Visualizing Blackness
October 12-15, 2000
Cornell University
A Conference to be held in Conjunction with
The Exhibition
BLACKNESS IN COLOR: Visual Expressions of the Black Arts Movement (1960-Present)
At The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
Celebrating Thirty Years of Africana Studies at Cornell University
Funded by a generous grant from the Ford Foundation, this conference is scheduled to coincide with the 30th Anniversary of the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. The conference will be attended by scholars, artists, curators and other experts in the field of African American, African Diaspora art and visual cultures.
The conference will focus on the visual expressions of the Black Arts Movement in the United States from the 1960s to the present. However, this topic will serve as a springboard for an intellectual exchange on current issues related to African American, African Diaspora art and visual cultures. The conference will take a critical look at the role of art in activism and the community as spearheaded by the Black Arts Movement in the aftermath of the Black Power and civil rights movements. The conference will also deal with emerging discourses in the field of Black art and visual culture and their intersections with issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The proceedings of the conference will be published as a book in collaboration with a major publisher.
THE CONFERENCE IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
To register to attend please contact: Diane Butler at (607) 255-6464 or e-mail at: dsb16@cornell.edu
For Hotels in Ithaca please visit the website:
www.visitithaca.com/
RELIMINARY PROGRAM THURSDAY OCTOBER 12, 2000
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
5:00 – 8:00 PM:
Welcoming Remarks and Reception
Professor James Turner, Director, Africana Studies and Research Center
President Hunter and Elizabeth Rawlings
Professor Frank Robinson, Richard J Schwartz Director, Herbert F. Johnson Museum
Tribute (Memory to be honored): Toni Cade Bambara, Carolyn Fowler Hoyt Fuller, Addison Gayle, Larry Neal, Dudley Randall, and Margaret Walker.
Poetry Reading by: Amiri Baraka, Mari Evans, Angela Jackson, Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, and Askia Toure
Music by Amiri Baraka and the Blue Ark Band
(Tentative, Place to be announced)
FRIDAY OCTOBER 13, 2000 RPCC
8:30-10:30 AM:
The Black Arts Movement in Theory and Practice
Moderator:
James Turner, Professor, Director, Africana Studies, Cornell University
Panelists:
Amiri Baraka, poet, playwright Haki Madhubuti, Poet, founder and publisher of Third World Press, Chicago
Michael Thelwell, professor, University of Massachusetts
Eleanor Traylor, professor and English Department Chair, Howard University
Discussant:
Sonia Sanchez, poet, professor, Temple University
10:45-12:45 AM:
Affirmation and Reclamation: Modernism and the Origin of a Black Aesthetic:
Moderator:
Biodun Jeyifo, professor of English, Cornell University
Panelists:
Tritobia Hayes Benjamin, Associate Dean, Division of Fine Arts, College of Arts and Sciences, Howard University
David Driskell, Emeritus professor, University of Maryland, College Park
Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins, independent curator and art critic
Discussant:
Clyde Taylor, professor, New York University
1:00- 2:30 PM:
Lunch
2:30-4:30 PM:
Foregrounding Blackness: Art, Activism and the Community
Moderator:
Howard Dodson, Director, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Panelists:
Floyd Coleman, professor of Art, Howard University
Cora Marshall, professor of Art, Central Connecticut State University
Edward S. Spriggs, Executive Director, Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center of African American Art, Atlanta
4:45-6:45 PM:
Foregrounding Blackness: Comparative Perspectives from Africa and the Diaspora
Moderator:
Daniel Dawson, curator and arts consultant, New York
Panelists:
Eddie Chambers, independent curator and art critic, UK
Richard Long, Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Emory University
Zita Nunes, Professor of English, University of Maryland
7:30-8:30 -
Buffet dinner and Cash Bar-
RPCC
9:00 -
Concert (Place and Performer to be announced)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14
RPCC
8:30-10:30 AM:
Race, Stereotypes and the Politics of Representation
Panelists:
Camille Billops, artist, filmmaker, and founder of the Hatch-Billops Collection Michael Harris, artist and professor, North Carolina State University
Howardena Pindell, artist and professor, State University of New York at Stoney Brook
10:35-12:35 PM:
New Discourses: Gender, Feminism and Postmodernism and the Black Subject
Moderator:
Leslie King-Hammonds, Dean, Graduate Studies, Maryland Institute of Art.
Panelists: Kellie Jones, professor, Department of History of Art and African American Studies, Yale University
Freida High Tesfagiorgis, Professor of Art and Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Deborah Willis-Kennedy, artist and curator, Smithsonian Institutions
12:35 – 1:30 PM
Lunch
Uris Hall
Uris Hall Auditorium
1:30-3:00 PM:
Keynote Speaker: Faith Ringgold, artist
“More than 30 Years of Making Art”
3:30-5:30 PM:
Artists panel
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
Moderator: Salah Hassan, professor, Cornell University
Panelists: Emma Amos, artist, professor Rutgers University
Kay Brown, artist and art historian, Washington, DC
Jeff Donaldson, artist and Emeritus Dean, School of Fine Arts, Howard University
Mel Edwards, artist and professor of Art, Rutgers University
Ademola Olugebefola, artist and Co-Director, Grinnell Fine Art Collection, New York
5:30-7:30PM:
Public Reception:
Herbert F. Johnson Museum
7:30-9:30 PM:
Banquet
G10 Conference Room, The Biotechnology Building
Keynote Speaker:
Barry Gaither, Founder and Director, National Museum of Afro-American Artists, and curator, Museum of Fine Art, Boston
Music by Mamadou Diabate
11:00 PM:
Dance Party (with DJ)
RPCC: Sunday, Oct. 15
Hoyt Fuller Room, Africana Studies and Research Center
10:30-12:00 -
Farewell brunch and discussion
Conference Coordinator:
Salah M. Hassan
Associate Professor Africana Studies Cornell University
310 Triphammer Rd Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 255-0528 Tel
(607) 255-0784 Fax
e-mail: sh40@cornell.edu
