African American arts : activism, aesthetics, and futurity / edited by Sharrell D. Luckett. - Lewisburg, Pennsylvania : Bucknell University Press, (c)2020. - 1 online resource (xiii, 323 pages, 5 unnumbered pages of plates) : color illustrations. - The Griot project .

Essays and presentations primarily prepared for The Griot Institute for Africana Studies' convening on African-American art, activism, and aesthetics held in fall 2016 at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA.

Includes bibliographies and index.

African American Arts in Action / Bodies of Activism. -- Trans Identity as Embodied Afrofuturism / Designing Our Freedom: Toward a New Discourse on Fashion as a Strategy for Self-Liberation / Pearl Primus's Choreo-Activism: 1943-1949 / Performing New Nationalism/Performing a Living Culture: Josefina Báez's Dominicanish / Ethnicity, Ethicalness, Excellence: Armond White's All-American Humanism / Race and History on the Operatic Stage: Caterina jarboro Sings Aida / Music and Visual Art as Activism. -- "I Am Basquiat": Tracing Jean-Michel Basquiat's Alterity and Activism in Paint and Performance / "I Luh God" : Erica Campbell, Trap Gospel and the Moral Mask of Language Discrimination / The Hidden Code of the Kongo Cosmogram in African American Art and Culture / From Baldwin to Beyoncé: Exploring the Responsibility of the Artist in Society---Re-envisioning the Black Female Sonic Artist as Citizen / Slaying "Formation": A Queering of Black Radical Tradition / Institutions of Activism. -- Centering Blackness through Performance in Every 28 Hours / Dancing for Justice Philadelphia: Embodiment, Dance, and Social Change / A conversation with Freddie Hendricks of the Freddie Hendricks Youth Ensemble of Atlanta / The Conciliation Project as a Social Experiment : Behind the Mask of Uncle Tom-ism and the Performance of Blackness / Blackballin' : a Play / Carmen Gillespie -- Carrie Mae Weems -- Sharrell D. Luckett -- Amber Johnson -- Rikki Byrd -- Doria E. Charlson -- Florencia V. Cornet -- Daniel McNeil -- Lucy Caplan -- Genevieve Hyacinthe -- Sammantha McCalla -- Nettrice R. Gaskins -- Abby Dobson -- J. Michael Kinsey -- Shondrika Moss-Bouldin -- Julie B. Johnson -- Sharrell D. Luckett -- Jasmine Coles and Tawnya Pettiford-Wates -- by Rickerby Hinds.

"Signaling recent activist and aesthetic concepts in the work of Kara Walker, Childish Gambino, BLM, Janelle Monáe, and Kendrick Lamar, and marking the exit of the Obama Administration and the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, this anthology explores the role of African American arts in shaping the future, and further informing new directions we might take in honoring and protecting the success of African Americans in the U.S. The essays in African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity engage readers in critical conversations by activists, scholars, and artists reflecting on national and transnational legacies of African American activism as an element of artistic practice, particularly as they concern artistic expression and race relations, and the intersections of creative processes with economic, sociological, and psychological inequalities. Scholars from the fields of communication, theater, queer studies, media studies, performance studies, dance, visual arts, and fashion design, to name a few, collectively ask: What are the connections between African American arts, the work of social justice, and creative processes? If we conceive the arts as critical to the legacy of Black activism in the United States, how can we use that construct to inform our understanding of the complicated intersections of African American activism and aesthetics? How might we as scholars and creative thinkers further employ the arts to envision and shape a verdant society?"--



9781684481569


African American arts--Political aspects.
Arts and society--United States.


Electronic Books.

NX512 / .A375 2020