The Grapevine

Jewish sacred and profane buildings have been part of the architecture and cityscapes since antiquity; the earliest findings of Jewish settlements and buildings in northern Europe date back to medieval times. During the course of the centuries, a broad range of structures that are essential for Jewish congregational life were constructed:

synagogues, mikva’ot, cemeteries, Taharah houses, kosher slaughterhouses, bakeries, etc. The turn from the 19th to the 20th centuries marks the biggest growth of Jewish life in Europe that underwent a fundamental break during the Nazi era. The current generation, like its successors, too, is confronted with the appropriate treatment of the remains, that former Jewish communities inherited.

Besides the numerous written and visual sources, the preserved former Jewish buildings themselves call for response to their substance.

Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture in Europe organizes the interdisciplinary and international conference Jewish Architecture – New Sources and Approaches…

This may meander.

Miley Cyrus made news this week with a carnival-like stage performance at the MTV Video Music Awards that included life-size teddy bears, flesh-colored underwear, and plenty of quivering brown buttocks. Almost immediately after the performance many black women challenged Cyrus’ appropriation of black dance (“twerking”). Many white feminists defended Cyrus’ right to be a sexual woman without being slut-shamed. Yet many others wondered why Cyrus’ sad attempt at twerking was news when the U.S. is planning military action in Syria.

I immediately thought of a summer I spent at UNC Chapel Hill. My partner at the time fancied himself a revolutionary born too late for all the good protests. At a Franklin Street pub one night we were the only black couple at a happy hour. It is one of those college places where concoctions of the bar’s finest bottom shelf liquor is served in huge fishbowls…

Sisa Bueno began work on her documentary of the AfroBolivian community while serving as a volunteer in Bolivia. We of the Saya (Nosotros los de la Saya) attempts to expose the systemic vulnerability of a group that, historically, has not even been recognized as an existing people by the Bolivian government. It is a state of affairs that resonates strongly with many AfroLatin@ groups throughout the Americas.

Bueno’s film follows the struggles of an AfroBolivian farmer who aspires to help her marginalized community by entering politics. The documentary provides a rare glimpse into history unfolding. In a recent article, Ms. Bueno notes the important questions surrounding identity in the Americas:  “[H]ere in the U.S., we really confine ourselves to these kinds of labels that were not created by us, but for us… ‘black’ and ‘African-American’ are the same. At least in my view, that’s not the same thing…

Hosted by University of California-Irvine:

While the transatlantic slave trade lasted nearly four centuries, over one quarter, or 2.9 million enslaved Africans, disembarked in the Americas-and to a lesser extent in Africa- after 1807. About 174,000 of this 2.9 million were “re-captured” by naval vessels, mainly British, charged with suppressing this traffic. These were the “Liberated Africans”. As this population crossed the boundaries of slavery and freedom many times, they reshaped their identities as their faced various systems of race and ethnic classification across imperial boundaries. The locally bounded and trans-nationally-linked meanings of slavery and freedom, as well as race and ethnicity in the nineteenth century will be the focus of this meeting. By gathering scholars experienced on digital research, the first goal of this conference is examining the use of databases, Geographical Information Systems, sound recordings, online storage, and other digital tools to maximize collaborative research, education, and outreach…

Here is another in the series of reviews that were produced as part of the NGJ’s recent art writing workshop for its curatorial staff. This comparison between the self-portraits of Henry Daley from our permanent collection and Camille Chedda’s self-portraits in New Roots was written by Monique Barnett-Davidson. Monique is a Painting graduate of the Edna Manley College and is one of our two Curatorial Assistants.

As an art enthusiast, I always enjoy tracking how artists over time have extended long-referenced concepts and subject matters to discuss and explore aspects of culture and social life. As I explored the recently installed contemporary exhibition, New Roots: 10 Emerging Artists, at the NGJ, I was excited to identify parallels between that and works from the NGJ’s permanent display of older modern pieces.

Take self-portraiture for example. In Jamaican art, approaches to self-portraiture have been largely conventional. There are, however, some Jamaican…

Happy Autumn! On our blog this month we highlight AfroLatino culture and history in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month. There are vibrant and distinct Black communities throughout Mexico, Central and South America as well as the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. The term AfroLatino refers to people with Latin American heritage who also identify as descendants of the millions of Africans who were forced to work as slaves on sugar, tobacco and rice plantations in the Americas between the 16^th and 19^th centuries. AfroLatinidad is the tradition of struggle, rebellion and overcoming obstacles, which this community continues today.