Black Brooklyn Renaissance Conference
Brooklyn College, October 2010
Call for Participants

We seek scholars, journalists, community cultural workers, and artists to participate in our Black Brooklyn Renaissance: Black Culture/Black Performance, 1960-2010 Conference scheduled for October of 2010 at Brooklyn College. We envision a series of paper presentations, panels, and group discussions that will examine the myriad artistic forms and related cultural movements that have emerged from Black Brooklyn over the past half a century. 

Black Brooklyn Renaissance is a landmark, two year-long research, planning, and presentation initiative coordinated by the Brooklyn Arts Council. Through field research, a series of public performances and workshops, and a scholarly conference, we will bring to light and celebrate the many ways Black performing artists working in music, dance, and spoken word have contributed to the borough’s significance as a center of Black culture in New York.

The Harlem Renaissance is the project’s symbolic point of departure, in that the literary and jazz-infused Harlem era of the early-20th century finds a powerful counterpoint in Brooklyn of the mid- to late-20th century to the present. In this era, Brooklyn has evolved as a site of diverse Black cultures: African American, Afro-Caribbean, and West African diasporic.  Brooklyn’s Renaissance, initiated during the Civil Rights period and continuing in the age of Obama, is based in community arts and community rituals that mark distinct legacies as well as creative intersections. These are preserved and performed in a range of artistic styles such as West Indian steel pan and calypso, Afro-Caribbean ceremonial music and dance, West African drumming, West African traditional and contemporary dance, southern African-American gospel music and preaching, hip hop and free-style poetry, and jazz. The project will examine how migration, immigration, and political movements have galvanized these cultural expressions while drawing attention to the evolving interplay between Afro-Caribbean, southern African American, and African traditions.

The 2010 Black Brooklyn Renaissance Conference will be sponsored by the Brooklyn Arts Council and the W. Wiley Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American music at Brooklyn College, CUNY. 
Individuals interested in participating in the conference should contact:

Professor Ray Allen, W. Wiley Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music, Brooklyn College
rayallen@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Dr. Kay Turner, Folk Arts Director, Brooklyn Arts Council
kturner@brooklynartscouncil.org

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