Black Portraiture[s] II: Imaging the Black Body and Re- Staging Histories
Date: May 28th – 31st 2015
Location: Florence, Italy (NYU Florence)
Black Portraiture(s) II: Imaging the Black Body and Re-Staging Histories offers comparative perspectives on the historical and contemporary roles that visual art, film, literature, and music play in constructing the image of the black body in western culture. This conference brings together artists and scholars from diverse disciplines and practices to engage in wide-ranging conversations about re-imagining the black body. Black Portraiture(s) II explores the impulses, ideas, and techniques underlying the production of self-representation and desire in the visual and performing arts, as well as the archival record of the gaze from the sixteenth century to the present day. The conference invites all in attendance to conduct a critical reading of the black portrait while challenging conventional perspectives on identity, beauty, cosmopolitanism, and community in Africa and its diaspora.
Held at New York University’s historical Villa La Pietra, home of the NYU/Florence program in Florence, Italy, Black Portraiture(s) Il is the sixth in a series of interdisciplinary visual arts conferences Harvard University inaugurated in 2004 with Bridging the Gaps. The well-received 2013 conference, Black Portraitures: Imaging the Black Body in the West, was held in Paris, France, at the Musée de Quai Branly, Ecole des Beaux-Arts and L’Universite de Paris, where it attracted more than 400 attendees.
Black Portraiture(s) II strikes an innovative note by including a focus on depictions of the black body within the Villas art collections, which includes a collection of sculptures and paintings representing ornamental black images known as “Blackamoors.” This tradition of decorative art emerged at the intersection of cross-cul-tural encounters between Africans and Europeans dating from the Renaissance era to the present, where reproductions of historical images and objects are still fabricated. Embedded within centuries-old discourses, cross-cultural encounters, and artistic productions shaped by migration, conquest, servitude, trade, and exile, these images present a rich opportunity to deconstruct, compare, and contextualize from multidisciplinary angles the myriad portrayals of the black body in western societies. Beauty and authenticity, desire and repulsion, power, and submission all come into question with regard to these works. As such, they constitute an invaluable resource to fulfill the intellectual mandate to produce critical knowledge about African and African diasporic identities and representations shared by New York University and Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.
ReSignifications, Professor and curator Awam Amkpas thematic exhibition at the Museo Bardini, Galleria Biagiotti Progetto Arte, and Villa La Pietra, interprets the Blackamoor trope in Western culture by extending the dialogue and proposing new discussions about the crucial role these images have played in shaping perceptions of the black body for more than five hundred years. The exhibition juxtaposes a selection of three-dimensional objects, figurines, and sculptures of Africans in various states of servitude and decoration with reinterpretations and counter-narratives from a spectrum of contemporary artistic angles. It is in the spirit of fulfilling this critical mandate that we invited artists, art historians, photographers, sculptors, film-makers, musicians, designers, writers, and choreographers to respond to and continue the discussion focusing on the black body in the West and the Blackamoor collection in particular.
Sponsors:
NYU Tisch School of the Arts, NYU Institute of African American Affairs, Studio Museum Harlem, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, NYU Global Programs, NYU Florence, Ford Foundation, Comune Di Firenze, NYU Vice Provost for Faculty and Diversity, NYU La Pietra Dialogues, Art in Embassies United States Department of State, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research Harvard University.
Panels (Friday, May 29th) –
Welcome
Cheryl Finley, Ellyn Toscano, Awam Amkpa, Deborah Willis
ReSignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana Readings and More
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Panelists:
Robert E Holmes, Francoise Verges, Gunja SenGupta, Ella Shohat, Salah Hassan, Jason King,
Moderator(s):
Michael Gomez
Black Italia
11:15 am – 12:45 am
Panelists:
Shaul Bassi, Sandra Ponzanesi, Ubah Cristina Ali Farrah, Pap Khouma, Linde Luijnenburg,
Moderator(s):
Alessandra Di Maio
The Sweetest Taboo: Theorizing Black Female Pleasure, Agency, and Desire within Black Feminism
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Panelists:
Joan Morgan, Treva Lindsey, Brittney Cooper, Kaila Story, Uri McMillan
Moderator(s):
Mark Anthony Neal
Maaza Mengiste reading of The Shadow King
Activating Histories: Visualizing and Restaging the Archive
4:15 pm – 6:00 pm
Panelists:
Kellie Jones, Mary Schmidt Campbell, Tanisha Ford, Tiffany M. Gill, Renee Mussai
Moderator(s):
Kalia Brooks
Panels (Saturday, May 30th) –
Welcome
Cheryl Finley, Ellyn Toscano, Ulrich Baer, Vera Grant, Dean Allyson Green,
The Image of the Black in Western Art
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Panelists:
Jan Marsh, Monica Miller, Tanya Sheehan, Jillian Hernandez
Moderator(s):
David Bindman
Out of Body: Composing Blackness through Sound, Music, and (Performance) Art
11:15 am – 12:45 pm
Panelists:
Matthew D. Morrison, Nikki A. Greene, Kwami Coleman, Courtney Bryan, Imani Uzuri
Moderator(s):
Jeff Rabhan
Contemporary Art & Cultural Diplomacy: Art In Embassies Program Artists
2:15 pm – 3:45 pm
Panelists:
Carrie Mae Weems, Mickalene Thomas, Sanford Biggers, Whitefield Lovell, Fred Wilson
Moderator(s):
Robert Soppelsa
Sister Outsider: Black American Women, Identity and Global Travel
3:45 pm – 5:15 pm
Panelists:
Shani Jamila, Michaela angela Davis, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Asia Leeds, Sharon Harley
Moderator(s):
Cheryl Finley
Panels (Sunday, May 31st) –
Blackness in the Public Sphere
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Panelists:
Sandy Alexander, Kimberly Juanita Brown, Dell M. Hamilton, Deborah McDowell, Christina Sharpe
Moderator(s):
Kimberly Juanita Brown
The Court Moor: Blackness, Servitude, & the Artifice of Court Culture
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Panelists:
Adrienne L. Childs, Paul H. D. Kaplan, Esther Schreuder, Irina Novikova,
Moderator(s):
Michael Gomez
Hip Hop Archive and Research Institute (HARI): Owning the Hip Hop Body
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Panelists:
Chris Emdin, Marcyliena Morgan, Schuyler Polk, Nicole Fleetwood, Elena Romero
Moderator(s):
Marcyliena Morgan
Artistic Methods from Collecting to Curating to Writing to Teaching
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Panelists:
Tina Campt, Barbra Krauthamer, Alexsandra Mitchell, Nana Adusei-Poku, Ernest Wilson,
Moderator(s):
Sharon Howard
Policing the Black Body: Blackness in France & its Post colony in Film and Images
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Panelists:
Rokhaya Diallo, Mamadou Diouf, Vanessa Agard-Jones, Dena Montague, Charmaine Nelson
Moderator(s):
Simon Njami
Discussant:
Tricia Danielle Keaton
Image, Object, Archive: The Nineteenth Century Haitain Portraits by Louis Rigaud in the Collection of Yale University’s Peabody Museum
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Panelists:
Mark Aronson, Pamela Franks, Erica Moiah James, Key Jo Lee
Moderator(s):
Pamela Franks
Representing Blackness & Queerness: the Art & Politics of Questionable Juxtapositions
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Panelists:
Jennifer DeVere Brody, Lyle Ashton Harris, Z’étoile Imma, Tavia Nyong’o
Moderator(s):
Roderick A. Ferguson
How We Move: Women Performance Artists/Activists in Global Conversations
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
Holly Bass
Moderator(s):
Holly Bass
Artist(s):
Christa Bell, Nathalie Mba Bikoro, Ebony Golden, Lerato Shadi
The Black Body in Translation
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
Joel Dreyfuss, Courtney J. Martin Serubiri Moses, Fred Kuwornu, Fanon Che Wilkins
Moderator(s):
Jean Paul Colleyn
The Portrait & Studio Photographer
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
Sandrine Colard De-Bock, Amy Mooney, Robert Perree, Maren Stange
Moderator(s):
Shelly Rice
Imagining Masculinity
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
Marcus Bruce, Christine Checinska, Niyi Coker, Jr., Millery Polyne, Lyneise Williams
Moderator(s):
Francille Wilson
From Motown to Philly Sound to Rock to Pop
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
DeAngela Duff, John Shévin Foster, Todd Gray, Robert Holmes, Myisha Priest, Dyana Williams
Moderator(s):
Michael Dinwiddie
Locating the Black Female Body in Canada
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
Andrea Fatona, Jessica Karuhanga, Camille Turner
Moderator(s):
Ella Cooper
Who’s Black Where?
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Panelists:
David Forgacs, Cheryl D. Hicks, Antonia Lant, Deidre A. Royster
Moderator(s):
Gunja Sengupta
Performing the Narrative
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Panelists:
Liz Andrews, Melanie Spears Harper, Natalya Mills-Mayrena, Jaïra Placide, Dionne Walker
Moderator(s):
Zoey Martinson
Smoke and Mirrors: Restitution and the Temporal Black Body
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Panelists:
Grace Ali, Roshini Kempadoo, Ashwani Sharma, Heidi Sincuba, Anya Wallace
Moderator(s):
Rachelle V. Browne
New Reading/New Theories in Literature, Music and Film
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Panelists:
Berinda Webb-Binder, Abena A. Busia, Bogani Modondo, Sirpa Salenius, Jaqueline Najuma Stewart,
Moderator(s):
Sam Pollard
Incomprehensible Blackness: Performance Art, Portraiture, & Comics
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Panelists:
Zakiyyah Jackson, Uri McMillan, Shanté Paradigm Smalls, C. Riley Snorton
Moderator(s):
Shanté Paradigm Smalls
Creating Radical Spaces
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Panelists:
Anna Arabdindan-Kesson, Ed Guerrero, Mario Gooden, Vera Ingrid Gordon, Alanna Lockward
Moderator(s):
Sandra Jackson Dumont
The Retreating Island
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Panelists:
Katherine Agard, Lisa Harewood, Ebony G. Patterson, Russel Watson
Moderator(s):
Edward Akintola Hubbard
The Portrait: Fabricating and Re-presenting
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Panelists:
Nashormeh Lindo, Michael K. Wilson, Maaza Mengiste, Diagne Chanel, Emeka Okereke
Moderator(s):
Rhea L. Combs
Show & Prove: A Multitude Examination of the Role of the Black Body in Street Dance Culture
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Panelists:
Naomi Bragin, Lafotographeuse aka Amanda Adams-Louis, Chicava Honeychild
Moderator(s):
Imani Kai Johnson
Representing Place and Race
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Panelists:
Michele Wallace, Ann Rice, Lena Hill, Deborah Jack, Carol A. Dixon
Moderator(s):
Marilyn S. Mobley
Re-creating Histories: Artists’ Speak
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Panelists:
Justin Randolph, Hank Willis Thomas, Kiluanji Henda, Elizabeth Colomba, Omar Victor Diop, Zanele Muholi
Moderator(s):
Rujecko Hockley
Now’s The Time: The Art of Blackness and Historiographic Operation
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Panelists:
Kevin Jerome Everson, Ayesha Hardison, Michael Gillespie, Terri Francis, Leslie E. Wingard
Moderator(s):
Michael Gillespie
Habitual Line Steppers: Constructing Blackness Beyond Imagination
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Panelists:
Allison Janae Hamilton, Charl Landvreugd, Ja’Tovia Gary, Numa Perrier, Fahamu Pecou
Moderator(s):
Shantrelle P. Lewis
Representing Black Failure: Repetition, Fantasy, and Abstraction
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Panelists:
Leigh Raiford, Ianna Hawkins Owen, Jasmine E Johnson, Darieck Scott
Moderator(s):
Autumn Womack
Moments in Time: Imaging the Black Diaspora
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Panelists:
Robin J. Hayes, Levis Watts, Lonnie Graham, Arnaud Elfort, Amaize Ojeikere
Moderator(s):
Diana N’Diaye