Black Lives Matter Effect (Day 2 of 2)
Friday 15 April, 2016
2pm, $0
New York Institute for the Humanities
16 Cooper Square
After the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013 and a resurgence of African American political activism throughout the country, a host of issues around race and representation have assumed a new significance. Against this backdrop, this two-day conference assembles a number of distinguished scholars, writers, critics, and artists for a series of conversations over five panels exploring the reverberations of these issues in American politics, intellectual life, and the arts.
“Writing Black Lives: The Politics and Poetics of the Black Memoir” considers the recent flourishing of African American autobiographical writing and places it in the context of the history of black letters. The panel features Chris Jackson, executive editor of Spiegel & Grau; Margo Jefferson, critic and author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Negroland: A Memoir; and Clifford Thompson, author ofTwin of Blackness: A Memoir. The panel is moderated by National Book Foundation executive director Lisa Lucas.
2:00 PM
Writing Black Lives: The Politics and Poetics of Black Memoir
Chris Jackson (editor, Spiegel & Grau)
Margo Jefferson (author, Negroland: A Memoir)
Clifford Thompson (author, Twin of Blackness: A Memoir)
Moderated by Lisa Lucas, executive director, National Book Foundation
“The Choreography of Race: Dance, Identity, Inclusion” examines the worlds of dance—ballet, modern, and contemporary—to highlight how conversations on race and politics have affected a range of issues, from the creation of work to calls for diversity. The panel includes Ronald K. Brown, artistic director of Evidence, A Dance Company, Brooklyn; Virginia Johnson, artistic director, Dance Theatre of Harlem; Gia Kourlas, critic, New York Times; and Dean Moss, director of Gametophyte, Inc. dance company, New York. The panel is moderated by Danielle Goldman, assistant professor of dance at the New School.
3:30 PM
The Choreography of Race: Dance, Identity, Inclusion
Ronald K. Brown (artistic director, Evidence)
Virginia Johnson (artistic director, Dance Theatre of Harlem)
Gia Kourlas (dance critic, New York Times)
Dean Moss (director, Gametophyte)
Moderated by Danielle Goldman, New School
“A New Renaissance? Art, Music, and Culture in the Wake of Black Lives Matter” gauges the historical significance of the moment across and between a range of artistic disciplines and reassesses how the ramifications of race and activism are registering in the work of contemporary artists and musicians. The panel includes Susan Cahan, art historian, associate dean and dean of the arts, Yale University, and author of Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power; George Lewis, composer, Edwin H. Case Professor of Music, Columbia University, and author of A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music; Rowan Ricardo Phillips, author of Heaven: Poems and When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness; and Greg Tate, author, critic, and leader of Burnt Sugar, the Arkestra Chamber. The panel is moderated by writer and London Review of Books editor Adam Shatz.
5:00 PM
A New Renaissance? Art, Music, and Culture in the Wake of Black Lives Matter
Susan Cahan (Yale University)
George Lewis (composer, Columbia University)
Rowan Ricardo Philips (poet and critic, Heaven)
Greg Tate (writer and musician)
Moderated by Adam Shatz, London Review of Books