Author: Kelly Baker Josephs

Association of Caribbean Historians Conference 2014

46th Annual Association of Caribbean Historians Conference,
Martinique, 2014
11 May – 16 May 2014

CFP Deadline: 1 October 2013

Call for Papers and Advance Information

The Executive Committee is pleased to receive paper and panel applications for next year’s conference. Members suggested a number of themes at this year’s Annual General Meeting in Belize. While papers on these ideas are encouraged, please note that applicants are welcome to submit proposals about other subjects or ideas.

Suggested themes include:

New issue of sx salon

Introduction and Table of Contents from sx salon, issue 13

Our discussion section in this summer issue of sx salon focuses on a genre of Caribbean writing that does not receive nearly enough attention: children’s literature. As noted in the three essays included in this issue, there has been a significant increase in Caribbean children’s literature in the past decade; there has not, however, been a concurrent increase in reflections on this body of work—or even much of an acknowledgement of it as a body of work. The importance of children’s literature is not simply commercial. As Joanne Johnson declares in her discussion essay,

As a member of a small but growing community of published Caribbean children’s book authors, I recognize that we are not solely wordsmiths. Our published works are collectively and potentially a codex for cultivating an audience of readers for West Indian writers, and more.

The cultural implications of Caribbean children’s literature for generational development and for the larger Caribbean literary tradition cannot be overstated. Along with Johnson’s essay, we publish Curdella Forbes’s historically informed discussion of reading material for children in the Caribbean and Summer Edward’s consideration of the import of illustrations and overall aesthetics of Caribbean children’s literature.

Included in this issue are reviews of recent scholarly works on Jamaica and Haiti. We also carry an interview with Port-au-Prince-based artist Andre Eugene. Rounding out the issue are poetry selections from Monica Minott, 2009 first prize winner of the Small Axe literary competition, and Anton Nimblett, author of Sections of an Orange (reviewed in our June 2011 issue). Our prose selection for August features fiction by Jonathan Bellot, whose previous sx salon work may be found here.

We hope you enjoy this close-of-summer issue.

Kelly Baker Josephs

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sx salon 13 (August 2013)

Introduction and Table of Contents—Kelly Baker Josephs

Reviews
Higglers in Kingston: Women’s Informal Work in Jamaica by Winnifred Brown-Glaude—Danielle Phillips
Tectonic Shifts: Haiti since the Earthquake, edited by Mark Schuller and Pablo Morales—Mariana Past
Exceptional Violence: Embodied Citizenship in Transnational Jamaica, by Deborah A. Thomas—Tami Navarro

Discussion: Caribbean Children’s Literature

Jamaican Children Reading: A Reflection—Curdella Forbes
Cultural Authenticity in the Emerging Caribbean Picturebook Aesthetic—Summer Edward
Codex Legacy: The Soul Profit of a People—Joanne Johnson

Poetry
Monica Minott
Anton Nimblett

Prose
Jonathan Bellot

Interviews
The Visual Language of Resistance: A Conversation with André Eugène—Christopher Garland

Migration by Boat: theories, politics, and memories

CFP deadlines: abstracts due 30 September; accepted papers due 30 May.

Dr. Lynda Mannik (see bio below) is seeking original chapters for a collection tentatively titled, Migration by Boat: theories, politics, and memories, which will explore ocean travel undertaken by refugees, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants as a space and place where cultures intersect, and national boundaries and identities are reshaped, both in painful and creative ways. Migration by boat can symbolically be aligned with notions of deterritorialization that often support fears, yet also allow for renegotiations of identity, memory and feelings. Contributions from a multidisciplinary cohort are welcome. Authors are encouraged to submit provocative original writing (conceptual, empirical or theoretical) that emphasizes how migration by boat is remembered and represented; effects individual and social or cultural identity; and challenges or reinforces cultural or social structures.  Continue reading Migration by Boat: theories, politics, and memories

The Meaning of Blackness / Significance of Being Black

The Meaning of Blackness / Significance of Being Black

University of Costa Rica
San Pedro, Costa Rica
3-6 February 2014

Keynote addresses by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Sir Hilary Beckles, Toyin Falola, and Paul E. Lovejoy

CFP deadline: Not noted. Please contact Paul Lovejoy <[email protected]> for more information.

Proposals for papers will only be considered if they fit within one of the themes. Proposals must be accompanied by an abstract and short c.v. Continue reading The Meaning of Blackness / Significance of Being Black

Poetry Editor for Ananseem

Anansesem, an ezine for Caribbean children’s literature is currently seeking a Volunteer Poetry Editor.

The Poetry Editor will be someone who genuinely cares about Caribbean children’s literature. The Poetry Editor will be an ambassador not only for Anansesem, but for Caribbean children’s literature. Editors are expected to take ownership of what they bring to the ezine and to the cause of promoting Caribbean children’s literature. Sustained interest is an important part of this role.

To apply, please contact Anansesem here.

Qualifications

• Must reside in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, or New York. Continue reading Poetry Editor for Ananseem

Aimé Césaire/La Négritude

Aimé Césaire/La Négritude: Poetics, Africana History/Identities, and Political Thoughts
October 16-17, 2013
Howard University (Washington, DC)

CFP deadline: Proposals due electronically by 30 September 2013

On 16-17 October 2013, Howard University will host an international and interdisciplinary symposium on the centenary of the birth of Aimé Césaire, one of the founders of the movement of Négritude. The organizers invite individual papers or group proposals from the various disciplines that contribute to Césaire’s paradigm shifts in black poetics, black aesthetics, and political thoughts/theories, as well as from individuals and groups engaged in artistic, political, and intellectual work outside the academy, including writers, artists, and community activists.

Suggested topics for proposals include:

Save A Museum Exhibit/Sale for the Musee d’Art Haitien

Tuesday, Sept. 17 – Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013

Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba
219 East 2nd Street
New York, NY 10009
(212) 674-3939

Haitian Fine Art donated by artists and collectors from around the world to raise funds for the repair of the Musée d’Art Haïtien du Collège St.
Pierre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The museum was severely damaged by the 2010 earthquake and has been closed to the public since then. In an unprecedented effort, 88 original artworks donated by Haitian masters, emerging artists and collectors will be on display for sale.

Tuesday, Sept. 17 – Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013
Hours: 11 am – 6 pm

Opening event: Thursday, Sept. 19, 4 – 6 pm
Closing event: Saturday, Sept. 21, 3 – 7 pm

You don’t need to be present to purchase artwork or contribute. Contact
the organizers at [email protected] or (718) 253-0215 for any
information.

Adapted from email announcement.

Celebrating the Life and Work of Kamau Brathwaite

“A Splice of Space and Time”: Celebrating the Life and Work of Kamau Brathwaite
Critical Caribbean Symposium 2013
College of The Bahamas, Nassau Bahamas
November 22-23

CFP Deadline: Abstracts due 4 October 2013. Submit electronically to [email protected]

“A Splice of Space and Time”: Celebrating the Life and Work of Kamau Brathwaite

Since the early 1950s, Kamau Brathwaite has been one of the leading producers of Caribbean cultural and intellectual discourses. Not just an award winning poet, the richness of Brathwaite’s verse is paralleled only by the depth of his scholarly essays in literary criticism, cultural theory, and history. With groundbreaking works including Four Plays for Primary Schools (1964), Rights of Passage (1967), Black + Blues (1976), Roots (1993), The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica, 1770-1820 (1971), and History of the Voice (1986), Braithwaite’s place as a major contemporary poet, philosopher and original literary voice of the Caribbean has been well-established. Continue reading Celebrating the Life and Work of Kamau Brathwaite

Race and New York in the twentieth century

New York History: A Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association, invites submissions for an issue devoted to race and New York in the twentieth century.

Submission deadline: 15 November 2013. Submissions to be submitted electronically to [email protected]

All papers based on the general topic of race and New York in the twentieth century will be considered. Especially welcome are essays examining understudied histories of race and New York, articles complicating the black/white dichotomy, studies on race outside of New York City, emerging and exciting historiographies, including whiteness studies, black power studies, and civil rights activism before Brown, as well as histories shedding light on pressing social issues in our time, such as immigration, mass incarceration, institutional racism, affirmative action, to name a few. Essays analyzing shifts in conceptions and applications of race and racism are also desirable. Continue reading Race and New York in the twentieth century

National Council for Black Studies 2014 Conference

National Council for Black Studies
38th Annual Conference

March 5-8, 2014
Miami, FL

CFP deadline: 11 January 2014. Submissions accepted electronically here.

NCBS is accepting abstracts for individual paper, poster, panel, session, roundtable discussion, workshop, town hall meeting that explore the Black experience locally, nationally, and/or globally from a variety of perspectives. Of particular interest are presentations that comparatively explore these experiences, as well as those that examine the discipline of Africana/Black Studies using multi-layered frameworks and methodologies. Papers that incorporate various combinations of race/nationality, class, gender, and sexuality, through the lens of but not limited to Afrocentric, cross and multicultural, diasporic, feminist, post-colonial, post-modernist or transnational interpretative schemes are welcomed. Send a 150-400 word abstract for a panel (one for the panel subject and one for each panelist), and/or individual paper and poster presentations. For roundtable discussions submit a 500 word abstract that explores the discussion topic.

Audio-visual needs (e.g. powerpoint, monitors, TV, etc…)–presenters have to contract equipment from their institution or the hotel –NCBS will not be responsible for supplying presenters with equipment.

Submissions due by 11 January 2014

All conference presenters must pre-register for the conference.

Information taken from NCBS website. Please see the full CFP for more details and contact information.

 

Mi Querido Barrio: An Augmented Reality Art Project

The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) has been awarded a grant from the Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Fund to develop a mobile augmented reality project called “Mi Querido Barrio” or “My Beloved Barrio.”

“Mi Querido Barrio” is an exhibition with both physical and virtual components, mapping an historic and cultural tour of El Barrio to foster greater awareness of the cultural history of the area’s (NYC) long-standing residents. The works of intergenerational artists in both traditional media and augmented reality will explore the concept of home/community in a global reality.

The physical exhibition will document the lives of 5 families with a generational history of living in El Barrio. The virtual exhibition will place virtual computer graphic artworks and environments throughout the neighborhood of Spanish Harlem as a means to reflect upon El Barrio’s past, present and future in cultural memory, history, fantasy, and reality.
CALL FOR ARTISTS
No deadline for submission stated. Full CFP available here.

The CCCADI will be identifying four artists to participate in a workshop to learn the new technology of augmented reality and use these new skills to create site-specific virtual artworks and environments landmarking the history and culture of East Harlem/El Barrio. Continue reading Mi Querido Barrio: An Augmented Reality Art Project

2014 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize

The 2014 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize recently opened for entries.

The Hollick Arvon Prize is an annual award which allows an emerging Caribbean writer living and working in the Anglophone Caribbean to devote time to advancing or finishing a literary work. It is sponsored by the Hollick Family Charitable Trust and the literary charitable trust Arvon, in association with the Bocas Lit Fest.

The inaugural £10,000 prize was awarded to Trinidadian writer Barbara Jenkins this year.

To be eligible for entry, a writer must:

  1. be of Caribbean birth or citizenship, living and working in the Anglophone Caribbean and writing in English
  2. be over the age of 18 by 30 September, 2013
  3. have had at least one piece of literary non-fiction of no less than 2,000 words published.

The 2014 round of the prize is open to writers of literary non-fiction. The submission deadline is 30 September, 2013, and full details of the entry requirements are available here.

Language Speaks Us

Language Speaks Us: Language(s) and Identity
The College English Association—Caribbean Chapter Conference
University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez
14-15 March 2014

CFP deadline: abstracts (100-200 words) due by 30 September 2013 to [email protected]

The College English Association—Caribbean Chapter welcomes proposals for presentations in English (20-minute papers) for their 2014 conference, which will be held at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, on 14-15 March 2014. This event will be an opportunity to discuss the ways in which texts are conceived, nurtured and produced, and received by the public, in both historical and contemporary contexts. “Text” is to be interpreted broadly and comprises literature, nonfiction, essays, advertisements, maps, music, film, poetry, tweets, visual and performing arts, facebook posts, SMS and IMs, and many other tracts. Conference papers will be considered for publication in a volume of essays.

Possible topics, among others: Continue reading Language Speaks Us

Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies – Book Reviews

The Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies is seeking book reviewers for two issues scheduled to be published in 2014.  The journal covers topics on imperialism, neo-imperialism, postcolonialism, transnationalism, and globalization from gendered perspectives.

Interested reviewers may suggest freshly published books or may contact the journal for book assignments. Reviews would be due by December 2013.

Please contact the book review editor directly with questions or review queries:

Nandita Ghosh
[email protected]
Associate Professor of English
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Madison, NJ 07940

Association of Caribbean Historians Annual Conference

The 46th Annual Conference of the Association of Caribbean Historians (ACH)
Fort-de-France and Schœlcher in Martinique
11 May – 16 May, 2014

CFP Deadline: Proposals due by 1 October 2013.

The ACH Executive Committee is accepting paper and panel applications for The 46th Annual Conference of the Association of Caribbean Historians.  Members suggested a number of themes at this year’s Annual General Meeting in Belize.  While papers on these ideas are encouraged, please note that applicants are welcome to submit proposals about other subjects or ideas.

Suggested themes include: Continue reading Association of Caribbean Historians Annual Conference