Author: Kelly Baker Josephs

The Star Side of Bird Hill launch

Tuesday, 30 June, 7:30 PM
Book Launch: The Star Side of Bird Hill, by Naomi Jackson
In conversation with Tiphanie Yanique

star side cover

Greenlight Bookstore
686 Fulton Street 
(at South Portland)
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Book launch for The Star Side of Bird Hill, the debut novel by Naomi Jackson. Born and raised in Brooklyn by West Indian parents, Jackson evokes 1980s Barbados with the story of sixteen-year-old Dionne and her younger sister Phaedra, send to live with their grandmother Hyacinth in the town of Bird Hill. These three characters form an unforgettable matriarchal family buoyed by love and community and tested by heartbreak and betrayal. The Star Side of Bird Hill has been praised by fellow authors including Ayana Mathis and Tiphanie Yanique, who calls it “A book laced with pain but shimmering with hope. With care, the narrative addresses huge issues such as mental illness, mortality, sexuality and, at its very core, what it means to love another person as they are.” Jackson presents her brilliant new novel in conversation with Yanique, whose award-winning novel of the Virgin Islands Land of Love and Drowning was a Greenlight First Editions Club selection.

Above adapted from Greenlight Bookstore event page.

Radicalism, Revolution, and Freedom in the Caribbean

Friday 17 April—Saturday 18 April 2015
Plangere Writing Center
302 Murray Hall
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Conference organized by Carter Mathes and Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel and the Cluster of Critical Caribbean Studies, Theory and the Disciplines.

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Schedule

Friday, 17 April
3:00 p.m.—3:30 p.m.
Welcoming Remarks
Carter Mathes (English and Critical Caribbean Studies, Rutgers-New Brunswick)

3:30 p.m.—4:30 p.m.
Screening of Documentary on Racial Inequality in Cuba
“Contra Las Cuerdas” (“Against the Ropes”) followed by Q&A
Moderator: Laura Lomas (English, Rutgers-Newark)
Amílcar O. Cárdenas (Asociación Cubana del Audiovisual)

4:30 p.m.—6:00 p.m.
Session 1
Reimagining Caribbean Studies: Slavery, Transnational Identity, and Contemporary Politics
Moderator: Kevin Manuel-Bentley (American Studies, Rutgers-Newark)

  • Kevin Young (History, Rutgers-New Brunswick), “At the Crossroads of Empire and Republic: Native American Slaves in Nineteenth-Century Cuba and Mexico”
  • Marlene Gaynair (History, Rutgers-New Brunswick), “WHERE’S THE BEEF? Food, Controversy and Citizenship Claims in the
    Jamaican Canadian Community”
  • Hyacinth Miller (Political Science, Rutgers-Newark), “Black, Foreign-Born and Elected: West Indians in New Jersey’s Elected Offices”

Respondent: Michelle Stephens (English and Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies, Rutgers New-Brunswick)

6:00 p.m.—6:45 p.m.
Reception

Saturday 18 April

8:30 a.m.—9:15 a.m.
Continental Breakfast

9:15 a.m.—10:30 a.m.
Session 2
“The Multiple Selves of James Bertram Clarke: A Model for Radical Caribbean Historiography”
Zita Nunes (English and Comparative Literature, University of Maryland)
Moderator: Margarita Castromán (English, Rutgers-New Brunswick)
Respondent: Carolyn Ureña (Comparative Literature, Rutgers-New Brunswick)

10:30 a.m.—11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break

11:00 a.m. —12:15 p.m.
Session 3
“A Black Kingdom of this World: Imagining Revolution in the Caribbean, 1812”
Ada Ferrer (History, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, New York University)
Moderator: Elena Lahr-Vivaz (Spanish and Portuguese Studies, Rutgers-Newark)
Respondent: Laurie Lambert (Visiting Researcher, Critical Caribbean Studies, Rutgers-New Brunswick)

12:15 p.m.–1:30 p.m.
Lunch

1:30 p.m.—2:45 p.m.
Session 4
“Language and Freedom in Anguilla: Understanding Creolization in a Marginal Colony”
Don E. Walicek (Department of English, University of Puerto Rico)
Moderator: Kathleen López (Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies and History, Rutgers—New Brunswick)
Respondent: Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel (Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies and Comparative Literature, Rutgers-New Brunswick)

2:45 p.m.—3:15 p.m.
Coffee Break

3:15 p.m.—4:45 p.m.
Session 5
New Caribbean Subjects: Ethics and Love in the Decolonial Imaginary
Moderator: Rafael Vizcaíno (Comparative Literature, Rutgers-New Brunswick)

  • Nidia Bautista (Political Science, Rutgers-New Brunswick)
    “Toward an Ethics of Scholarship: Locating the Intellectual”
  • Carolyn Ureña (Comparative Literature, Rutgers-New Brunswick)
    “Of Beloved and Other Demons: (De)Pathologizing Black Love in Morrison and García Márquez.”

Respondent: Carter Mathes (English, Rutgers-New Brunswick)

5:00 p.m.—5:45 p.m.
Closing Remarks
Laura Lomas (English, Rutgers-Newark), Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel (Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies and Comparative Literature, Rutgers-New Brunswick), Carter Mathes (English, Rutgers-New Brunswick)

Sponsored by: Critical Caribbean Studies (CCS), the Office of the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies, Department of English, Program in Comparative Literature and the Center for Cultural Analysis.

Latin American and Caribbean Philosophy, Theory, and Critique

6-8 April 2015
Rutgers University, New Brunswick
“Latin American and Caribbean Philosophy, Theory, and Critique”
with:

  • Enrique Dussel, UNAM/UAM, México
  • Gurminder Bhambra, U. of Warwick/Institute for Advance Study, Princeton
  • Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Rutgers University, New Brunswick

Monday 6 April, 5:00 to 7:00pm 
Keynote “The Latina/o Americas and the Caribbean: A View from the Philosophy of Liberation”
Graduate Student Lounge, College Avenue Campus (right behind Au Bon Pain, next to the Student Center)

Tuesday 7 April, 10 am to 1 pm
Roundtable discussion on “Critical Caribbean Studies, Theory, and Liberation Philosophy in Perspective” with special guests Enrique Dussel and Gurminder Bhambra.
Department of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies. Livingston Campus. Lucy Stone Hall A268. Livingston Campus.

Wednesday 8 April, 10 am to 12:30 pm
Roundtable discussion on “Decolonial Methodologies Today” with Enrique Dussel and Nelson Maldonado-Torres.
Graduate Student Lounge, College Avenue Campus (right behind Au Bon Pain, next to the Student Center)

This event is organized by the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies, and sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Critical Caribbean Studies at Rutgers, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Program in Comparative Literature, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Special guests:

Gurminder Bhambra, University of Warwick/Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton. Her research addresses how, within sociological understandings of modernity, the experiences and claims of non-European ‘others’ have been rendered invisible to the dominant narratives and analytical frameworks of sociology. While her research interests are primarily in the area of historical sociology, she is also interested in the intersection of the social sciences with recent work in postcolonial studies. Her current research project is on the possibilities for historical sociology in a postcolonial world. She is editor of the new monograph series, Theory for a Global Age, published by Bloomsbury Academic.

Enrique Dussel is the most prolific and one of the most influential philosophers and critical theorists in Latin America. He has two doctoral degrees (one in History and the other in Philosophy), and his work includes dozens of authored and edited books in the fields of philosophy, history, and religion. His most recent text translated to English is the massive Ethics of Liberation in the Age of Globalization and Exclusion published by Duke University Press in 2013. Since the original publication of this volume in Spanish, Dussel has written several volumes on the “politics of liberation” and has recently published a volume on the “economics of liberation.”

 

Above adapted from emailed announcement.

Special issue of ArtsEtc honoring Kamau Brathwaite

Call for submissions (in various genres) deadline: 31 March 2015

Kamau Brathwaite

From the call for submissions:

The editors of ArtsEtc are presently inviting writers to submit work to appear online in ArtsEtc No. 31. This issue’s content will essentially be dedicated to Kamau Brathwaite’s work, life and legacy.

Submissions can be in any form (poetry, essay, book review, song, etc.), previously published (with full credit listed) or new. They can be excerpts or full pieces.

1) only one submission per contributor;

2) poetry/songs should be no longer than one (1) page;

3) prose should be no longer than five hundred (500) words.

The editors would also welcome significant photos with or of Kamau. Kindly include a caption, with the names of those in the photo, place taken, date taken, and by whom (if different from the contributor/copyright holder).

All contributors retain the copyright to their work. ArtsEtc is requesting only the non-exclusive right to publish the work on its website for this special issue and store it in the website’s online archives afterward.

Deadline: 31 March 2015.

All submissions may be sent to John Robert Lee at [email protected] and Jasmine Sealy at [email protected].

Above adapted from Repeating Islands announcement.

Identifying Identity – Ancient Faiths, New Lands

Identifying Identity – Ancient Faiths, New Lands

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Sunday 15 March, 3:30pm
Medgar Evers College Charles Innis Memorial Library
1650 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11225

Celebrating being Hindu, Jewish and Caribbean: A series of literary readings and conversations on immigration, heritage, identity and society with by New York area-based creative writers. This month celebrating the Festivals of Holi and Purim with Dhanpaul Narine, Hindu Guyanese poet and journalist and Anna Ruth Henriques, Hindu Guyanese poet and journalist.

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Other Caribbean Cultural Theatre related events

The Black That I Am
4-8 March
RA Stage II, 300 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036

Braata Theatre Workshop presents Karl O’Brian Williams’ meditation on black identity through the Caribbean lens. Directed by Kelly Thomas the production explores questions on issues of blackness, gender, sexuality, and nationalism. Learn more

CaFA – Roots & Culture Film Night
Friday, 6 March, 7:30
Nicholas Variety, 570 Fulton St, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Cine Caribes screens Linda Ainouche’s documentary feature, Dreadlocks Story which explores the bonds of survival in African and Indian culture in Jamaica in view of up-front anti-slavery and anti-imperialist struggles and Rastafri. Learn more

Demerara Gold
Saturday, 7 March, 3:30
Milton G. Bassin Performing Arts Center at York College: 94-45 Guy R. Brewer Blvd., Queens, NY

Ingrid Griffith’s hilarious, thought-provoking play about a 7-year old girl in Guyana whose parents get visas to America and must leave her in the care of her two aging grandmothers. Learn more

An n’ Pale | Café Conversation with Paola Mathé of Fanm Djanm
Thursday, 19 March, 6pm
Kinanm Lounge, 856 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Haiti Cultural Exchange hosts a Women’s History Month conversation lifestyle blogger, writer, photographer and business owner,Paola Mathé. Her blog Finding Paola is about her life in New York City, personal style and inspiration. Learn more

Above adapted from Caribbean Cultural Theatre email announcement.

Simone Leigh: Moulting

Simone Leigh: Moulting

An exhibition presented by the Tilton Gallery

3 March – 25 April 2015
8 East 76th Street
(between Madison and Fifth Avenues)
New York, NY

 

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Works in progress by Simone Leigh

From the emailed announcement:

Tilton Gallery is pleased to present Moulting, Simone Leigh’s third exhibition with the gallery.

In this exhibition, Simone Leigh expands her exploration of ceramic-based and multimedia sculpture to fill the gallery with majestic installations that celebrate the woman’s role in African and African American history. Long concerned with making manifest the role of women’s work in object-making as a vehicle to investigate questions of history, tradition, race and identity, Leigh’s current exhibition expands the possibilities both in her use of materials and in her approach to sculpture as performance.
Continue reading Simone Leigh: Moulting

Maroons, Indigenous Peoples, and Indigeneity

19-23 June 2015
Charles Town, Portland, Jamaica

CFP deadline: Abstracts due by 15 March

The Seventh Charles Town International Maroon Conference invites papers that explore the relationships between place and tradition in Indigenous and Maroon communities around the globe.

Held in the Maroon community of Charles Town surrounded by Jamaica’s Blue and John Crow Mountains, this interdisciplinary conference will explore issues, values, and practices of Maroons and indigenous peoples as well as ideas about marronage and indigeneity to consider the ways they have endured, transformed, and resonated in the Caribbean, Canada, Australia, South America, Europe, the United States, and Africa. The conference offers a unique combination of scholarly panels and cultural events in fields that include history, linguistics, art, literature, film, sociology, ethnography, ethnomusicology, geography, legal studies, gender studies, religious studies, cultural studies, and indigenous studies.

Issues to consider might include:

  • Land Rights
  • Indigeneity
  • Territoriality
  • Marronage
  • Representation
  • Language and Literature
  • Identity
  • Space/Place
  • Sustainability
  • Dispossession and landlessness
  • Cultural heritage
tourism
  • Laws and legality
  • Music
  • DNA
  • Education

Please send abstracts of 250-300 words by 15 March or inquiries to: [email protected] or [email protected].

Above adapted from emailed announcement.

Empowerment, Humanitarian Aid, and the Normalization of U.S.-Cuba Relations

Thursday, 26 February 2015
12 – 2 p.m.
Fordham Law School
Bateman Room, 2nd Floor

Event description from website:

In a historic broadcast, Presidents Obama and Castro simultaneously announced the normalization of diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States, severed in January of 1961. The aim of this policy change, President Obama explained, is to “unleash the potential of 11 million Cubans” to create a more democratic and prosperous social and economic system. In this panel renowned Cuba scholars, humanitarian aid and cultural activists, and artists Margaret Crahan, Sujatha Fernandes, and Achy Obejas explore the impact of the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations on the empowerment of the Cuban people, on humanitarian assistance to the island, and on the relationship to Latin America and U.S. Latinos.

Participating scholars:

Margaret E. Crahan, Ph.D., is director of the Cuba Program at the Institute for Latin American Studies at Columbia University. She has been the Henry R. Luce Professor of Religion, Power and Political Process at Occidental College, and is currently the vice president of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights.

Sujatha Fernandes, Ph.D., is associate professor of sociology at Queens College, CUNY, and author of Cuba Represent!: Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures, which combines social theory and political economy with in-depth, engaged ethnography to explore social agency in post-Soviet Cuba through the arts.

Achy Obejas is the acclaimed Cuban-American author of the novels Ruins and Days of Awe, the translator into Spanish of Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and a journalist and blogger of renown.

Lunch will be served.

For more information or to RSVP, contact Latin American and Latino Studies Institute at 718-817-4792 or [email protected].

Caribbean Outlook: the dynamics of politics, ideology, regionalism and evolving perspectives

Call for papers for proposed anthology:

Caribbean Outlook: the dynamics of politics, ideology, regionalism and evolving perspectives

Deadlines: 28 February 2015 – abstracts of proposals;  30 June 2015 – full papers due

From the CFP:

The publication brings together written discussion by contributors on Caribbean society on intellectual areas that have shaped and are shaping the characteristics of the Caribbean. The objectives of the publication are to connect with students and academics at the tertiary level but can also be a generally used resource. As a result, one goal of the publication is to have innovative, refreshing, re-examined viewpoints on different academic areas challenging traditional and even revisionist ideas. By this, the publication provides an opportunity for contributors to put forward ideas into the academic domain alongside traditional and critical ideas. The thematic structure of the publication was chosen given the impact that these areas have within the region.

The exploration of political issues provides the backdrop for understanding the systems of power within the Caribbean. Part of this exploration is to examine the legacies of colonial administration through the influence of the political party structure, the parliamentary system, and constitutional foundations of the region’s system of politics. Ideology continues to play a central role in the development of the Caribbean’s identity ranging from labour movements, identity consciousness and constitutional reform. The struggles of small Caribbean states within the worldwide economy provides the underpinning for exploring Caribbean unification as a critical aspect of the region’s twenty-first century goals. In some instances, the discussion of the importance of Caribbean integration has not given traction to the integration movement while other aspects of regionalism are losing power to influence the integration discussion. Finally, evolving perspectives provides an opportunity to investigate areas that have in the past few years been seen as important pillars for social development. For example, gender, sport, banking and law were second to politics, economics, and labour as it pertains to forces shaping the Caribbean. However, these areas are very important for the continued institutional progress of Caribbean society.

To attain the goal of creating a relevant framework for discussion, each contribution should be situated within a theoretical basis outlining why and how the elements within the area have impacted upon Caribbean society. Each submission therefore will be examined and approved depending on the quality of research. Authors are asked to submit an abstract with final submission to be made later on.

Citation style: Chicago Manual of Style (latest edition)

Word length: 8,000 – 10,000

Proposed Publishers: Palgrave MacMillan or Edward Elgar Publishing

For more information, contact:  [email protected]  – Jerome Teelucksingh, University of the West Indies – St. Augustine

 

Freedom Time – Book Launch

24 February, 6–8pm
Room 9204
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY

Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World
By Gary Wilder

Freedomtime

“Freedom Time is astonishing in its originality, breadth of learning, rhetorical power, interdisciplinary reach, and theoretical sophistication. It thoroughly transforms our understanding of the dialogues and disputations that made up the ‘Black’ / French encounter. With this work, Gary Wilder establishes himself as one of the most compelling and powerful voices in French and Francophone critical studies.”
—Achille Mbembe, author of On the Postcolony

Book launch featuring: Gary Wilder (The Graduate Center) in conversation with Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia), Judith Surkis (Rutgers) Fouad Makki (Cornell), and Nick Nesbitt (Princeton), moderated by Anthony Alessandrini (Kingsborough, CUNY).

Reception to follow in Room 5109

—
Gary Wilder is Director of the Mellon Committee on Globalization and Social Change and associate professor in the Phd. Program in Anthropology and the Ph.D. Program in History at The Graduate Center, CUNY. He is the author of The French Imperial Nation-State: Negritude and Colonial Humanism Between the Two World Wars (University of Chicago Press, 1995). His research on the French empire, French West Africa, and the Francophone Caribbean is located at the intersection of historical anthropology, intellectual history, and critical social theory.