FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ISC Coordinator & Media Contact: Chandra Guinn
Office: (919) 962-6810
Fax: (919) 843-9407
Email: iaar@unc.educ
UNC Chapel Hill's International Scholars Conference To Illuminate Black Canada
Chapel Hill, NC – March 14, 2003 – An interdisciplinary international scholars' conference on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, April 1-3, 2003 will explore the lives of people of African descent in Canada.
Entitled “Engaging North America: Illuminating Black Canada,” the conference is designed to expand knowledge, build synergistic connections between scholars doing diasporic research in the US and Canada, to identify contextualized consistencies and nuanced differences in the contemporary experiences of people of African descent here and there, and to forge strategies to improve the well-being of the people of the black Diaspora. Previous conferences featured scholars from Germany, Japan, Cuba, and Mexico.
Sponsored by the UNC Chapel Hill Institute of African American Research, this fifth installment of the International Scholars Conference, will include the work of a cadre of scholars who examine the distinctive nature of the black experience in Canada, overturning narrow and conventional views of race in Canada (e.g. all blacks in Canada are descendants of former US slaves who came via the underground railway; there never was slavery in Canada; Canada is devoid of racism). Noted legal scholar Dr. Esmeralda Thornhill, will offer the keynote address entitled Deficits Corrected or Created?: Assessing the Impact of Law on Blacks in Canada. During individual sessions, other invited scholars (including Clarence Bayne, George Elliott Clarke, Rinaldo Walcott, and Dorothy Williams) will make presentations after which the audience will be invited to participate in a dialogue. There will also be film showings and conversations with filmmaker Sylvia Hamilton. A Sampling of Southern Soul Food during lunch will allow the conference theme to be experienced by all of the senses. Additionally, this year's conference will feature an incisive poetry reading by Canadian poet/writer George Elliott Clarke and a rousing jazz concert with the Joe Sealy Quartet.
IAAR Director, Dr. William "Sandy" Darity, the Cary C. Boshamer Professor of Economics and Sociology at UNC said, "This area of research and community of peoples has long been overlooked. This conference represents an exciting cultural bridge linking communities of people often thought of as disparate, but who are actually part of the same fabric of continental American history."
The conference will feature the following activities:
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: by Lawyer, Linguist, Lecturer, Educator, and Writer Esmeralda M.A. Thornhill, Tuesday, April 1 at 7:00 pm in the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Auditorium.
FILM SHOWINGS: including Speak It (from the Heart of Nova Scotia) and Black Mother, Black Daughter as well as conversations with the filmmaker Sylvia Hamilton, Tuesday and Wednesday, April 2 – 3 in Toy Lounge of Dey Hall.
JAZZ CONCERT: featuring Juno award-winning Canadian artists the Joe Sealy Quartet performing Africville Suite, a jazz cd which pays tribute to the spirit of Sealy's home community and the oldest black community in Canada, Wednesday April 2 at 7:30 pm in the Hanes Art Center Auditorium. Learn more about Africville online at http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/africville.html.
FICTIONAL LITERATURE & SOCIAL SCIENCE PAPER SESSIONS: Tuesday and Wednesday, April 2 – 3 in Toy Lounge of Dey Hall.
All events are free and open to the public.
The Institute of African American Research is a center for the study of Black Life. Its central mission is to promote and advance the experiences, culture, and thought of people of African descent throughout the Diaspora, with particular emphasis on Black Americans.
For more information about this conference, please see the IAAR website: www.unc.edu/depts/iaar, or contact Chandra Guinn at iaar@unc.edu.
INTERNET RESOURCES:
The Complex Face of Black Canada by George Elliot Clarke http://ww2.mcgill.ca/alumni/news/w97/black.htm
Urban Black and Caribbean Canadian Learning Resource Network
http://www.ccmacanada.org/urban/blackcanhistory/default.htm
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ISC Coordinator: Chandra Guinn
Office – (919) 962-6810
Fax (919) 843-9407
Email – cyg@email.unc.edu
Media Contact: Indira Lawson
Office - (919) 962-6810
Fax (919) 843-9407
Email – iponder@email.unc.edu
UNC Chapel Hill's Institute Of African American Research Presents Artistic Illuminations, An Evening Of Poetry And Jazz With The Joe Sealy Quartet
Chapel Hill, NC – March 4, 2003 --- The Institute of African American Research (IAAR) will host Artistic Illuminations featuring poetry by literary scholar George Elliott Clarke and jazz by the Joe Sealy Quartet on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill on April 2, 2003. This event is a part of the Engaging North America: Illuminating Black Canada International Scholars Conference (ISC) taking place April 1-3, 2003.
Joe Sealy is one of Canada's most highly regarded jazz musicians. His music is loved by audiences from coast to coast and around the world. Over the past several years, Sealy has been touring his Juno award winning release, Africville Suite, dedicated to the oldest black community in Canada.
Africville was established in 1838 when descendants of American slaves settled in Halifax, Nova Scotia. More than 100 years later, city officials decided to embark on an “urban renewal campaign”. Because the residents in the 1960's did not have deeds to prove ownership of the land, they were forced to accept the $500 and relocation proposed by the city. Africville was razed by the city's government once the land was expropriated in 1967. A descendant of Africville, Sealy felt compelled to create a tribute to his birthplace. This tour has taken him to countless cities including Oslo, Copenhagen and Washington, D.C., where he played at the Canadian Embassy.
But Africville Suite is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the music of Joe Sealy and long time musical collaborator, Paul Novotny. Their performance repertoire includes jazz standards, works from their own highly celebrated catalog, and often a combination of the two! Sealy's most recent project with Novotny is Juno award nominated Blue Jade.
The concert will take place on Wednesday, April 2, 2003 at the Hanes Art Center Auditorium on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The evenings' events will begin at 7:30pm. This event is free and open to the public, so come and experience a little piece of black Canada.
The Institute of African American Research is a center for the study of black life. Its central mission is to promote and advance the experiences, culture, and thought of people of African descent throughout the diaspora, with particular emphasis on black Americans. For more information about this conference, please see the IAAR website: www.unc.edu/depts/iaar, or contact Chandra Guinn at iaar@unc.edu.
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For Immediate Release
ISC Coordinator: Chandra Guinn
Office - (919) 962-6810
Fax (919) 843-9407
Email - iaar@unc.edu
Media Contact: Alicia B. Williams
Office - (919) 962-6810
Fax - (919) 843-9407
Email - alicia273@aol.com
POET, ESSAYIST, NOVELIST ISHMAEL REED TO GIVE KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE
Chapel Hill, NC - April 5, 2002 - Literary giant Ishmael Reed will give the keynote address during an interdisciplinary conference entitled "Dialogues on Race and Identity: A Tomming' and Passing Symposium" at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Wednesday, April 24, 2003.
Sponsored by the UNC Chapel Hill Institute of African American Research (IAAR), the symposium will explore the concepts of "Tomming" and "Passing" through an interdisciplinary lens. Invited scholars will address how both topics appear in literature, film, the social sciences, and the visual arts.
Reed is a pre-eminent African American literary figure, MacArthur Fellow, and lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley. Since publishing his first novel, The Free-Lance Pallbearers in 1967, he has produced a body of fiction, poetry, and essays that satirize "American political, religious, and literary repression." (Ishmael Reed Biography: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/reed/reed_ishmael0.html).
In his keynote address, Reed will "situate the ironies and survival adaptations of both "Tomming" and "Passing" in the context of his literary contributions," said IAAR Director William Darity.
"Reed's work long has explored through satire, parody, and absurdist realism issues of racial identity, ideology, and activism," Darity said. "Of special note in the context of this symposium is Reed's controversial novel that explores lynching both literally and metaphorically, Reckless Eyeballing, and his topsy-turvy historical inquest into Lincoln, the American race question and slavery in Flight to Canada."
"Tomming" is a term drawn from the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Tom traditionally represents a smiling, wide-eyed, dark-skinned server who was docile and non-threatening to whites. "Passing" refers to the status of individuals who choose to identify with a race other than their own. It can be facilitated by the fact that an individual's phenotype may preclude others from readily detecting their genotypic background. Invited scholars who conduct academic research on these topics will address either or both of the phenomena during the week. The conference is free and open to the public.
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For Immediate Release
ISC Coordinator: Chandra Guinn
Office - (919) 962-6810
Fax (919) 843-9407
Email - iaar@unc.edu
Media Contact: Alicia B. Williams
Office - (919) 962-6810
Fax - (919) 843-9407
Email - alicia273@aol.com
INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE TO ADDRESS AMBIGUITIES OF RACE AND RACIAL IDENTITY
Chapel Hill, NC - April 5, 2002- An interdisciplinary symposium will address the ambiguities of race and racial identity on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, April 22-26, 2003.
Entitled "Dialogues on Race and Identity: A "Tomming and Passing" Symposium," the conference is designed to engage participants in discourse about both phenomena. "Tomming" is a term drawn from the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Tom traditionally represents a smiling, wide-eyed, dark-skinned server who was docile and non-threatening to whites.
"Passing" refers to the status of individuals who choose to identify with a race other than their own. It can be facilitated by the fact that an individual's phenotype may preclude others from readily detecting their genotypic background.
Sponsored by the UNC Institute of African American Research, the symposium will explore both concepts through an interdisciplinary lens, which will include the treatment of "Tomming and Passing" in literature, film, the social sciences, and the visual arts. Invited scholars who conduct academic research on these topics will address either or both of the phenomena during the week. The symposium is free and open to the public.
"We seek to explore both "Passing" and "Tomming" in their widest dimensions," said IAAR director William Darity. "This symposium is designed to explore the problem of racial identity, the nature of racial pride, the image of "the other' and "the self," and the history and consequences of the construction of denigrating representations of blacks."
The symposium will feature the following activities:
Keynote address: by Poet, Essayist, Writer, Ishmael Reed on Wednesday, April 24 from 7-10 p.m.
Film Showings: (Tate Turner Kuralt Auditorium)
April 22-26 at noon: Each lunchtime film will be followed by a short discussion led by UNC graduate students/faculty.
April 23-25: films will also be shown from 7 - 10 p.m.
Art Presentations:
Monday, April 22 -David Pilgrim, curator of the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University, will present pieces of racist memorabilia from the museum, including caricatures of the "Tom," "Mammy," and "Tragic Mulatto." See the Jim Crow Museum online at www.ferris.edu/jimcrowThese pieces will be on display in Tate Turner Kuralt Auditorium for the duration of the conference.
Friday, April 26 - Art panel discussion by artists Michael Ray Charles, Juan Logan, and Michael Harris in the Hanes Art Center Auditorium.
Fictional Literature Paper Sessions: Tuesday, April 23; Thursday, April 25
Social Science Paper Sessions: Wednesday, April 24; Friday, April 26
The Institute of African American Research is a center for the study of Black Life. Its central mission is to promote and advance the experiences, culture, and thought of people of African descent throughout the Diaspora, with particular emphasis on Black Americans.
For more information about this symposium, please see the IAAR website: www.unc.edu/depts/iaar, or contact Chandra Guinn at iaar@unc.edu.
Internet Resources:
Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture: A Multi-Media Archive
http://jefferson.villiage.virginia.edu/utc
Princeton University/Imitating Life Conference
Women, Race, and Film 1932-2000
www.princeton.edu/~aaprog/ioverview.html
Ismael Reed Biography
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/reed/reed_ishmael0.html
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ISC Coordinator: Chandra Guinn
Office - (919) 962-6810
Fax (919) 843-9407
Email - iaar@unc.edu
Media Contact: Alicia B. Williams
Office - (919) 962-6810
Cell phone - (919) 949-4785
Fax - (919) 843-9407
Email - alicia273@aol.com
INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS TO EXAMINE THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN MEXICO
Chapel Hill, NC - March 5, 2002 --- Four visiting scholars who specialize in the historical and contemporary presence of Blacks in Mexico will participate in an International Scholars Conference at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on March 26-27, 2003.
Entitled "Engaging North America: Interrogating the African Presence in Mexico," the conference will be held in Toy Lounge of Dey Hall on the UNC Chapel Hill campus and is free and open to the public. Lunch will also be provided for those who pre-register.
The event is the fourth of its kind sponsored by the UNC-CH Institute of African American Research (IAAR). Previous conferences featured scholars from Germany, Japan, and Cuba.
IAAR Director, Dr. William "Sandy" Darity, said the large influx of Mexicans into the U.S. - and North Carolina specifically - requires increased "knowledge and understanding of our neighbors to the South."
"This area of research and community of peoples has long been overlooked." said Darity, the Cary C. Professor of Economics and Sociology at UNC. "This conference represents an exciting cultural bridge linking communities of people often thought of as disparate, but who are actually part of the same fabric of continental American history."
During the conference, each scholar will make a 30-45 minute presentation, followed by a 15-minute response by a local faculty commentator. Thereafter, faculty and students will have the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session. The conference features the following scholarly paper presentations:
Herman Bennett, Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey will speak on "Incest and Inquest: Reconstituting the Colonial Afro-Mexican Past"
Bobby Vaughn, Colby College will present "The Discursive Negation of Blackness in Southern Mexico."
Ben Vinson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will present "Afro-Mexico's Colonial Heritage: An Examination of Military Participation and its Meaning for Racial Identity."
Sagrario Cruz-Carretero, Universidad Veracruzana, will present "Black Presence in Mexico: Historical and Contemporary Perspective."
In addition to scholarly presentations, the conference will feature the screening of a documentary film, "Los Ladinos: Mexico's Hidden Treasure," by Tamainia Davis. The film depicts Afro-Mexicanos and Afro-Mestizos who live in the Mexican states of Vera Cruz, Guerrero, and Oaxaca.
Conference participants will also have the chance to sample Afro-Mestizo cuisine prepared by Doris Careaga, a chef, food critic, and television personality from Veracruz. Careaga will explain the origin and cultural significance of the cuisine. She will also share a documentary film entitled, "La Tercera Raiz en Tamihahua," which portrays her hometown.
The Institute of African American Research is a center for the study of Black Life. Its central mission is to promote and advance the experiences, culture, and thought of people of African descent throughout the Diaspora, with particular emphasis on Black Americans.
For more information about this conference, please see the IAAR website: www.unc.edu/depts/iaar, or contact Chandra Guinn at iaar@unc.edu.
