This week, we split our time between presentations of your final projects and review for the final exam. Half of the class goes Monday; the other half Thursday. The line-up is as follows:

Monday, 12/9: Masaye, Dasha, Haley, Andre, Leon, Taejha
Thursday, 12/12: Shona, Mariela, Leslie, Brittany, Angelique, Zalika, Felicia

Presentations should be 5-10 minutes (10 minute maximum; shoot for about 8 minutes) long and do the following:

  • Provide a summary of your final project
  • Briefly present your thesis
  • Give us the evidence/ texts you're using to support the thesis: specific texts, songs, art, etc.
  • Focus on the theme of the course: the relationship of a specific artist to the realm of the Black Arts Movement
  • Note that this is a work in progress as it's a summary of a paper you're still writing. Use this time to clarify ideas in your head, get feedback on your project, ask questions, and move your research ahead.

    In terms of pacing yourself/ preparing, each written page is about 2 minutes of speaking time, so 3-4 pages of notes should be about right for this. You should not read word-for-word; instead it's best to work from bullet points on index cards or (neatly prepared, so you can read them) notes.

    Lastly, for those interested, Maulana Karenga, Professor and chair of Africana Studies at California State University Long Beach and founder of Kwanzaa will be speaking on Saturday in St. Albans, Queens. Details below:

    Karenga_event_12_7

    • Photo Credit: Joyce Jones.

    Photo Credit: Joyce Jones.

    For Monday 9/30, we'll have a visit from Basir Mchawi, who will talk about popularizing the Black Arts. Prof. Mchawi teaches at CUNY's John Jay College in their African American Studies Department, is the host of Education at the Crossroads on WBAI Radio, and was a member of The East, a cultural center in Brooklyn and an offshoot of the Black Arts/ Black Power Movement. He is also one of the organizers of Brooklyn's annual International African Arts Festival, which is currently held in July.

    To prepare for the talk, please read:

  • This article by Sam Posey in Truthout: "Will Black Nationalism Re-Emerge?"
  • "Return to the East", from Wax Poetics magazine. Link to PDF here. Edit 9/28: PDF link is down. Just read the first article above.

    For Thursday 10/3, we look at the deliberate turn toward the attempt to create a "Black Aesthetic" and formally define what art might look and sound like as politically committed artists wrestle with infusing their art with the deliberate political orientation that they've chosen. To prepare, please read/listen to the following:

  • Maulana Karenga, "Black Art: Mute Matter Given Force and Function". (PDF on the Readings page)
  • Introduction to Black Fire!
  • James Stewart's "The Development of the Black Revolutionary Artist" (p. 3-11) in Black Fire!
  • Amiri Baraka's poem "Black Art" (p. 302) in Black Fire!
  • Listen to Amiri Baraka's read "Black Art" with the New York Art Quartet on the 1967 Sonny's Time Now album:

    Next, we move to Baraka's Dutchman and the Slave.

    • Kwanzaa_picFor Monday December 10, we'll finish off the course with a quick look at the origins and meaning of Kwanzaa. First, view this short video on the origins of Kwanzaa from its founder, Dr. Maulana Karenga of California State University at Long Beach:

    Next look at the following section on the Official Kwanzaa website:

  • "The Seven Principles" ("Nguzo Saba" in Swahili)

    • Finally, Read Floyd Hayes and Judson Jeffries's essay "US Does Not Stand for United Slaves!", a 14-page PDF on the Readings page. Pay special attention to the sections "US is born", "Kawaida as an Emancipatory Ideology", "The Waning of the US Organization", and "Reassessment" (pages 74-88)

    For Thursday December 13, we'll have a formal review session for the final exam and evaluate the course as a whole. To prepare for that, read "Zen and the Art of Finals" (PDF on the Resources page) and bring any questions you have with you.

    Announcements/ Reminders: Remember that reports on your visits to an approved event/ exhibit are due by the last day of class: Thursday the 13th. Edit 12/12: This assignment is now optional: for extra credit only.

    Enjoy the last (official) weekend of summer! As CUNY's gift, we miss class on Monday to observe Labor Day. Don't forget to sign up for the class text message list (details on the syllabus) and for e-mail notification of new posts here. (See "follow this blog" at bottom of the page.)

    For next Thursday, the assignment is a long chapter from historian Robin D.G. Kelley's book Freedom Dreams. The chapter title is "Roaring from the East: Third World Dreaming" and it's over on our Readings page. Warning: it's long (~45 pp.), but that's why you've got a week to read it. He also goes through several different people and organizations that are somewhat confusing to keep track of. The key here is to just try to keep reading and go for the "big picture". Don't get bogged down too much by all the different organizations and political shifts.

    Do pay attention to the people on our syllabus, some of the big players, and anyone he identifies as being an artist or part of the arts. Pay attention to his descriptions of the US organization, Black Panther Party, Robert F. Williams, and what Kelley says about the shift from Civil Rights to Black Power.

    If you're looking for something different to do this weekend, you might check out this film on jazz great Ornette Coleman, one of the founders of the "free (as in style) jazz" movement. It's a restored version of an older work by filmmaker Shirley Clarke, whose documentary style very much matched Coleman's improvised playing.It likely won't be the most linear storyline you've ever seen and may be difficult to follow at times, but it should be a lot of fun. If you choose the right show, you may just run into me in the theater.

    Lastly, Professor Williams's Youtube weekend pick. The documentary Day of the Gun in honor of the end of Black August and in memory of George Jackson. Feel free to use your sharing buttons or — better yet — sit family/ friends/ youth in your building down in front of your laptop, then watch and discuss.