Black Portraiture[s] VII: Play and Performance (The 42nd Annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series)
Date: February 17th – 19th 2022 (Thursday – Saturday)
Location: Express Newark at Rutgers University-Newark, Newark, New Jersey
Express Newark at Rutgers University-Newark is hosting Black Portraiture[s]: Play and Performance, the seventh annual Black Portraiture[s] Conference. The three-day conference explores the theme of play and performance in past and contemporary African diasporic art and performance and will conclude with a series of groundbreaking keynote conversations for the 42nd Annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture at The Newark Museum of Art.
Sponsors:
Rutgers University, Express Newark, Clement A Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture & the Modern Experience at Rutgers University–Newark, Ford Foundation, Rutgers University Paul Robeson Galleries, Project for Empty Space, The Newark Museum of Art, The Institute of the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University, New Arts Justice, Shine Portrait Studio, Prudential Center, NYU Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation, Center for Black Visual Culture at the Institute of African American Affairs NYU, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research Harvard University, Institute of Emerging Media, Department of Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, New Jersey Council for the Humanities, New Jersey Historical Commission, A Long Walk Home, Black Girl Freedom Fund, Duggal Visual Solutions, HarbourView.
Panels (Thursday, February 17th)
Finding Solidarity within Play and Action in a Time of Social Uprising
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Panelists:
Jessica Lynne, Jasmine Wahi
Moderator(s):
Brendan Fernandes
Performance, Poetics, & the Story: A Merging of Interdisciplinary Expression and Identity
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Panelists:
Xiomara Bovell, Quess Green, Amir Denzel Hall
Moderator(s):
Iliana Smith, Zeus Sumra
Sights and Sounds
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Panelists:
Jason King, Kai Parker, Katleho Shoro, Tanika I. Williams
What Else Can There Be? Black Play / Cultural (Dis)Locations
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Panelists:
DeAngela Duff, Marta Effinger-Crichlow, Dyana Williams
Moderator(s):
Michael Dinwiddie
Embodied Witness: Performing Memory for Black (re)cognition
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
Adama Delphine Fawundu, Vernice Miller
Moderator(s):
Beretta S. Macaulay
Out From Outside – Preparing to Play with John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, & Milford Graves
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
Kehinde Alonge, Matthias Domingo Mushinski, Michelle Aeojin Yom
Subversions and Interventions
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
Danielle Bowler, William Henry Pruitt III, Katie Schaag
Contemporary Art–Painting, Public Art, Photography
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Panelists:
Pamela Council, Jacqueline Gopie, L. Kasimu Harris, Sarah Khan, Lewis Watts
Glimpses of Aliveness: Pleasure and Subject Making in Black Diasporic Visual Culture
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Panelists:
Darius Bost, Petal Samuel, Dagmawi Woubshet
Moderator(s):
GerShun Avilez
Marking Territory in the Void
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Panelists:
Nyugen E. Smith, Amber Robles-Gordon, Sarah Stefana Smith
Moderator(s):
Alex Callendar
Movement, Memory, and Masquerades
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Panelists:
Adisa Anderson, Ayasha Guerin, Alao Luqman Omotayo
Performances – Christopher Massenburg, Gwen Moten
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Panelists:
Christopher Massenburg, Gwen Moten
Moderator(s):
Marcus Jamison
Absurdism and Black Laughter
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Panelists:
Hakimah Abdul-Fattah, Inayah Bashir, Troziel xx
Moderator(s):
Enas Hassan
Black Girls on the Verge
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Panelists:
Destiny Crockett, Kyra Gaunt, Régine Michelle Jean-Charles, Kiana Murphy, Amoni Thompson
Moderator(s):
Porshé Garner
Performances – Antoinette Ellis-Williams, Chelsea Flowers, Alexis Alleyne-Caputo
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Panelists:
Alexis Alleyne-Caputo, Antoinette Ellis-Williams, Chelsea Flowers
Moderator(s):
Marcus Jamison
Picturing Black Girlhood: Moments of Possibility
5:00 pm
Panelists:
Adama Delphine Fawundu, Zoraida Lopez-Diago, Jacqueline Mattis, Scheherazade Tillet
Panels (Friday, February 18th)
Black Archive Fever
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Panelists:
Mel Harper, Kerry-Ann James, Ricky Weaver
Moderator(s):
Yvonne Michelle Shirley
Black Spatial Futures
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Panelists:
Jonathan W. Gray, Kavita Kulkarni, Elias Rodriques
Performances: JM Nimocks, CJ Wattley
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Panelists:
J.M. Nimocks, CJ Wattley
Moderator(s):
Marcus Jamison
Radical Love and Black Queer Histories
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Panelists:
Naomi Extra, Oliva R. Polk
Moderator(s):
Kristen Owens
Rituals of Black Girlhood: Sacred Portraits of Play
10:00 am – 11:30 pm
Panelists:
Loren S. Cahill, Noor Jones-Bey, Blair Ebony Smith
Moderator(s):
Vashti DuBois
Play at the End of the World: Knightworks Lecture Demonstration
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
Christina Knight, Jessi Knight
Black Girl Play, Performance, and Activism
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Panelists:
Leah Gipson, Mimi Owusu, Aja D. Reynolds
Moderator(s):
Porshé Garner
Grounds that Shout
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Panelists:
Deborah Thomas, Reggie Wilson
Mas’ Movements
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Panelists:
Lauren Baccus, Natalya Mills (Chief Erelu Awo), Kenwyn Murray
Performances – Quanda Johnson, Rashid Zakat
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Panelists:
Quanda Johnson, Rashid Zakat
Moderator(s):
Marcus Jamison
Performances – Hettie Barnhill, Duhirwe Rushemeza
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Panelists:
Hettie Barnhill, Duhirwe Rushemeza
Moderator(s):
Marcus Jamison
Panels (Saturday, February 19th)
On Play and Performance: Key Note Conversations
10:00 am – 10:45 am
Panelists:
Salamishah Tillet, Tyler Mitchell
Moderator(s):
Deborah Willis
10:45 am – 11:30 am
Panelists:
Regina Carter
Moderator:
Farah Jasmine Griffin
11:50 am – 12:35 pm
Panelists:
Bisa Butler
Moderator:
Linda Harrison
11:50 am – 12:35 pm
Panelists:
Dominique Morisseau
Moderator:
Kamilah Forbes
42nd Annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series
On the final day, the 42nd Annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture will be held at the Newark Museum of Art, featuring keynote artists who all foreground the themes of play, utopia, and performances in their work. Conversations will take place from 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. and will include photographer Tyler Mitchell with Dr. Deborah Willis; visual artist Bisa Butler and Linda Harrison, the Director and the CEO of the Newark Museum of Art, and Grammy-award nominated jazz violinist Regina Carter in dialogue with renowned scholar Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin, and playwright Dominique Morisseau in conversation with Kamilah Forbes, the Executive Producer of Apollo Theater.
The Annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture (MTW) series was co-founded in 1981 by Clement A. Price, Giles R. Wright, and the MTW Study Club, who launched the series with the conviction that understanding the historical context of racism would aid in organizing struggles, building a beloved community and a better world. The conference is named in honor of East Orange native Marion Thompson Wright (1902–1962), the first black female to earn a history Ph.D.—the focus was on “The Education of Negroes in New Jersey” (Columbia University, 1941). Her research helped the NAACP overturn the “separate but equal” doctrine in “Brown v. Board of Education.” In her honor, the Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series brings outstanding thinkers and doers of African and African American life and history. The MTW series is diverse, civically engaged, and devoted to life-long learners.
Acknowledgments
This event is hosted by Express Newark and the Clement Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and Modern Experience at Rutgers University–Newark, with additional major funding from the Ford Foundation, The Institute of the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University, Department of Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, The Institute of African American Affairs/Center for Black Visual Culture at New York University, New Jersey Council of the Humanities, New Jersey Historical Commission, and Prudential Financial.
The exhibitions are hosted by Express Newark and Project for Empty Space, with additional major funding from the Ford Foundation, A Long Walk Home, New Arts Justice, Grantmakers for Girls of Color, The Black Girl Freedom Fund, Duggal Visual Solutions, HarbourView Foundation, and co-sponsored by the New Arts Justice, Paul Robeson Galleries, and Shine Portrait Studio.
About Express Newark
Express Newark is a center for socially engaged art and design that brings together the community, the campus, and the City of Newark. Supported by Rutgers University, Newark, it is conceived as a “third space” for students, artists, and activists to make art that matters, addresses our city’s most prevailing social justice issues, and advocates for systemic change.
About Rutgers University–Newark
Rutgers University – Newark (RU-N) is a remarkably diverse, urban, public research university that is not just in Newark but of Newark—an anchor institution of our home city. We think of anchor institutions as place-based organizations that persist in their communities over generations even in the face of substantial capital flight, serving as social glue, economic engines, or both.
About The Clement A. Price Institute
The Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers Newark is committed to rigorous and interdisciplinary scholarship, artistic creativity, and a democratic and engaged university promoting the continued revitalization of Greater Newark and beyond. The Price Institute strives to bridge campus and community through public programs and research projects whose collective objective is to deepen knowledge of the region’s complex and diverse history, enrich understanding of its current state of affairs, and build towards more just and equitable futures.