgrounds, an emblematic memory of an imagined homeland that invites the audience to experience the Congolese story. âWeâve all come from somewhere, weâre all trying to find our way home.âMadeleine uses the mighty river as a metaphor to construct a sense of Africanness and Blackness. The wax prints offer her a connection to the DRC which she uses to explore the complex realities and fantasies of what it means to be a âmodernâ Congolese woman in The Diaspora. âThe Congo river provides vital connections across the country, across the ages, across the histories, the fables and people that live alongside it.â There is also this vulnerable side to the river, a landscape of solitude and layers of silence, conjuring up thoughts of infinity and desire to dream of alternative African futures. âFabrics also move in fluid motions, theyâre fragile yet strong with full of [style] possibilities - like a riverâ, she says.The beauty of the head wrap explored in âThe River Runs Deepâ is a language of unexpected juxtapositions. âThe river has formed me. I feel a deep connection to itâ.Kiyana Wraps Stage Performance At The Focus Organisation 8th Anniversary, Rich Mix, London, 2018#UnveilingKiyana #congoleseandfabulous #CongoRiver](https://sp1.picnob.com/p/pt_6727514220215638646670_0_a80e330f5437f65ae85b4580e01bbdd2.jpg?o=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&h=1761d5d01c98f867a6a29705c6d1ed8d)
