culturalboundaries

The State of African American Studies: Methodology, Pedagogy, and Research

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean at the City University of New York extend a call for papers for their regular conference on the state of scholarship in African American Studies. Entitled, The State of African American Studies: Methodology, Pedagogy, and Research, the conference will take place on January 6-8, 2011 at the Schomburg Center, located at 135th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem, and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, located at 365 Fifth Avenue. Complete panels and individual paper submissions related to the theme – broadly conceived – are invited from scholars and graduate students. In addition to papers in your academic areas of expertise, and on teaching and research methodologies, are particularly welcome submissions on labor, community engagement, gender, sexuality, visual culture, and relations in the Diaspora.

Proposals should be submitted electronically and must include your name, title of the paper, panel, or roundtable, and an abstract of 150 words. They should also include the institutional affiliation of each presenter, phone numbers, and email addresses. Submit proposals by November 1, 2010 to:

Aisha al-Adawiya
State of African American Studies
Schomburg Center For Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
New York NY 10037-1801
E-mail: aaladawiya@nypl.org

Please consult the Schomburg Center’s website for information on travel and hotels.
Registration $20, Students: Free

On Ted.com excerpt:

Elizabeth Gilbert reflects on the creative spirit and her model for writing through creativity. Listen how she takes you through her trajectory of  ­premidlife crisis by doing what we all secretly dream of – running off for a year. Her travels through Italy, India and Indonesia resulted in the megabestselling and deeply beloved memoir Eat, Pray, Love, about her process of finding herself by leaving home.

She’s a longtime magazine writer – covering music and politics for Spin and GQ – as well as a novelist and short-story writer. Her books include the story collection Pilgrims, the novel Stern Men (about lobster fishermen in Maine) and a biography of the woodsman Eustace Conway, called The Last American Man. Her work has been the basis for one movie so far (Coyote Ugly, based on her own memoir, in this magazine article, of working at the famously raunchy bar), and now it looks as if Eat, Pray, Love is on the same track, with the part of Gilbert reportedly to be played by Julia Roberts. Not bad for a year off.

Gilbert also owns and runs the import shop Two Buttons in Frenchtown, New Jersey.

“Gilbert is irreverent, hilarious, zestful, courageous, intelligent, and in masterful command of her sparkling prose.”

Booklist

The AIGA/XCD is promoting “Design Is Not Justice,” they are asking designers to become more socially aware of what it means when countries sentence people to death. If you believe that “death” is wrong, then make your voice heard with your design.

Posterfortomorrow.org call for entries launches:

Call for Entries!
Death is not Justice.
October the 10th 2010 (10/10/10) is the World Day against the Death Penalty.
Poster for Tomorrow is holding its second annual poster exhibition featuring 100 exhibitions in 100 cities.
This year’s theme calls for the universal abolition of the death sentence, in the spirit of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

We’re working with Amnesty International, the Council of Europe, Reporters Without Borders, the World coalition against the Death Penalty and Bianca Jagger to raise awareness of our cause.

In 2009, countries with the highest number of executions were Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. In China information regarding the death penalty remains secret, but estimates indicate that China probably executes more people than the rest of the world combined.*

There is hope – executions around the world are apparently on the decline. In December 2010, the United Nations is scheduled to deliberate on a universal moratorium on the death penalty.

To respond to our call for entries, please visit the Poster for Tomorrow’s website. Be sure to register and create an account in order to properly submit your work. Call for entries closes on July 18, 2010 at Noon, Pacific Standard Time. There is no entry fee.

Selected winners of the Poster for Tomorrow (as selected by the jury) will be included in 100 locations worldwide on October 10, 2010. Their entries will become part of the permanent collection of selected design museums worldwide, and published in the exhibition catalogue.
For more information about the awards, please contact:
Setareh Farsi, press office manager
T: +331 5341 4161, E: setareh@posterfortomorrow.org
*source Amnesty International

DESIGN JOURNEY: AIGA national will showcase the works of 25 designers from diverse backgrounds is set to open on May 19, 2010 in the national headquarters in New York City.

“Design Journeys” is a collection of stories about the professional lives, contributions and portfolios of historically underrepresented designers that serves as a publicly accessible comprehensive body of research honoring their accomplishments. Individuals selected for “Design Journeys” will be published in an online archive that includes visual samples of their work with an insightful, biographical essay. A traveling exhibition is planned for 2010.

Join us in celebrating these extraordinary designers:
Gail Anderson, creative director, design, SpotCo
Archie Boston, founder and principal, Archie Boston Graphic Design
Andy Cruz, owner and art director, House Industries
Charles Dawson, artist and designer
Aaron Douglas, artist and illustrator
Emory Douglas, graphic artist
Rafael Esquer, founder and principal, alfalfa studio
Karin Fong, director and partner, Imaginary Forces
Sylvia Harris, information design strategist
Lorenzo Homar, graphic artist
John C Jay, global executive creative director and partner, Wieden+Kennedy
Steve Jones, principal and creative director, Plantain Studio
Garland Kirkpatrick, founder and principal, Helvetica Jones
Saki Mafundikwa, founder and director, Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA)
Chaz Maviyane-Davies, professor of design, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston
Pablo Medina, founder and principal, Cubanica
Rebeca Méndez, founder and principal, Rebeca Méndez Communication Design
Bennett Peji, founder and principal, Bennett Peji Design
Samina Quraeshi, co-founder and principal, SQ Design Publishers
Edel Rodriguez, artist and illustrator
Art Sims, founder and CEO, 11:24 Design Advertising
Lucille Tenazas, founder and principal, Tenazas Design
Michele Washington, founder and principal, Washington Design
LeRoy Winbush, founder and principal, Winbush Design
Maurice Woods, founder and chair, Inneract Project

The essence of Dubai’s Menalab is to explore the role of Design in affirming Emirati identity, designing a livable space in Dubai and promoting cultural understanding among the UAE‘s diverse residents.

Design is connected to everything; it is a powerful force that has the potential to create significant social impact and ultimately change our lives. That said, designers have a great responsibility to serve the community using their knowledge and experience to positively influence what is being designed and consumed.

As part of an ongoing series sponsored by NY chapter of the AIGA, Pablo Medina recently presented student work from his Experimental Type Design class at Parson School of Design where he has taught for more than ten years. The project titled, “How Can Type Help Haiti,” was presented at Museum of Art and Design in NYC. Medina’s students showed six projects to an audience of design and industry professionals, at the end of the presentation the audience voted for the best of the six groups. “A Small book for Heros, was voted the most effective project. Now, Medina’s  next step is to get this project in front of  UNICEF in hopes to get it produced. One big suggestion from the audience was for Pablo to identify other non-profit foundations to get the other five projects produced.

As reported on Black Design News:

Call to Action: Students respond Graphically to the Haiti Earthquake

by Steve Jones

We were all shocked and saddened to bear witness to the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti January 12, 2010. After seeing the aftermath, I knew, as a designer and instructor, I had to respond.

I always regretted not doing a project with my students in response to the U.S. invasion in Iraq. I knew after the Haiti quake, I couldn’t stand by on the sidelines—the event demanded a graphic response. Upon returning from my Winter Break, I assigned the students in my Typography class (San Francisco State University), the task of designing a response to illustrate the aftermath of the earthquake.

Check out for more on Black Design News: A news bureau, an online publication, digital library and ‘workspace’ hub for designers.

Venus 2010

March 27, 2010

Sarah (Saartjie) Baartman, also known as the “Hottentot Venus,” a South African woman who was placed on exhibit in England and France beginning in 1810 and has been described by her protagonists as animal-like and exotic will be the subject of Venus 2010: They Called Her “Hottentot” an Interdisciplinary Symposium. The event, co-hosted by the Department of Photography & Imaging in the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with NYU’s Africana Studies and the Institute for African American Affairs, will take place at the Tisch School of the Arts at 721 Broadway (at Waverly Place) on Saturday, March 27, 2010.

721 Broadway, Riese Lounge
9:00 – check in
9:30 –Welcome: Deb Willis, Manthia Diawara
9:45 – Keynote: Elizabeth Alexander
10:15 –11:15: Sarah Baartman in Context
Presenters: Charmaine Nelson, Zine Magubane, and Carole Boyce Davies.
 Moderator: Cheryl Finley
11:45-12:45: Sarah Baartman’s Legacy in Art and Art History
Presenters: Lisa Gail Collins,
Cheryl Finley and Fo Wilson.
1:00 – 2:00: break, book signing

2:00-3:30: The “Hottentot Venus” in Art and Film
Performance: Holly Bass
Presenters: Renee Cox, Lyle Ashton Harris, Ada Pinkston and Carla Williams.
3:45-4:45: Iconic Women in the Twentieth Century
Poet: Linda Susan Jackson
Presenters: J. Yolande Daniels, Michaela Angela Davis, Terri Francis and Michael
 Harris.
Moderator: Carla Williams
5:00: film screening and book signing (to end)

LOOSEWORLD X Sofia Maldonado Part 2 from LOOSEWORLD on Vimeo.

Visual Artist Sofia Maldonado was commissioned by the Times Square Alliance to create a mural on 42nd Street is creating a big  hoopla over her choice of artistic vision. Apparently, some feminist (both white and black) along with Black professional groups are not  in thrilled of her street style art depicting young Latina and Black Women in scantily style dresses which viewers are calling hoochie mama’s. Some passers byer fear her work is a throw back to the bygone days of the old Times Square when prostitutes and pimps roamed the neighborhood made it an undesirable place to visit. Despite all of the controversy Sofia stands behind her work as does the Time Square Alliance. I visited the mural a few days ago and while the style might be construed as suggestive to some, as a Black woman I didn’t find her work offensive. For me her work is full of colorful lively figures with a touch of the fantasy of female hip-hop performance we often see in hip-hop and NeoSoul music videos.

The mural is part of Times Square Alliance art projects, which commissioned Sofia. More on this culturaversy from FOXNEWS.

If you’re interested in voicing your opinion or just nosy and want to see what other people are saying, check out the Times Square Alliance blog.

In the areas of fiber arts and performance art, one name reins supreme: Nick Cave. Not to be confused with the musician, Nick Cave, the fiber/performance artist creates “sound suits” from found objects, including beads connected like tiny seeds of creativity, glass or plastic pieces strung together to form intricate patterns that suggest Brazilian or Caribbean carnival themes. These suits might also be layered with twigs and flowing hair, which from a distance looks like trees dancing in the woods, from some weird fairy tale.

This Cranbrook Design school graduate—who also serves as chair of the Fashion Design Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—has created new artistic boundaries as he adapts old with new art techniques. With a unique mix of fibers and other materials, he has produced furniture, clothing and much more. This new relationship between contemporary art, crafts, and fashion was evident in the 2007 “Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting” exhibition mounted by the Museum of Art and Design.

Soundsuit: This funky style is made of a diverse collection of found objects.

But this movement of sorts almost didn’t happen.

Sometime in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the interest in knitting started to fade, followed closely by the dwindling number of yarns shops throughout New York City. Today, knitting has emerged as a viable fiber art form, with a different twist that leans towards free-form, stylized garments, or products that are a combination of materials. These materials feature a mix of fibers with varied textures, as well as found objects from nature, even buttons or beads.

Cave’s work has forced other fiber artists and artists in other disciplines to reexamine their own material references. Whether you have the experience of witnessing Cave’s suits in performances, or as immobile figures in a gallery, you can still experience the sound and visual dialogue his pieces provoke. His work speaks to viewers with a cacophony of sounds heard over and over again.

Nick Cave's "Soundsuits" at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City

Cave had previously danced with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. One day he began to pay attention to the cacophony of sounds that came form his costume, which was mostly made of twigs. As he moved his body, each twig bushed against another and produced barely audible but regular sounds. Similar sounds came from other dancers who were gyrating to the beat of accompanying drums.

He had found a muse who would inspire his new art form—himself.

His canvases of his own or other dancers’ bodies expanded to include skintight leotards, to loose fitting garments with deep hoods. His materials now include beads, bangles, and sequins. No objects are off-limits; nor any subject. He has pulled together references from the social and political issues of the day, using for example, his own state of blackness as a silhouette; and in a nod to the Rodney King trial, a piece that expresses the freedom—or lack thereof—of the black male body, this time tied with materials that look like rope. The most ornate work can resemble over-sized deities, similar to spiritual figures from the African Yoruba tradition, or the Brazilian Candomble.
Nick Cave is represented by the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City.

more links to Nick Cave soundsuits.

I inadvertently stumbled across this hot tip on The Independent World, about China’s hottest fashionista. Apparently, a handsome 30ish young homeless man is being touted as one the sexiest fashion victims. He’s even mustered a huge internet following throughout China. News items on this man have been posted on Blogs and newspapers, discussing his brawny looks and “bohemian” style of dress. His groupies have called him the “Handsome Vagabond,” “the Beggar Prince” or “Brother Sharp.”  According to, The China Daily, netizen’s have dubbed him as the “most handsome underdog of the century.” Read on you decide.

Below are images the Handsome Vagabound morphed into Advertisements using photoshop.

Handsome Vagabond morphed in Dior Ad.