Black Bird Press News & Review: Black Arts Movement Conference Program Highlights, UC Merced, Feb 28 thru March 2, 2014

Welcome from African Diaspora Student Association

Welcome to 50 Years On: The Black Arts Movement and Its Influences. This event is the result of the work of many people with a profound vision of black identity that moved past boundaries, limitations, and old belief systems of what it meant to be a Black American. We are standing on the shoulders of Larry Neal, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Rhonda White-Warner, Lorraine Hansberry, Gwendolyn Brooks, Harold Cruse, and the ancestor spirits that have gone before to pave our way. This conference brings the living legends of the Black Arts Movement together
to stand in righteous fervor as we speak about a time in history from 1965 to
1976 that is representative of the Black Arts Movement. Through scholarship, literature, art and the power of the spoken word, this conference explores the Black Arts Movement as our past, present, and future. The ancestor spirits are calling,
“Be moved by the art, literature, culture, and our presence.” This conference is dedicated to those ancestral spirits guiding us all to the light.

Kim McMillon, President

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

Dr. Susan Amussen Dr. Christina Lux

2014 Academic Committee

Dr. Gregg Camfield Dr. Robin DeLugan Dr. Nigel Hatton Dr. Sean Malloy
Dr. Manuel Martin-Rodriguez

2014 Planning Committee

Necola Adama
Nadia Ahmed
Violet Barton
Gail Benedict
Devonyo Bills
Rocco Bowman
Jaron Brandon Alejandro Bunag Danielle Bermudez Poetess Kalamu Chache Tamara Cobb
Jim Crawford LaTriece Crawford Leighia Fleming Sylvia Fuller Jennifer Guerrero Eden Hailu
Nigel Hatton Brian Hernandez Demonte Hughes

Jefferson Kuoch-Seng Christina Lux
Wanda Lax
Kim McMillon
Katie Pham
Laura Phillips
Lakiba Pittman
Onar Primitivo
Shellee Randol
Jerome Rasberry, Jr.
Juan Roman
Loretta Spence
Kathryn Sunahara
Jamie Sweet
Shelby Takenouohi
Ismael Verduzco
Tena Williams
Marvin X
Jared Zisser

2014 Keynote Speakers

Marvin X | Saturday Keynote Address

Poet, playwright, essayist, director, and lecturer, BA, MA, English, San Francisco State University, 1974-75. Marvin Ellis Jackmon was born on 29 May 1944 in Fowler, California. He grew up in Fresno and Oakland. Marvin X and Ed Bullins founded the Black Arts/West Theatre in San Francisco in 1966. In 1967, Marvin X and Eldridge Cleaver founded Black House, a political/cultural center in San Francisco. Several of his plays were staged during that period in San Francisco, Oakland, New York, and by local companies across the United States. He was associate editor of Black Theatre Magazine, a publication of the New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem NY. His one-act play Flowers for the Trashman, first staged by the Drama Department at San Francisco State College, now University,1965, was included in the anthology Black Fire (1968); a musical version, Take Care of Business, was produced in 1972, music arranged by Sun Ra at Marvin's Black Educational Theatre, San Francisco.

Take Care of Business was published in The Drama Review, edited by Ed Bullins. Marvin X's most recent play is One Day in the Life, produced at his Recovery Theatre, San Francisco, 1996 thru 2002, the longest production of a Black Play in Northern California history. Ishmael Reed said, "It's the most powerful drama I've seen." In 1970 Marvin X was convicted, during the Vietnam War, for refusing induction and fled to Canada; eventually arrested in Honduras, he was returned to the United States, and sentenced to five months in prison. In his statement on being sentenced—later reprinted in Black Scholar (1971) and also in Clyde Taylor’s anthology, Vietnam and Black America (1973) - he argues that: “Any judge, any jury, is guilty of insanity that would have the nerve to judge and convict and imprison a black man because he did not appear in a courtroom on a charge of refusing to commit crimes against humanity, crimes against his own brothers and sisters, the peace-loving people of Vietnam.”

Ishmael Reed | Sunday Keynote Address

Ishmael Reed is the winner of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (genius award), the renowned Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and finalist for two National Book Awards, he is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley; and founder of the Before Columbus Foundation, which promotes multicultural American writing. The American Book Awards, sponsored by the foundation has been called The American League to the National Book Awards’ National League. He also founded PEN Oakland which issues the Josephine Miles Literary Awards. PEN Oakland has been called “The Blue Collar PEN” by The New York Times. Ishmael Reed is the author
of over twenty titles including the acclaimed novel Mumbo Jumbo, as well as essays, plays and poetry. Titles include: The Freelance Pallbearers; The Terrible Threes; The Last Days
Of Louisiana Red; Yellow Back Radio Broke Down; Reckless Eyeballing; Flight To Canada; Japanese By Spring, and Juice! He is also a Jazz pianist who has performed at Yoshi’s in San Francisco and producer of the CD “For All We Know,” which features David Murray and Roger Glenn. The late Max Roach called Reed “The Charlie Parker of American Fiction.” Though he wasn’t affiliated with the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem, he has published the works of its founders, Askia Touré, and Charles Patterson. He published two books by the late Amiri Baraka.

Panel Session
Black Power and Black Arts Roundtable

Moderator: Dr. Nigel Hatton, University of California, Merced

Panelists:
Askia Toure
Marvin X
Eugene Redmond
Umar Bin Hassan
Avotcja
Judy Juanita
Dr. James Smethurst
Mike Sell

Women of the Black Arts Movement COB 102

Moderator: Belva Davis Panelists:
Avotcja
Judy Juanita
Poetess Kalamu Chaché Tarika Lewis
Dr. Ayodele Nzinga
Lakiba Pittman

Beginnings of the Hip Hop Movement

COB 120
COB 116

Rap/Freestyle Workshop
Umar Bin Hassan K.E.V
Donjuan

The Last Poets
Nu DeKades

Richard Pryor, King of Comedy
Speaker: Cecil Brown

Cecil Brown breaks new ground detailing Pryor’s involvement in the Berkeley and Oakland political scene in the late 60s and his breakthroughs to a new, more improvisatory style of comedy.
“Although Richard Pryor is perhaps the most celebrated comedian in the history of the United States, few people know anything significant about
his life, particularly the time period that took him from Bill Cosby-type comic to the real Richard Pryor who taught us so much about the world and ourselves.”

Academic Panels

“Comprehended by My Permission:”
Emulating the Poetry of the Black Arts Movement in Diverse Classroom
Chair: Lauren Muller, City College of San Francisco
Panelists:

2:45PM - 4:05PM
COB 114

Lauren Muller City College of San Francisco. Maurisa Thompson University of California, Riverside.

Word, Sound and Power -
The Black Arts Across Media

COB 110

Chair: Dr. Anna Everett, University of California, Santa Barbara

Panelists:
Aldon Lynn Nielsen
Geoffrey Jacques Langston Hughes Dr. Anna Everett

Pennsylvania State University, “Sounding the Black Arts: Amiri Baraka on Record.”
University of California, Santa Barbara,
“‘Toward Freedom’s Goal’”:
The Panther and the Lash, and the Black Arts Movement.
University of California, Santa Barbara,
“The Black Arts Revolution Was Televised (and Filmed too).”

Women and the Black Arts Movement COB 127
Chair: Dr. De Anna J. Reese, California State University, Fresno

Panelists:
La Donna L. Forsgren Kelsey Winiarski
Jasmine Marshall Armstrong

University of California, Merced, “Sherley Anne Williams: The Subaltern Woman Speaks Catharsis in the Black Arts Movement.”

Academic Panels (continued) 2:45PM - 4:05PM Diáspora, Racismo y Mestizaje: COB 113
Presencia del Black Arts Movement en el Mundo Artístico y Literario Latinoamericano (Spanish Speaking)
Chair: Dr. Manuel Martín-Rodríguez, University of California, Merced

Panelists:
Mabel Orjuela Bowser
Gloria G. Durán Juana Rosas

University of California, Merced, “Opresión y lucha de la diáspora africana en los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, en los textos de Manuel Zapata Olivella.”
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, University of California Merced, “Adrian Piper: por si no se había dado cuenta, soy negra.” California State University, Fresno, “La reivindicación de la mujer africana y su influencia en la ideología del mestizaje mexicano.”

Reading Black Arts in Words and Music COB 129

Chair: Dr. Nigel Hatton, University of California, Merced

Panelists:
Dr. J. Vern Cromartie

Contra Costa College, “Black Social Movements Past and Present: A Comparative Analysis of the Black Arts Movement and the Hip Hop Movement.”
Paul S. Rauch, Independent Scholar, “ISAs at Work in Institutional Racism: Reading William Attaway’s Blood on the Forge in Louis Althusser’s Ideological Critique.”

Interactive Workshops, Poetry & Panels 4:15PM - 5:45PM

Black Arts Poets COB 102
Moderator: Marvin X
Askia Toure, Umar Bin Hassan, Juan Felipe Herrera, Eugene Redmond, Genny Lim, Judy Juanita, Charlotte Hill O’Neal (aka Mama C), Poetess Kalamu Chache, Lakiba Pittman, Ayodele Nzinga
Music by: Tarika Lewis (Violin), Earle Davis (trumpet), Tacuma King (percussion)

Art, Politics, Culture and the Black Panther Party COB 114
4:15PM – 5:05PM Speaker: Emory Douglas
Emory Douglas was politically involved as Revolutionary Artist and then Minister of Culture for the Black Panther party, from February, 1967 until the Early 1980’s. Douglas’s art and design concepts were always seen on the front and back pages of the Black Panther Newspaper, reflecting the politics of the Black Panther Party and the concerns of the community.

The Beginnings of the Black Arts Movement COB 114
5:10PM – 6:00PM Speaker: Askia Touré
Askia M. Touré is recognized as one of the original articulators of the Black Arts movement. From the late 1960s through the mid 1970s, he served in various capacities: as a contributing editor for the magazine Black Dialogue, as an editor at large for the Journal of Black Poetry, and as a staff writer of Liberator Magazine and Soulbook with activist-playwright Amiri Baraka, and fellow poet-activist Larry Neal.

A Second Portrait of the Lion: COB 105
Amiri Baraka & the Education of Historically Black College
& University (HBCU) Students in the 21th Century (2 hours)
Moderator: Professor Malcolm Cash, Central State University
HBCU students critically examine Amiri Baraka’s writings of the Black Arts Movement on African American experience and their contemporary pertinence to the 21th century.

Activating the Actor: Bring Your Monologue! SSB 130
Actor: Adilah Barnes
This acting workshop intensive will give actors an opportunity to share their prepared monologues to gain feedback and direction. Focus will be given to intention, characterization, rhythm, transitions, blocking and interpretation of the text.

Theatre Night, COB 102 7:30PM - 9:30PM

Ras Baraka “The Poetry of Amiri Baraka”
Excerpt from Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman performed by San Francisco Recovery Theatre
Oaktown Blues Performed by Avotcja
Woman on the Cellphone by Marvin X, performed by Ayodele Nzinga
Excerpt from Counter Terrorism by Judy Juanita performed by Jacqui Pagobo
From the Pyramids to the Projects written and performed by Askia Toure Excerpt from I’m Black When I’m Singing, I’m Blue When I Ain’t
by Sonia Sanchez performed by Adilah Barnes
Excerpt from Mother Hubbard by Ishmael Reed, the song, “A World Without Men”performed by Mary Wilson

Program

Sunday, March 2, 2014
Arrivals & Registration 8:30AM – 11:30AM
Going Home Ceremony
9:00AM – 10:15AM
Vocalist Michelle Allison and poet Avotcja perform a Ceremony honoring the Ancestor Spirits of the Black Arts Movement
Musicians and audience are welcome to participate
Panel Sessions and Workshops
10:15AM – 11:30AM
Lunch
11:45AM – 1:00PM
Panel Sessions and Workshops
1:15PM – 2:45PM
Closing Ceremony
3:00PM – 3:30PM

Academic Panel Sessions 10:15AM - 11:30AM

Urban Space and Place in the Black Arts Movement
Chair: Robin DeLugan, University of California, Merced

COB 127

Gloria Jean Sewell-Murphy
Jasmine A. Tillman John H. Houchin
Aesthetics of Blackness

Founding Executive Director, Oakland (Municipal) Arts Council, “To Administer the Arts as Central to Life: Cultural Democracy, Renewal and the Black Arts Movement.” Georgia State University, “The City Too Busy to Create?: The Impact of Atlanta-Style Politics on Black Arts Institutions in Atlanta.”
Boston College, “Robert Macbeth, the New Lafayette Theatre and the Politics of Aesthetics in the Black Arts Movement.”
COB 129

Chair: Dr. Gregg Camfield, University of California Merced

Casey Rocheteau
Kim Bobier
Rev. Damon A. Powell

The New School for Social Research, “Black Death: The Long Riotous 1960’s, Henry Dumas, and Creative Rebirth.”
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, “Angela Libre: A Matrix of Mass Cultural Expression.”
Independent Scholar, “The Aesthetics of Blackness: The Significance of Theology, Aesthetics, and Blackness in the Black Arts Movement.”

Remixing Black Arts in the 21st Century COB 110
Chair: Cecil Brown, University of California, Berkeley

Rasheed Shabazz Kimberly McNair

University of California, Berkeley, “#BlackPower: Technology and the Black Arts Movement via Social Media.”
University of California, Berkeley,
“Black T-Shirt Culture in Social Movements From the Black Power Movement to the Obama Era.”

Theatre & Poetry Workshop 10:15AM - 11:30AM

William Grimes, the Runaway Slave COB 116
Written by Regina Mason and performed by Michael Lange
Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave is the first fugitive slave narrative in American history. Because Grimes wrote and published his narrative on his own, without deference to white editors, publishers, or sponsors, his Life has an immediacy, candor, and no-holds-barred realism unparalleled in the famous antebellum slave narratives of the period. Grimes’s autobiography represents a historic partnership between noted scholar of the African American slave narrative, William L. Andrews, and Regina Mason, Grimes’s great-great-great-granddaughter.
Oxford University Press, USA; Revised edition (July 31, 2008)

Black Arts, Poets, and Poetry
Interactive Workshop
Poetess Kalamu Chache
Charlotte Hill O’Neal (aka Mama C) Lakiba Pittman
Avotcja
K.E.V. /Nu Dekades
Donjuan/Nu Dekades
Multiculturalism – What Does It Really Mean?

COB 116

COB 105

Chair: Dr. Manuel Martin-Rodriguez, University of California, Merced

Panelists:
Juan Felipe Herrera Genny Lim
Al Young,
KEYNOTE ADDRESS

1:15PM - 2:00PM
COB 102

Interactive Workshops, Poetry & Panels 1:15PM - 2:45PM
The Black Panther Party & the Black Arts COB 116
Chair: Emory Douglas, former Minister of Culture