Black Portraiture[s] III: Reinventions: Strains of Histories and Cultures
Date: November 17th -19th 2016
Location: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
BLACK PORTRAITURE[S] III: Reinventions: Strains of Histories and Cultures is the seventh conference in a series of conversations about imaging the black body. It offers a forum that gives artists, activists, and scholars from around the world an opportunity to share ideas from historical topics to current research on the 40th anniversary of Soweto. Presenters will engage a range of topics such as Biennales, the Africa Perspective in the Armory Show, the global art market, politics, tourism, sites of memory, Afrofuturism, fashion, dance, music, film, art, and photography.
The conference will be held November 17-19, 2016 at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and held in collaboration with the U. S. Department of State, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, Patrick H. Gaspard, Goodman Gallery, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research/Harvard University, New York University’s LaPietra Dialogues, Tisch School of the Arts and the Institute for African American Affairs.
Panels (Thursday, November 17)
Plenary Speaker
9:45 am – 10:30 am
Speaker: David C. Driskell
Location: The Glass House
Pan African Futures: Exploring Race as Technology, Afrofuturism as Methodology
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Achille Mbembe, Lynnée Denise, Ingrid LaFleur
Moderator(s): Ruha Benjamin
Location: The Glass House
A Continent as a Woman
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Tanisha C. Ford, Nikki A. Greene, Adrian Loving, Jan Marsh
Moderator(s): Dell M. Hamilton
Location: The Steam Room
Portraitures Panel: Look at Me
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Ayoka Chenzira
Moderator(s): Heather Agyepong, Joye Bowman and John Higginson, Hlonipha Mokoena, Renee Mussai, Oluremi C. Onabanjo
Location: The Engine Room
Our Lives As Theory: LGBTQI & African…Remixed
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Brendan Fernandes, Seoketsi Tshepo Mooketsi, mahlOt SANSOSA, Wanelisa Xaba
Moderator(s):
Location: The Coal Hopper
On Coming to America: A Public Inquiry of the film
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Inquiry Chairpersons: Florine Demosthene, Bianca Moná, Ashley Whitfield
Commission: Danielle Bowler, Loyiso Old John, Kitso Lynn Lelliott, Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana, Madala Thepa
Afro-Urban Imaginaries
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Floretta Boonzaier, Issa Diabaté, Paul Goodwin, Mario Gooden and Mabel Wilson, Mpho Matsipa, Dana Whabire
Moderator(s): Kellie Jones
Location: The Glass House
Reorienting the Axis: Global African Networks and Visual Production
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Alessandra DiMaio, Gunja Sengupta and Awam Amkpa, Temi Odumosu
Moderator(s): Kalia Brooks, Anna Arabindan-Kesson
Location: The Steam Room
Spirit Desire: Black Diasporic Bodies, Imagination, and the Peripheries of Space
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Cheryl Clarke, Emmanuel Iduma, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
Moderator(s): Alexis De Veaux
Location: The Engine Room
Imaging the Black Female Body
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Alicia D. Bonaparte and Andrea Chung, Tia Thompson, Jessica A. Rucker, Kanitra Fletcher, Maisha Stephens-Teacher
Moderator(s): Myra Greene
Location: The Coal Hopper
Conversations on Recent Events
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Reimagining the Archive Through a Queer Lens
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: John Edmonds, Robert E. Holmes, Zanele Muholi
Moderator(s): Katina Parker
Location: The Glass House
Interrogating Presumptions: The Politics of Black Cultural Representations and Radical Resistance
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Mia Bay, Melissa Cooper, Sharon Harley, Bettina Love
Moderator(s): Sharon Harley
Location: The Steam Room
Moving in Time
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Chike Frankie Edozien, Annika Finne, Ileana Selejan, Sarah Stefana Smith
Moderator(s): Melvina Lathan
Location: The Engine Room
Rhythms
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: James Cantres, Bruce Campbell, Jr., I. Augustus Durham, Athi Mongezeleli Joja,
Moderator(s): Lewis Watts
Location: The Coal Hopper
Digital Diasporic Connections
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Marilyn Sanders Mobley and Jewell Winn, Natasha Logan, Gloria Mullons, Robert Perrée
Moderator(s): Margaret Stratton
From South Africa to South Carolina: Postwar Music and Black Spaces
4:45 pm – 6:15 pm
Panelists: Russell Holzman, Rashaan Carter
Moderator(s): Kwami Coleman
Location: The Glass House
The Archive
4:45 pm – 6:15 pm
Panelists: Christa Clarke, Chandra Frank, Barbara Krauthamer, Pellom McDaniels
Location: The Steam Room
Misan Sagay in Conversation with Awam Amkpa
4:45 pm – 6:15 pm
Location: The Engine Room
sum of these things: négritude and materiality
4:45 pm – 6:15 pm
Panelists: Roxanne Campbell, Tamika Galanis, Jon-Sesrie Goff
Moderator(s): Rhea Combs
Location: The Coal Hopper
Panels (Friday, November 18)
On Place: Cultural Tourism
9:15 am – 10:30 am
Panelists: Dawn Booker, Elijah Heyward III, Johny Pitts, Ethelene Whitmire, Alinta Sara
Moderator(s): Cheryl Finley
Location: The Glass House
Universal Blackness: The Black Diaspora Experience in the 21st Century presented by ARTNOIR
9:15 am – 10:30 am
Panelists: Mpumelelo Mcata, Fhatuwani Mukheli, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Itani Thalefi, Lina Iris Viktor
Moderator(s): Milisuthando “Mili” Bongela
Location: The Steam Room
A Creed Across Waters and Beautiful Uprising
9:15 am – 10:30 am
Panelists: LaToya M. Hobbs, Erin Stephens, Pamela Thompson
Moderator(s): Sandra Jackson-Dumont
Location: The Engine Room
Home and Other Art Stories
9:15 am – 10:30 am
Panelists: Ja’nell Ajani, Cheryl Ann Bolden, Diagne Chanel, Ric Francis, Felix Masi
Moderator(s): Bridget R. McCurtis
Location: The Coal Hopper
#BlackLivesMatter: Interrogating Representations of Black Bodies in Pain and Black Lives Without History
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Fouad Asfour, Khewzi Gule, Nomusa Makhubu, Same Mdluli, Nontobeko Ntombela
Moderator(s): Sharlene Khan
Location: The Glass House
Visualizing Land
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: LeRonn Brooks, De Angela Duff, Ayasha Guerin, Rebecca VanDiver
Moderator(s): Pamela Newkirk
Location: The Steam Room
What’s Wrong With This Picture? Conflicted Circuits of Dispersal, Desire, and Return in Exquisite Portraiture
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Nicola Brandt, Terri Francis, Efeoghene Igor, Jerry Philogene
Moderator(s): Efeoghene Igor
Location: The Engine Room
Mediated difference in South African Art and Photography: Deciphering Imagery of Blackness
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Steven C. Dubin, Ashraf Jamal, J. C. Leeb-du Toit,
Moderator(s): Lorie Novak
Location: The Coal Hopper
Portraits of South African Spoken Word Poets presented by ZAPP (South African Poetry Project)
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Africa & the L.A. Rebellion: Screening & Conversation
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Alile Sharon Larkin, Barbara McCullough
Moderator(s): Jacqueline Najuma Stewart
Location: The Glass House
Afrofuturism and Art Activism
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Monroe France
Moderator(s): Weléla Mar Kindred, Chrislyn Laurie Laurore, Gloria Browne-Marshall, Thokozani Ndaba, Mawena Yehouessi
Location: The Steam Room
#BBLV Black Bodies: Live and Virtual
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Michèle Pearson Clarke, Christina Knight, Bongani Madondo, Dionne Walker
Location: The Engine Room
Moderator(s): Isolde Brielmaier
Photographic Portraits/Between Object and Subject
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Jennifer DeVere Brody, Kimberly Juanita Brown, Raimi Gbadamosi, Rachel Newman
Moderator(s): Jennifer DeVere Brody
Location: The Coal Hopper
‘Venus’ on My Back: Girls of Color, Inheritance, and the Hottentot Venus Narrative
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Derrais Carter, Jillian Hernandez, Rosamond S. King, Anya Wallace
Moderator(s): Anya Wallace
Pride Feels No Pain: Feminist and Queer Perspectives from the Media(n) of Black Struggle Forty Years after 16 June
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Nicholas Boston, Mehita Iqani, Xavier Livermon, Andrew Tucker
Moderator(s): Nicholas Boston
Location: The Glass House
Aframerican Transcultural Aesthetics
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Will Coloan & Dyana Williams, John Foster, Diana Baird N’Diaye, Robert Vorlicky
Moderator(s): Michael Dinwiddie
Location: The Steam Room
Transgressive Acts: Transnational Bodies, Memory, and Cartographies of Change
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Larry Achiampong, Victoria J. Collis-Buthelezi, Sharlene Khan, Roshini Kempadoo, Ashwani Sharma
Moderator(s): Roshini Kempadoo
Location: The Engine Room
Voices & Images
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Janyce Denise Glasper, Robin J. Hayes, Denise Lim, Tony Whitfield, Carlton Wilkinson
Moderator(s): Lonnie Graham
Location: The Coal Hopper
Sharp!: Images of Independent Southern African Fashion in the Free-Born Era
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Holly Bass, Rose Callahan, Nicola Cooper, Lourens “Loux” Gebhardt, Zano Sithetho
Moderator(s): M. Liz Andrews
Artists’ and Ideas Panel
4:45 – 6:15 pm
Panelists: Natasha Becker, Chriss Aghana Nwobu, Daniel Kojo Schrade,Moses Serubiri, Michelle Joan Wilkinson
Moderator(s): Rujeko Hockley
Location: The Glass House
Photography and Performance
4:45 – 6:15 pm
Panelists: Sonya Clark, Carolyn Grimstead, Jamie Philbert, Celia Maria Antonacci Ramos, Paulette Young
Moderator(s): Bárbaro Martinez-Ruiz
Location: The Steam Room
IAAA Film Screening
4:45 – 6:15 pm
Myths & Portraits
Panelists: Noel Anderson, Naima Green, Michelle R. Perkins, Helena Uambembe
Moderator(s):
Location: The Engine Room
ReFashion(ed)!! and Deconstructing the Portrait
4:45 – 6:15 pm
Panelists: Dario Calmese, Leora Farber, Aaron Kohn, Sonya Lawyer, Natalya Mills-Mayrena
Moderator(s): M. Liz Andrews
Panels (Saturday, November 19)
Artists Speak
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Panelists: Sanford Biggers, Brendan Fernandes, Nicholas Hlobo, Riason Naidoo, Odili Donald Odita, Mary Sibande, Mikhael Subotzky, Sue Williamson
Moderator(s): Hank Willis Thomas
Location: The Glass House
From Black Abstraction to Visual Order
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Panelists: Sadie Barnette, Christine Dixie, Nonzuzo Gxekwa, Essence Harden, Adee Roberson
Moderator(s): Kalia Brooks
Location: The Steam Room
Ark of Time
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Panelists: Rudy Rude
Moderator(s): Ben R. Caldwell
Location: The Engine Room
Performing the Continent: Re-Imagining African Identities Through Multidisciplinary Art Practices
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Panelists: Rashayla Marie Brown, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Helina Metaferia, Tiffany Smith
Moderator(s): Nikki A. Greene
Location: The Coal Hopper
Preservation of African Fashion from Global Mis-appropriation
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Malcolm Ché, Nicola Cooper, Maria McCloy Trevor Stuurman, Chularp Suwannapha
Moderator(s): Kolade Adeyemo & Allana Finley
Location: The Glass House
On Performance and Identities
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Daniel Dunson, Jamilah Bradshaw-Dieng & Brian Anthony Cello Leads, Debra Levine, Kavita Kulkarni
Moderator(s): Sandra Jackson-Dumont
Location: The Steam Room
On the Media: Representing African Photography Today
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Aicha Diallo, FAKA, Yvon Langué, Rita Potenza, Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Moderator(s): Brendan Wattenberg
Location: The Engine Room
Art History: FESTAC77 Portraits
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panelists: Valerie Caesar, Valerie Maynard, Rafia Santana
Moderator(s): Marilyn Nance
Location: The Coal Hopper
Portrait as Politic
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Jordan Casteel, Lauren Haynes, Amanda Hunt, Rashaad Newsome, Ebony G. Patterson
Moderator(s): Hallie Ringle
Location: The Glass House
Confinement and Space
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Shani Jamila, Natasha R. Johnson, Rin Johnson, Millery Polyné, Maren Stange
Moderator(s): Mark Wright
Location: The Steam Room
Film, Writing, and Portraits
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Bettina Judd, Joelle Sambi Nzeba & Lyse Ishimwe Nsengiyumva, Ellen Tani
Moderator(s): Jennifer Morgan
Location: The Engine Room
Art History and Black Empowerment
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Panelists: Patricia Banks, Elizabeth Colomba, Cornelia Knoll, Sarah Lewis
Moderator(s): Cheryl Finley
Location: The Coal Hopper
Black Power @ 50 Conversations Part II: Image as Protest
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Sylviane A. Diouf, Emory Douglas, Ozier Muhammad, Zanele Muholi
Moderator(s): Novella Ford
Location: The Glass House
Re-Imagining the Archive
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Brittany Hall, Michael Harris, DaMaris Hill, Alexsandra Mitchell, Marcia X
Moderator(s): Michael Gomez
Location: The Steam Room
Nervous Conditions: Representations of Black African Femininities
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Milisuthando “Mili” Bongela, Chandra Frank, Ayana V. Jackson, Heidi Sincuba
Moderator(s): Refilwe Nkomo & Palesa Motsumi
The Engine Room
Image as Power
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Panelists: Siobhan Carter-David, Anthony Francis, Quanda Johnson
Moderator(s): Herman L. Bennett
Location: The Coal Hopper