The Grapevine

Strange Cargo: Jane Alexander at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Neelika Jayawardane's avatarAfrica is a Country (Old Site)

Okwui Enwezor described the ephemera of Africa that arrived in European docks as “strange cargo”: as it was unloaded from ship to warehouse by longshoremen, as it was bid on, sold, and displayed in wealthy homes, lost and rediscovered, each object shaped European visions of Africa. ‘Africa’ as we imagine it now, was shaped by that strange cargo. Later in his essay in the January 1996 issue of frieze, Enwezor asked, “Why do we never consider the achievements of those artists who at great professional cost and individual isolation have not only transcended but have equally transfigured the borders constituting the notion of Africanity?” South African artist Jane Alexander’s work, now positioned throughout the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighbourhood, is part of the tradition of Africa’s strange cargo, but it is freight that – possibly at the cost of easy audience engagement, and…

View original post 3,620 more words

ACRAH’s photostream

Uhaul.com

Check out this photograph of a uhaul van featuring the underground railroad as part of a new advertising campaign. Discuss.

CFP: African Diasporas: Old and New @ University of Texas 2014

The University of Texas Africa Conference
African Diasporas: Old and New
April 3-6, 2014

We are now inviting scholars to submit conference papers and full panel
proposals for the 2014 conference on African Diasporas: Old and New. The
goal of this conference is to create an interdisciplinary dialogue
concerning Africa and Africans throughout the world from both historical
and contemporary approaches. This conference seeks to bring together a vast
array of scholars on a variety of academic levels to discuss the complex
experiences of African descended peoples across the globe.

What is the African Diaspora? How are old and new diasporas discussed in a
variety of disciplines? How can we conceptualize the African Diaspora? What
is the role of the African Diaspora in modern politics? How do various
groups within old and new African diasporas conceptualize themselves in
relation to others? How do diasporic voices shape conceptualizations of
individual and collective identities? What will the African diaspora look
like in the future?

Some potential topics may include:****

  • Human rights in the African Diaspora
  • Identity politics in the African Diaspora****
  • Conceptualizations of Diaspora****
  • The concept of homeland****
  • Reverse migrations****
  • Transnationalism, immigration, and citizenship****
  • Expressive culture in the African Diaspora****
  • Historiographical debates on the African Diaspora****
  • Religion, traditional culture, and creolization in the African Diaspora****
  • New Media and social media in the African Diaspora****
  • Slavery and the African Diaspora****
  • Kinship****
  • Indian Ocean networks****
  • Trans Saharan Trade****
  • Colonialism, labor, and the African Diaspora****
  • New Diaspora history****
  • Migration and memory****
  • International politics in the African diaspora****
  • Cultural expressions of political realities, including political protest in the forms of music, literature, film, art, etc., both in Africa and throughout the Diaspora
  • Forms of transnational political protest in the African Diaspora

As with all our previous conferences, participants will be drawn from
different parts of the world. Submitted papers will be assigned to
particular panels according to similarities in theme, topic, discipline, or
geographical location. Papers can also be submitted together as a panel.
Additionally, selected papers will be published in book form.

This conference also has a commitment to professional development which
will be fostered through workshops in writing, publishing, and conference
presentation. The conference will also provide ample time for professionals
from various disciplines and geographical locations to interact, exchange
ideas, and receive feedback. Graduate students are especially encouraged to
attend and present papers and will be partnered with a senior scholar to
encourage their own growth as scholars.

The deadline for submitting paper proposals is November 31, 2013. Proposals
should include a 250-word abstract and title, as well as the author’s name,
address, telephone number, email address, and institutional affiliation.

Please submit all abstracts to Cacee Hoyer/Danielle Sanchez:
africaconference2014@gmail.com

A mandatory non-refundable registration fee of $150 for scholars and $100
for graduate students must be paid immediately upon the acceptance of the
abstract. This conference fee includes admission to the panels, workshops,
and special events, as well as transportation to and from the conference
from the hotel, breakfast for three days, dinner on Friday night, lunch on
Saturday, and a banquet on Saturday evening.

The University of Texas at Austin does not provide participants with any
form of funding support, travel expenses, or boarding expenses. If the
conference obtains outside funding this will be used to help subsidize
graduate students’ accommodations on a competitive basis but it is not
guaranteed.

Convened by Dr. Toyin Falola****
Coordinated by Cacee Hoyer and Danielle Sanchez

CFP: “Making Art In/About/For Cities in Crisis” Session @ Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Making Art In/About/For Cities in Crisis
45th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
April 3-6, 2014
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Host: Susquehanna University

This session seeks to promote cross-disciplinary discussion of the roles
verbal and visual art might play in the 21st-century American city. On the
heels of the Great Recession, cities are undergoing massive
transformations, with some gaining new prominence by attracting
what Richard Florida calls “creative class” workers while others,
particularly in the industrial Midwest and overbuilt South and Southwest,
seem to be in irreversible decline. In collaboration with government and
business leaders, architects and urban designers are arranging the physical
environments of cities on the rise to further accelerate and intensify
economic growth. At the same time, writers and artists are flocking to
cities at the other end of the spectrum—Detroit, most prominently—creating
collectives and workshops reminiscent of the 1960s poetry and art scenes in
cities like Los Angeles and New York. Are we, as Sarah Schulman argues in
The Gentrification of the Mind, on the leading edge of another wave of
appropriation and displacement, with writers and artists merely leading the
way? Can anything save cities from capitalism’s tendency toward creative
destruction? Do they need to be saved? Is there a critique from art or
aesthetic theory that might be put in productive dialogue with economic and
cultural approaches to urban problems? When will the new generation of
urban artists break through and in which media?

Send 250-word abstracts with contact and affiliation information to Nate Mickelson,
mickelsonjn@yahoo.com by September 30, 2013.

About the Conference:

The 2014 NeMLA convention continues the Association’s tradition of sharing
innovative scholarship in an engaging and generative location. This capitol
city set on the Susquehanna River is known for its vibrant restaurant
scene, historical sites, the National Civil War museum, and nearby Amish
Country, antique shops and Hershey Park.  NeMLA has arranged low hotel
rates of $104-$124.

The 2014 event will include guest speakers, literary readings, professional
events, and workshops. A reading by George Saunders will open the
Convention. His 2013 collection of short fiction, The Tenth of
December, has been acclaimed by the New York Times as: “the best
book you’ll read this year.” NeMLA’s Keynote Speaker will be David Staller,
Producer and Director of Project Shaw. Mr. Staller presents monthly
script-in-hand performances of Bernard Shaw’s plays at the Players Club in
New York City.

Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA
session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar).
Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at
a creative session or participate in a roundtable.

http://www.nemla.org/convention/2014/cfp.html

 

SYMP: American Art in Dialogue with Africa and its Diaspora @ Smithsonian American Art Museum, October 4-5, 2013

American Art in Dialogue with Africa and its Diaspora

Smithsonian American Art Museum | Eighth and G Streets NW, Washington, D.C.

October 4-5, 2013

This symposium examines the role of Africa and the African Diaspora in the development of art of the United States, from nineteenth-century portraiture to American modernism; from the Harlem Renaissance to the contemporary art world. Speakers include Chika Okeke-Agulu of Princeton University, Krista Thompson of Northwestern University, Jeffrey Stewart of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Celeste-Marie Bernier of the University of Nottingham, James Smalls of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and artist and distinguished scholar David C. Driskell. A full schedule is listed below. For more information, visit AmericanArt.si.edu/research/symposia/2013/terra/.

The event is free, but registration is required at www.America-Africa.eventbrite.com. The symposium will be available through a simultaneous webcast; an archived version will remain online indefinitely. Recordings of past symposia including “Encuentros: Artistic Exchange between the U.S. and Latin America” and “East-West Interchanges in American Art” are now available on the museum’s website, ArtBabble, YouTube, and iTunes U.

Continue reading “SYMP: American Art in Dialogue with Africa and its Diaspora @ Smithsonian American Art Museum, October 4-5, 2013”

CFP: “Life in My City Photo Africa” Photography Contest @ Life In My City Art Festival, Enugu, Nigeria

INTERNATIONAL PHOTO CONTEST: LIFE IN MY CITY PHOTO AFRICA

Life In My City Art Festival, Enugu, Nigeria, hereby invites entries for Life in My City Photo Africa as part of the 2013 Life In My City Art Festival holding in October 2013.

Photo Africa is an international photo contest for African photographers who will be not more than 35 years of age by October 12th, 2013, living and working in Africa.

Submitted works are expected to portray interesting current living conditions in the African city as seen through the lens of photographer, bearing in mind that one of the aims of the Life In My City Art Festival is to provide a platform for young artists to make meaningful statements about their environment.

Rules available at website www.lifeinmycityartsfestival.com

Lena Dunham is my Ike Turner*

This post is about the show Girls, but the title is very problematic. The author is not dealing with the racial polemics that have been raised with regards to this program, rather she reiterates the very problem with no self-awareness of the racial attitudes embedded in her statement.

PinotNinja's avatarStunted Adults

I am in an abusive relationship.

It’s with Girls.

On paper, Girls and I are perfect for each other.  People whose opinions I trust rave about it.  It wins awards.  I worship everything else that Judd Apatow has touched.  I constantly find myself in awkward situations.  And, just like the characters, I spent my 20s scraping by in Brooklyn.

Girls should be my jam.

But, its not.

If we’re being truthy, I can barely stand to watch it.  The characters alternately infuriate and repulse me.  I want to smack all four of them upside the head, show them what a flattering outfit looks like, teach them some basic manners and courtesy, and then put them on a train out of my beloved Brooklyn because, even more than the mustachioed mandolin-toting hipsters who flooded my hood and drove up my rent, they do not deserve to be there.  And…

View original post 735 more words

First Exposure Symposium at Northeastern University, Friday, April 26, 2013

nikkigphd's avatarNikki G Ph.D.

Image

I am very excited about presenting another installment on my ruminations on FUNK at the inaugural symposium of First Exposure, the culmination of a full academic year of reading, meeting, and discussing scholarship in The Dark Room: A Faculty Seminar on Race and Visual Culture, primarily convened at Northeastern University through the rigorous efforts of Assistant Professor of English, Kimberly Juanita Brown. My paper is titled, “Personifying Funk: Lessons Learned from Adrian Piper and Renée Stout,” wherein I will discuss how both artists embodied funk, physically and philosophically in such a way as to resist the limitations of the “triple negation of colored women artists.” I will consider Piper’s Funk Lessons and Renée Stout’s Fetish #2 and her personas, in particular.

There are so many brilliant topics by scholars from across the country with keynote addresses by María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Saidiya Hartman. This symposium will be invigorating and enlightening…

View original post 28 more words