BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT - SOUTHERN
STYLE
CALL FOR PAPERS
What: An international conference on the Black Arts Movement
Where: Dillard University - New Orleans, Louisiana
When: September 9-11, 2016.
Background:
Students represented some of the strongest voices of
self-determination and social change during the Black Arts Movement (BAM). As much as the Black Arts and Black Power Movements were
needed in the 1960s and 1970s, today these movements are vital as a means of
providing historical context and to awakening our youth to issues of voter
disenfranchisement, and inequalities within our social system. This is why the
New Orleans Black Arts Movement (BAM) Conference taking place, September 9-11,
2016 is important. The conference is designed to educate the public about the
contributions of the South’s role in BAM. Why does that matter? The heart pumps
blood so that the entire body operates. The South represents a vital part of
the body of the Black Arts Movement.
On the fiftieth anniversary of the Black Arts Movement, a
question must be asked, “Where do we go from here?” This question is just one
of many that will be answered at the International Conference on the Black Arts
Movement – Southern Style at Dillard University, September 9-11, 2016. The
call for papers on a worldwide level is asking the larger questions including
and in addition to race and culture as we examine the south’s contributions to
the Black Arts Movement, and how that changed us as a nation, and as a world.
The emphasis of this conference is the South because of its rich legacy of
literature, and social activism and as the cultural and spiritual foundation of
many major voices in BAM. The Black Arts Movement, the spiritual twin of the
Black Power Movement is noted for having changed how Black Americans viewed
themselves as a race. Black Americans in the 1960s and 1970s created a new
vision of Blackness, one that celebrated the uniqueness of Black culture.
Participants:
Scheduled speakers include: Jerry Ward, Kalamu Ya
Salaam, Askia Toure, Sonia Sanchez, John Bracey, Jr., Mona Lisa Saloy,
Ishmael Reed, Quo Vadis Breaux, John O'Neal, Eugene Redmond, Chakula
Cha Jua, Haki Madhubuti, James
Smethurst, Jerry Varnado, and Jimmy Garrett.
Call
for papers details:
The
Black Arts Movement Conference welcomes research and creative arts submissions
from people of all cultures and racial backgrounds for this September event in
New Orleans. We are seeking papers related to the Black Arts Movement including
the areas of history, art, music, literature, dance, drama, women, gender, and
southern writers. Proposed presentations may take a variety of forms including
research papers, personal narratives, interviews, theatre / music / multimedia,
food or culinary activities, posters and panel discussions.
The one-page,
100-word abstract/proposal should include your name, the title of your
presentation, any academic or community affiliations, email address, and any
equipment needs. If submitting a
proposal for a research presentation or a panel discussion, send a final copy
of the research paper and/or material on the theme, questions, and participants
for a panel.
The
deadline for submission is May 15, 2016. Late submissions will not be
accepted.
Selection
criteria:
Relevance
to the themes of the Black Arts Movement, originality of perspective or
presentation, contribution to an understanding of the Black Arts Movement, and
artistic or creative significance.
Contact:
Please
send an abstract / proposal and a brief biography to Kim McMillon at kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu.
For those individuals that
would like to attend only, please email kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu.
Marvin X invited the new Yoruba King (in white) to the Black Power Babies conversation in Brooklyn, NY, organized by his daughter, Muhammida El Muhajir. Oba Olatunji's father married Amiri and Amina Baraka. While in South Carolina, Marvin X visited the Yoruba Village in Sheldon, SC. He interviewed the Oba who was steeped in Black Arts Movement consciousness as well as Yoruba mythology. Marvin was deeply impressed with the knowledge the new Oba possessed.
North Charleston NAACP ‘Not Satisfied’ With Police Officer’s Murder Charge
In
this frame from video provided by Attorney L. Chris Stewart,
representing the family of Walter Lamer Scott, Scott appears to be
running away from City Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager, right, in North
Charleston, S.C. (Courtesy of L. Chris Stewart via AP)
A white police officer in North Charleston, S.C. was charged with
murder Tuesday after a video surfaced of that officer shooting an
unarmed black man in the back, as he tried to run away.
The shooting took place after officer Michael Slager, 33, pulled over
50-year-old Walter Scott for a broken taillight. Police say a struggle
ensued and Scott began running away with the officer’s Taser when
Officer Slager fired his weapon eight times.
MARVIN X OFTEN RETREATS TO WRITE IN BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA, ON THE LAND OF BAM QUEEN HURRIYAH ASAR
Hurriyah Asar, aka Ethna X. Wyatt, Queen of Black Arts West, San Francisco, 1966, helped organize Black Arts West Theatre and The Black House, along with playwright Ed Bullins, Hillery Broadous, Carl Bossiere, Duncan Barber, Eldridge Cleaver, Willie Dale and Marvin X. Longtime partner of Marvin X, visited him during his exile in Toronto, Canada, invited him to Chicago where he became associated with the Chicago BAM Movement, including OBAC, Negro Digest/Black World, Hoyt Fuller, Haki Madhubuti, Gwen Brooks, Carolyn Rogers, Val Ward, Chicago Art Ensemble, Afro-Arts Theatre under Phil Choran. Marvin X returns to Chicago May 22 for a conference on his BAM mentor and associate Sun Ra at the University of Chicago.
I am so thankful my BAM comrade and partner Hurriyah gives me space from time to time to write in the paradise of Beaufort, South Carolina. It is heaven to me and I appreciate her hospitality. I love sitting on the beach as the tide rolls in, and even while it dwells. I enjoy the ducks, turkeys, chickens, doves, guineas and other fowl on her land. Hurriyah is truly Queen Mother of the West Coast Black Arts Movement. In San Francisco, Hurriyah (then Ethna Wyatt from Chicago) held Black Arts West Theatre together: Ed Bullins, Hillary Broadus, Duncan Barbar, Carl Bossisser, Danny Glover, Vonetta McGee; musicians: Earle Davis, Monte Waters, Oliver Johnson, Dewey Redman, Rafael Donald Garrett, BJ, et al.
Don't send your dead dog to South Carolina, they think they won the Civil War, yes, they live in the grand denial. So let us not linger in Jerusalem, let us move on to the Second Civil War. I can say I know a little about South Carolina. What a beautiful land, ah, paradise on earth, islands and islands where the Gullah Negroes/Africans lived in almost racial purity. Amiri Baraka came from Johns Island, renamed Jones. Dr. J. Herman Blake, sociologist who brought Malcolm X to UC Berkeley, who advised Dr. Huey P. Newton on his PhD at UC Santa Cruz, also from John's Island. Ain't Mechelle Obama a Gullah Negro/African?
But understand South Carolina, although I am thankful it has served as a writing retreat for me, thanks to my friend Hurriyah Asar. And I am blessed to receive knowledge of the Yoruba religion from the African Village in Sheldon, SC.
But it is a slave community, full of ignut nigguhs though they are blessed with Gullah African consciousness, a beautiful thang. But even the Gullah youth have turned into Nigguhs who want to leave those Islands of Paradise for Savannah and Atlanta so they can die like dogs in the streets, enjoying the best of urbanity. I wish somebody could hep me!
Last time I was in South Carolina, including Charleston, I was told to say nothing, just shut up while you're here. We're not going to help you promote your book, so just shut up cause we tired of you Cali Nigguhs comin' here talkin that radical shit then leavin', then we got to deal with this Peckerwood who knows you were staying with us and now he wants to retaliate on us fa yo shit. You know we all got three minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, so now all he got to do is fire us from one of those jobs and we can't pay the house note or car note or pussy bill, yeah, let's keep it real!
FYI, I wrote How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy in South Carolina, Beaufort. When I went to Staples to copy the manuscript, the sister asked, "Where you from?"
"I'm from here!"
"Naw you ain't!"
"Why you say I ain't from here?"
"Cause we don't say white supremacy down here. We know it, but we don't say it!"
In the South, aside from his Parable of the Black Bird, his manual How to Recover from the Addiction of White Supremacy is the most requested book--in the North as well!
Hurriyah Asar replies to Marvin X on Pig Murder in South Carolina:
Thank
you for the accolades but I'm not the Queen, Mother Earth is. I salute you
for your visions, your courage, after the messenger u remain the bravest
man I know. Every time u left home, back in the day, I was afraid that u
would become a statistic, because
u never backed down. Now I fear for my sons and everyone's sons
and daughters. I'm here in Chicago with my mom and I told her I'm not backing down
either.... No Surrender..................Love and
solidarity..............Your daughters are
brilliant.........................................
BAM Queen Mother Hurriyah Asar feeding her fowl on her land, Beaufort, South Carolina. Hurriyah was co-founder of Black Arts West Theatre and The Black House political/cultural center, San Francisco, 1966-67. She joined Marvin X during his exile in Toronto, Canada, then invited him to depart Canada for Chicago where he connected with the Chicago Black Arts Movement, 1967-68.
Yoruba ceremony at the African Village, Sheldon, South Carolina
Oba Olatunji, founder of the Yoruba African Village, Sheldon, SC. The Oba spread Yoruba African culture in Harlem, helping ignite the Black Arts Movement before departing to establish his African Village in South Carolina.
Queen Mothers of Yoruba African Village, Sheldon, SC
Daughters of Marvin X: Amira, Nefertiti, Muhammida
"The intelligence and creativity of my daughters destroyed any notion of the patriarchal mythology in my mind. They humbled me before the Goddess mythology, along with their mothers and the other women partners and revolutionary female comrades in my life. All praise is due the Goddess!"
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