Sonia Sanchez, Queen Mother of BAM
Askia Toure, Rolland Snellings, one of the BAM Godfathers
In less than five years, America will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement. Sonia Sanchez, one of the leading voices of the Black Arts Movement believes that “The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the “Negro’s” reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images.” These positive images of blackness were celebrated on August 28, 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington. At the 1963 gathering, Martin Luther King’s “I Had a Dream” speech represented the pinnacle of hope of freedom for all Americans. The question that must be asked fifty years later is “have we achieved that dream?” We must all ask, with the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement, have the images of blackness in America changed? Is blackness still seen as inferior? In Amiri Baraka’s poem “Black Art,” first published in the liberator in 1966, he writes:
Clean out the world for virtue and love,
Let there be no love poems written
until love can exist freely and
cleanly….We want a black poem. And a
Black World.
Let the world be a Black Poem
And Let All Black People Speak This Poem
Silently or LOUD
Are black people speaking their poems, their truth about blackness? Has the Black Arts Movement created the hoped for change in how black people view themselves?
These questions and more will be explored at the International Conference on the Black Arts Movement and its influences at UC Merced, March 1-2, 2014. The call for papers on a worldwide level is asking the larger questions beyond race, and culture as we examine what happened during the Black Arts Movement, and how that changed us as a nation, and as a world. The Black Arts Movement, the spiritual twin of the Black Power Movement is noted for having changed how African Americans viewed themselves as a race. African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s created a new vision of blackness, one that celebrated the uniqueness of black culture. This call for papers invites scholars of all cultural and racial backgrounds to submit work that illustrates the influence of the Black Arts Movement, both past and present. The Chicano, Asian, Women’s, Disability Rights, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) movements were all influenced by the Black Arts and Black Power Movements, establishing new academic fields of study, and empowering those that society had marginalized.
--Kim McMillan
--Kim McMillan
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
1ST Floor Lantern (Kolligian Library)
8:00 – 8:30 AM Registration, Coffee/Tea and Light Refreshments
8:30 – 9:00 AM Welcoming Remarks (9:00 am – 5:00 pm
9:15 – 10:15 AM Multicultural Panel (Lakireddy Auditorium)
Belva Davis, Panel Moderator
Juan Felipe Herrera, California Poet Laureate
Genny Lim, Poet & Activist
Al Young, California Poet Laureate Emeritus
Avotcja, Poet
10:30 – 11:30 AM Black Power and Black Arts Roundtable (Lakireddy Auditorium)
Nigel Hatton, Moderator
Sonia Sanchez, Poet, Playwright, Teacher
John Bracey, UMass Amherst
James Smethurst, UMass Amherst
Amiri Baraka, Producer, Writer, Activist (still waiting for confirmation)
Marvin X, Playwright, Activist
11:30 – 1:00 PM Luncheon
1:15 – 2:00 PM Marvin X, Keynote Speaker
2:15 – 3:15 PM Theatre of the Black Arts Movement (speakers TBA)
4:00 – 5:30 PM Northern and Central California Voices of the Black Arts Movement Installation
Merced Multicultural Arts Center
S.O.S. – Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader
Discussion with editors: John H. Bracey Jr., Sonia Sanchez, and James Smethurst
Dinner
7:00 – 9:00 PM Theatre of the Black Arts Movement
(Excerpts from the plays of Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Marvin X, Ishmael Reed, Lorraine Hansberry, and George Wolfe) Performed by Michael Lange, Adilah Barnes, and UC Merced Students
(Must have purchased ticket for this event)
SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014
Lantern, 1st Floor Kolligian Library
8:30 – 9:00 AM Registration, Coffee/Tea and Refreshments
9:15 – 10:15 AM New Scholarship on the Black Arts and Black Power Movement (Lakireddy Auditorium)
Mike Sell, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
James Smethurst, University of Mass, Amherst
Marvin X, Playwright
Sean Malloy, University of Merced
10:30 – 11:30 AM Black Studies & the Black Arts Movement
Dr. Nathan Hare
Sonia Sanchez
Dr. John Bracey
Judy Juanita
Lunch
1:15 – 2:00 PM Ishmael Reed, Keynote Speaker
2:15 – 3:00 PM Central Valley Voices of the Black Arts Movement
Nigel Hatton, Moderator
(Student Papers)
Give Birth to Brightness: A Thematic Study of Neo-Black Literature by Sherley Anne Williams & Somethin' Proper, the Autobiography of Marvin X
Hotel: Hampton Inn in Merced, CA will offer room discounts to conference attendees.
Call for Papers
A call for papers for an international conference on the Black Arts Movement and Its Influences, University of California, Merced, March 1-2, 2014
In less than five years, America will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement. Sonia Sanchez, one of the leading voices of the Black Arts Movement believes that “The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the “Negro’s” reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images.” These positive images of blackness were celebrated on August 28, 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington. At the 1963 gathering, Martin Luther King’s “I Had a Dream” speech represented the pinnacle of hope of freedom for all Americans. The question that must be asked fifty years later is “have we achieved that dream?” We must all ask, with the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement, have the images of blackness in America changed? Is blackness still seen as inferior? In Amiri Baraka’s poem “Black Art,” first published in the liberator in 1966, he writes:
Clean out the world for virtue and love,
Let there be no love poems written
until love can exist freely and
cleanly….We want a black poem. And a
Black World.
Let the world be a Black Poem
And Let All Black People Speak This Poem
Silently or LOUD
Are black people speaking their poems, their truth about blackness? Has the Black Arts Movement created the hoped for change in how black people view themselves?
These questions and more will be explored at the International Conference on the Black Arts Movement and its influences at UC Merced, March 1-2, 2014. The call for papers on a worldwide level is asking the larger questions beyond race, and culture as we examine what happened during the Black Arts Movement, and how that changed us as a nation, and as a world. The Black Arts Movement, the spiritual twin of the Black Power Movement is noted for having changed how African Americans viewed themselves as a race. African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s created a new vision of blackness, one that celebrated the uniqueness of black culture. This call for papers invites scholars of all cultural and racial backgrounds to submit work that illustrates the influence of the Black Arts Movement, both past and present. The Chicano, Asian, Women’s, Disability Rights, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) movements were all influenced by the Black Arts and Black Power Movements, establishing new academic fields of study, and empowering those that society had marginalized.
This conference, sponsored by the University of Merced’s African Diaspora Graduate Student Association, seeks papers that offer new scholarship on the Black Arts and Black Power Movements as well as new insights into the following areas of study:
◦ Regional examinations of the Black Arts Movement
◦ The Black Arts Movement -- national and international
◦ Women authors of The Black Arts Movement
◦ Male domination and the Black Arts Movement
◦ The Politics and Art of the Black Power and Black Arts Movements
◦ Symbology and the Black Arts and Black Power Movements
◦ Cultural Legacies of the Black Arts Movement
◦ Community Theatre and the Black Arts Movement
◦ Clothing, Music, and Art of the Black Arts Movement
◦ Race and the Black Arts Movement
◦ The use of Poetry and Drama in the Black Arts Movement
◦ The media and the Black Arts and Black Power Movements
◦ The historical context of the Black Arts Movement
◦ The Black Panthers and the Black Arts Movement
◦ The influence of the Black Arts Movement on other cultures
◦ The use of language as Art in the Black Arts Movement
◦ The creation of the Black Arts and Black Power Movement
◦ Film and the Black Arts Movement
◦ The Intersection between the Civil Rights and the Black Power, and Black Arts Movements
Special invited guests include: Sonia Sanchez, Ishmael Reed, John Bracey, James Smethurst, Mike Sell, Juan Felipe Herrera, Genny Lim, Al Young, Belva Davis, Marvin X, Adilah Barnes, Dr. Nathan Hare, and others.
Please send your one-page abstract and brief bio to Kim McMillon at kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu by December 18, 2013.
Call for Papers, Reports, and Studies:
The Black Arts Movement Conference invites the following types of submissions:
Research Papers - Completed research papers in any of the topic areas listed above or related areas.
Student Papers - Research done by students in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.
Poets Mohja Kahf and Marvin X. Mohja has connected the importance of BAM to Muslim American literature
Case Studies - Case studies in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.
Work-in-Progress Reports for Future Research - Incomplete research in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.
Presentations:
Paper sessions will consist of no more than four presentations in a 80-minute session. The session will be divided equally between the presenters.
Workshop presentations will be given a full 60-minute session.
Panel sessions will provide an opportunity for three or more presenters to speak in a more open session where ideas can be exchanged. These sessions are 80 minutes.
Poster sessions will last 90 minutes and consist of a large number of presenters. The following supplies will be provided for poster sessions:
• Easel
• Tri-fold display board (48 x 36 inches)
• Markers
• Push pins
• Tape
• Round table
• Chairs
Submitting a Proposal/Paper:
Make your submission by
following these directions:
Create a title page for your submission. The title page must include:
a. Title of the submission
b. Topic area of the submission (choose a topic area from the list at the top of this page)
c. Presentation format (choose one: Paper Session, Workshop, Panel Session, or Poster Session)
d. A description of your presentation, which should not exceed 150 words in total. Please note that you are still required to send in an abstract/paper in addition to this description.
e. paper author(s):
f. EACH author, should list the following:
• Full Name
• Department/Division
• University/Company/Organization
• Email Address (all acceptance/rejection letters are sent via email, so it is very important to have a correct email address for each author.)
g. Email your abstract and/or paper, along with the above-described title page, to kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu. Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged via email within one week.
NOTE: Conference papers, proposal, panels, workshops, and poster sessions will take place on the University of California, Merced campus concurrently from 9-4 pm on Saturday, and 10 am – 2:00 pm on Sunday, March 1-2, 2014. Please use the following method for registration payment.
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