Renowned visual artist Harmonia Rosales has long been celebrated for reimagining African mythology through paint, canvas, and sculpture. Now, she’s bringing that same visionary approach with her debut book, Chronicles of Ori: An African Epic, set for release on October 14. The richly layered work builds upon Rosales’ exploration of the Orishas, and in it, she weaves tales that span the birth of the universe to the modern world of colonialism and resistance. The upcoming book illuminates the stories that shaped a culture, with vivid artwork and prose that make them breathe anew.
Rosales officially kicked off her book tour in September at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art during Atlanta Art Fair Weekend, returning to a campus that holds a special place in her career. In 2023, she presented her exhibition Master Narrative at Spelman, an experience she describes as pivotal. “Liz Andrews did an amazing job curating the show. She understood it, and I had such a warm welcome,” Rosales said. “That was my first introduction, and I wanted to come back specifically because of the warm welcome I had. And also they acquired a piece too.” For the opening night of her tour, Rosales was joined by her friend and longtime supporter, author and businesswoman Bozoma Saint John, for a conversation following a packed book signing.
Moving from canvas to page was challenging, and deeply intentional, for Rosales. She had always understood the power of art to help shift one’s perspective, but the written word offered a way to preserve stories for generations. When creating her paintings, she often reworked Renaissance masterpieces to insert Black bodies within them, offering viewers a point of familiarity while reframing history. Yet, as she dug deeper into her research, she realized there were entire kingdoms, leaders, and mythologies that rarely—if ever—entered mainstream narratives. “We’re never taught this,” she said, reflecting on that discovery. “So I thought, let me write this mythology that can go alongside the Greek or Norse mythology, because that’s what has shaped our Western culture. Where’s our stories?”
Additionally, Rosales admitted that before Chronicles of Ori, she had never written anything longer than a few pages at a time. Learning to describe an image instead of illustrating it required a different rhythm, but a similar approach. “I had to do it how I do my paintings—in layers,” she explained. In order to give life to the book, Rosales drew from multiple locations across the diaspora, taking fragments from Brazil, Cuba, and the United States into a cohesive narrative. Chronicles of Ori, she explained, is “less about mythology in the traditional sense and more about building foundations for the future.” By bringing these stories together, she created space that places Black experiences at the center.
Saint John, who has collected Rosales’ work for years, said the significance of this book lies in how it gives voice to our heritage in a new way. “I own a piece called Eve & the Orishas, and from the first moment I found [Harmonia’s] work, I was inspired by it,” she said. “There’s an African proverb that says, ‘Until the lion learns to write, the victory will always go to the hunter.’ I see the very same thing in her work. She is redefining and retelling a history that has always been ours.”
“It’s very full circle,” she added, iterating that Spelman was the ideal place for such a moment. “This institution is one of the few in the world dedicated toward the excellence of Black women. The fact that Harmonia and I could be here, having this deep conversation, tells a lot.”
The tour will take Rosales across the globe, with upcoming stops at Sotheby’s in Los Angeles for a talk with Tina Knowles, the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco with Key Jo Lee, the National Gallery in London with Kimberly Drew, and Howard University with Bisa Butler. But launching the tour at Spelman embodied the core of her mission: centering Black women, art, and storytelling. In many ways, Chronicles of Ori represents something constant. “Even though I called it a mythology, it’s really not—it’s still living and breathing,” Rosales said. “It’s a foundation where we can begin to truly build upon.”