An evocative exhibition featuring Somali painter Mohamed Hersi and Liberian painter Flahn Manly, My Brother’s Keeper: War Babies explores the lives and legacies of artists born amid the civil wars of Somalia and Liberia in the 1990s. Part of a generation often called “War Babies,” their lives were shaped by violence, displacement, and diaspora.

This exhibition is both a personal testimony and a historical reflection—tracing the rupture of ancestral legacies and the resilience born in their aftermath. Through color, form, and portraiture, Hersi and Manly reclaim what was lost and reimagine what can be built.

A Legacy Interrupted

In the early 1990s, Liberia and Somalia were devastated by civil conflict. Liberia’s First Civil War began in 1989, leading to the assassination of President Samuel Doe in 1990 and a brutal power struggle between militias. Over 150,000 people were killed and nearly 800,000 displaced. Infrastructure, culture, and institutions collapsed; child soldiers and destroyed villages became grim hallmarks of the era.

In Somalia, the regime of Mohamed Siad Barre fell in 1991. What followed was not peace, but violent fragmentation. Clan militias battled for control, and a once-cohesive society known for its rich history of trade, poetry, and scholarship descended into chaos. Tens of thousands died, and half a million fled.

For many, including the families of Hersi and Manly, war severed connections to generations of civic and cultural progress. Educators, artists, and professionals were scattered, their futures burned with their cities.

From War Zones to the Midwest

Mohamed Hersi was born in New Delhi to Somali refugees. His early memories—full of vibrant Indian festivals like Holi—now infuse his art with bold, abstract color. At age nine, he and his family resettled in Minnesota, joining one of the first waves of Somali immigrants supported by Lutheran Social Service and Catholic Charities.

CLOSING TALK MAY 19TH [7PM]
Tix are FREE & DONATION BASED

SHOWING APRIL 18TH – MAY 19TH
During regular gallery hours.

CLOSING TALK WILL BE HOSTED
BY DR. CHARITY CLAY

Dr. Charity Clay is a seasoned African-American scholar, educator and artist with a PhD in Critical Race Sociology, currently leading an oral history project in South Memphis as part of the Mellon Fellowships. She previously worked as a Harvard Fellow at the Hutchins Center with Skip Gates, focusing on projects like “Finding Your Roots” and the Great Migration. As a former HBCU professor, Dr. Clay has a strong foundation in African American history and the migration of the greater African diaspora. Born and raised in Minneapolis, she is deeply connected to the community’s history, making her the ideal host and moderator to lead this artist talk.