BLACK PORTRAITURE{S} II: IMAGING THE BLACK BODY AND RESTAGING HISTORIES
- BLACK PORTRAITURE{S} II: IMAGING THE BLACK BODY AND RESTAGING HISTORIES at NYU’s 57 Acre Campus/Estate in Florence, Italy
CONFERENCE OPENING
- Roadway from entry gate to Villa La Pietra
CONFERENCE: DAY #1
VILLA LA PIETRA
VIA BOLOGNESE, 120, 50139
FIRENZE, ITALY
Sponsored by New York University and Harvard University and hosted at NYU’s 57 acre Villa La Pietra campus in Florence, Italy, all attendees at the conference were invited to “explore diverse visual readings of the Black Portrait while challenging conventional perspectives on identity, beauty, gender, sexuality, cosmopolitanism, and community in Africa and its diaspora”.
The self image of people of the African diaspora is inextricably tied to the knowledge, or lack thereof, that these people have of their own history. It is self evident that, given the widespread negative bias, both conscious and unconscious, that civilizations of the western world have shown toward the people of Africa and of the African Diaspora, any discussion by elements of those western civilizations, of the culture or history of African people or their descendants in any media, must be seen as suspect and therefore requiring closer examination. The recent advances made by Africans and the people of the African diaspora, in gaining widespread access to education in all disciplines, and to higher education in particular, now make possible direct intervention into this discussion at the highest levels of intellectual discourse. The number of people of African descent with doctorate degrees from the most prestigious universities in the western world, have increased exponentially during the past 50 years. Many of these scholars have devoted themselves to teaching and to doing research on the history of their ancestors. These scholars are producing a prodigious body of work that shows a marked contrast to the images of the Black Body as historically portrayed by non-African, western scholars in their cultural narratives. Some non-African scholars of the younger generation in western cultures have also begun to make serious contributions toward a more enlightened view of the history and culture of the African people and the diaspora. This conference is energized by the quality of scholarship that is being produced by all these new scholars in this new body of work. One goal of this conference is to provide enlightenment for scholars everywhere, and to stimulate younger scholars of all cultures to embrace and to continue the work. The conference was conceived and presented in a continuing effort to show a “comparative perspective on the historical and contemporary roles that visual art, film, literature, and music play in constructing the image of the Black Body in Western culture” and to encourage the reconstruction of this image as necessary, to present a realistic “Black Portraiture”.
Guests arrive for registration
Badara is Senegalese and lives in Rome
“Resignifications”
An Exhibition of Art Featuring the Black Body as Subject
Awam Ampka (Associate Professor of Drama at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Associate Professor in Africana Studies Social and Cultural Analysis in NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences) has organized and curated the “Resignifications Exhibition” as a newly added component
to the Black Portraiture{s} series. Professor Ampka has focused the attention in the Resignifications Exhibition, on the 35 Blackamoor statures that are a part of the Villa La Pietra’s collection of arts and antiques. He has augmented the original collection of Blackamoors with works from contemporary artists who, as Professor Ampka says, “Use the Black Body as subject rather than as object”. By introducing the discussion of the Blackamoor into the Black Portraitures conference by way of an art exhibitions in local museums and galleries i.e.
“institutions with long histories of representations and art”, Professor Ampka challenges the way in which these institutions have historically classified and placed the Black Body as he has introduced the Blackamoor into the art museum.
The “Resignifications” art exhibition brings a new dimension to the investigation of the way in which the Black body is depicted in Western Culture.
The Resignifications Exhibitions were presented at the Museo Stefano Bardini and at Fondazione Biagiotti Progetto Arte in Florence and runs through November 2015.
DAY #2
On Day #2 the conference moved to Metropolitan Florence. The historic center of the city is noted for the architecture and great works of renaissance art on public display in the many parks and open squares of the city. Cars are allowed by special permit only making the city very pedestrian friendly.
WELCOME
At 9:30 AM on the 2nd day of the conference the lobby of the
Odeon Theatre quickly filled with the sound of many voices
as the newly arrived panelists and guests register for the first scheduled panel presentations.
Inside of the theatre previously registered guests and panelists had already taken their seats to await the anticipated welcoming speeches.
A few minutes later Cornell University’s Professor Cheryl Finley rose from her seat at a long conference table on the stage, walked a few steps over to the podium,
grasped the microphone and exclaimed, “Buon giorno!” to officially open the conference. Professor Finley offered specific welcomes to the scholars, artists, filmmakers, teachers, writers, and students who made up the audience seated in the theatre. She proposed a “weekend of rich conversation and debate”. Professor Finley continued by offering thanks to the organizers and the conference staff for the yearlong effort that they had expended to make the conference possible. She made a special tribute to Bob Holmes whose support had been, and continues to be, universally acclaimed as the pivotal element that allowed the idea of the Blackamoor exhibition “Resignifications” to evolve from a dream to become the current reality at the conference. Professor Finley concluded by introducing Ellyn Toscano, Executive Director of NYU Italy and the host for the Black Portraiture{s} II conference in Florence.
Ellyn Toscano followed Professor Finley’s welcoming remarks with a similar “thank you” to Bob Holmes and also to Awam Ampka with whom she had been discussing the possibility of an academic exploitation of the Blackamoor presence at Villa La Pietra for a number of years.
Ms Toscano reaffirmed the importance of the role that Bob Holmes played in making it possible to mount an exhibition in which the research on the significance of the Blackamoors would be presented. In this context she points out that the primary reason that the Black Portraiture{s} conference is being held in Florence, Italy at this time is because of NYU’s ownership of the Blackamoors at La Pietra. An examination of the origins and the evolution of the Blackamoor concept over it’s history could perhaps provide a fertile environment for the discussion of this particular portrayal of the Black Body in European Culture as well as the evolving relationship between Italy and Africa. Ms Toscano’s description of the way that Blackamoors are typically seen in European culture is particularly instructive. The Blackamoors are viewed as “unimportant pieces of decorative art whose function is to provide a framework for the more important artwork with which they are displayed”. Blackamoors are “generally not read as depicting Africans as subjects of history”. “They exist within a complicated history of exchange between Italy and Africa: the fifteenth century African slavery or servitude that they represent, the period of colonization during which they were collected and displayed at La Pietra, and twenty-first century Italy struggling with a new influx of Africans migrating to Italy.” Her conclusion that “The context is never neutral!” sets a definitive framework for further examination and discussion as is the aim of several important panels at this conference.
As Director of the Villa La Pietra and the host of the Black Portraiture{s} II conference, Ms Toscano then welcomed and introduced the First Lady of New York City – Ms. Chirlane McCray.
The First Lady of New York City – Ms Chirlane McCray is a writer, poet, and lifelong advocate for the arts. As Chair of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City Ms McCray is directly involved with the Mayor’s program to broaden the demographic reach of the cultural institutions of the City of New York from both the audience and the employment points of view.
The decision to attend the conference by the First Lady of New York was a surprise in that she was not in the original program. Her presence however, added a new dimension for conference attendees. Most conference attendees met, or at least saw the First Lady at the opening reception on the previous evening at Villa La Pietra. When she appeared on the stage the next morning to speak at the conference the excitement to hear her was quite audible.
The First Lady noted in her opening remarks that “Italy, NYU, and thought provoking art” are three of her family’s favorite topics. This trip gave her the opportunity to have them all at once. She made good use of the opportunity.
Ms. McCray described “the intersection of Blackness and Beauty”, to be a topic to which she has given a lot of
thought. To further this point Ms. McCray related a story from her school years as a teenager at a predominantly white, all girls, high school. In her attempt, as a naive young girl, to realize the depiction of beauty as defined by the ubiquitous flood of media and advertising to which she had been subjected in growing up, she donned a black ‘Shirley Temple’ type wig with the classic curls. From her reflection in the mirror she felt quite comfortable with the image thinking that she had in deed ‘closed the gap’ and that people would now see her beauty. Derisive snickers furtively shared among her erstwhile ‘girl friends’ at school however, made her rethink that concept of beauty for herself. She was eventually able to find new models of beauty among the cultural icons of her own community that more closely matched her own physiognomy and in the process, to readjust and recover whom a deep seated rejection of herself as beautiful. She delivered a well told story and sent a powerful message. As The First Lady said, “As artists and art lovers we have the power to create new images of blackness… and to redefine old ones”. In this way she went to the very heart, to the essential essence, to the ‘raison d’etre’ for this conference.
THE CONFERENCE: A SUMMARY
Panels were typically composed of 5-6 panelists and a moderator. Each panelist presented an essay based on original research and designed to be delivered to a live audience in a total of 12-15 minutes.
The presentations began at 9:30 AM on Friday, May 28th. The final presentation concluded on Sunday May 31st. Presentations were made from 36 panels with an average of 6 presenters and one moderator per panel. During the same time period there were two receptions, one open house, one exhibition of art and sculpture, one full length motion picture screening, and one complete theatrical performance.
The Friday program included 5 panel discussions, one art exhibition, and one reception. The presentations continued on Saturday with 4 panels and the early evening screening of the motion picture “Belle”. The program concluded on Sunday with 27 panel presentations and a theatrical performance of James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”.
The Thursday opening day registration and reception were held at Villa La Pietra. Friday and Saturday panel presentations took place at the famed Odeon Theatre in the city of Florence. The final panel presentations and the theatrical production took place on Sunday at Villa La Pietra.
There were 585 registered conference participants from six continents including Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Australia, England and the Caribbean Islands.
During the next six weeks I intend to review each panel and report the discussion as it occurred during the presentations at the conference.
The program was created, organized, and physically managed by Professor Deborah Willis Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and Evelyn Toscano, Executive Director of New York University, Florence, Italy and Director of New York University’s “Villa La Pietra” site of the New York University campus in Florence, Italy, and their respective staffs:
Ellyn Toscano is Executive Director of New York University Florence. She is the founder of ‘La Pietra Dialogues’, a center at NYU Florence which organizes and sponsors public policy conferences, and the producer of ‘The Season at Villa La Pietra’, a summer festival which assembles artists, writers, musicians and public intellectuals to produce new works or reinterpretations of classics. Before arriving at New York University Florence, Toscano served as Chief of Staff and Counsel to Congressman Jose Serrano of New York for two decades, was his chief policy advisor on legislative, political and media concerns, directed his work on the Appropriations Committee, and represented the Congressman in delegations around the world. She also served as counsel to the New York State Assembly Committee on Education for 9 years, drafting and negotiating legislation and budget on elementary and secondary education and served on the boards of several prominent arts and cultural institutions. She is currently on the board of trustees of the International School of Florence, Italy. A lawyer by training, Toscano earned an LLM in International Law from New York University School of Law.
Professor Deborah Willis, is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Professor Willis has an affiliated appointment with the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Social & Cultural, Africana Studies. Professor Willis has been Co-Director for each of the six conferences that make up this series. She has authored many of the seminal works that provide the platform upon which this series of conferences is based. Professor Deborah Willis or Dr. Deb as she is affectionately know by her students, has had and continues to have, an extraordinaire career having literally written dozens of books and essays, lectured extensively both nationally and internationally, and continued to see her own work as photographer exhibited nationally in the United States and internationally.
Her newest book, Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty was released by the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington Press, and a co-authored project, Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery, was released by Temple University Press. Among her other notable projects are Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers – 1840 to the Present, A Small Nation of People: W.E.B. DuBois and African American Portraits of Progress, The Black Female Body in Photography, Let Your Motto be Resistance, and Obama: the Historic Campaign in Photographs. This fall, Dr. Willis curated the traveling exhibition Posing Beauty in African American Culture, which was based on her book Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890’s to the Present and has been on tour in the United States for four years. Michelle Obama, The First Lady in Photographs received the 2010 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work Biography/Autobiography.
BLACK PORTRAITURE{S} II: IMAGING THE BLACK BODY AND RESTAGING HISTORIES is the sixth in a series of conferences originated by Professor Henry Gates at Harvard University in November 2004. Professor Deborah Willis as the Chairman of the Photography and Imaging Department at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU has been Co-Chairman in the six conferences.
Each of the six conferences has made major contributions to understanding the way that Blacks are portrayed through the arts in Western Society. The conceptualizing, development, and management of these conferences along with the quality of scholarship as evidenced in the presentations by scholars from Asia, Africa, The Caribbean, North America, South America, Australia, and Europe have made these conferences high on the list for attendance by professionals with interest in these topics.
The first conference, “Bridging the Gaps: African American Art Conference 2014” was hosted by The Fogg Museum and sponsored by the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. The stated aim of this conference was :“to explore the generational, methodological, and
ideological gaps that exist within the field of African American art and to examine such gaps that arise from differing definitions of the field of African American art and art of the African Diaspora”.
The second conference, “Here and Now: African and African American Art and Film Conference” was organized and hosted by Professor Deborah Willis and the Tisch School of the Arts along with the Institute for African American Affairs at New York University. The conference was co-sponsored by the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Friends of MOMA.
The third conference “THINK TANK 2010 and Beyond: New Directions in African American Art: Transformative Aesthetic Curriculum Design”was hosted by Dr. Leslie King-Hammond and the Center for Race and Culture (CRC) at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) as part of an initiative sponsored in conjunction with the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Issues Group, Committee on Multiethnic Concerns.
The fourth conference: “Beauty and Fashion: The Black Portrait Symposium” opened in April 2011 and the featured topics were, “Body & Image”, “Fashioning Beauty”, “Reshaping the Public Imaginary through Art” and “Performing Beauty”. The conference was organized and hosted by Professor Deborah Willis and the Tisch School of the Arts and the Institute for African American Affairs at New York University. The conference was Co-sponsored by The W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.
The fifth conference: “BLACK PORTRAITURE[S]: THE BLACK BODY IN THE WEST” Opened in Paris, France in January, 2013 to an unexpectedly large response from the African and African American Disapora as well as from the international community of artists and intellectuals. The organizers, an international group, included Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deborah Willis, Manthia Diawara, Jean-Paul Colleyn, Lydie Diakhate, Awam Amkpa, Cheryl Finley, Anne-Christine Taylor-Descola, Anna Laban, Christine Barthe, Caroline Montel-Glenisson, Raissa Laheine, Thelma Golden, and Nicholas Bourriaud. It is both important and significant that this project represented the collaboration among such a diverse group of distinguished international scholars, artists, and intellectuals. One aim of this conference was to encourage a broader discussion of the contributions from Africa and the African diaspora in the popular discourse.
The sixth Conference: BLACK PORTRAITURE{S} II: IMAGING THE BLACK BODY AND RE-STAGING HISTORIES following the resounding success of the Paris conference Professor Willis again teamed with Henry Gates of Harvard, Awam Ampka of NYU, and Cheryl Finley of Cornell. New additions to the team were Ellyn Toscano on NYU/Italy, Bob Holmes – NYU, Ulie Baer, NYU.
THE WEST” opened a few months ago with attendance by scholars, artists, writers, and students from throughout the Western World. Hosted by three centers of art and education in the city of Paris the homogenous blend of art and architecture provided the perfect atmosphere. The conference centered on the 111 papers presented by distinguished scholars in 19 panels over a four day period to an audience of over 500 attendees from Africa, Europe, North America, South America, and the Caribbean.
is represented and has been represented historically in visual and performance arts in the West. The view of the evolution of these various representations of the Black Body provides an unequaled depiction of the progress that has been made from the distant past to the present. More profoundly however, the ability to meet, share, and discuss these representations allows one to clearly see points, times, and places where intervention is urgently required to provide corrections to the historical narrative. As data has become more![registration Portraiture[s]](https://i2.wp.com/www.theactivescreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/registration-Portraitures.jpg?resize=300%2C186)
readily available to this rapidly growing community it is increasingly possible to turn intellectual and other resources to the objective study and examination of the historical data. This process and these discussions make graphically evident how racial bias and bigotry has systematically caused misrepresentations and distortions of reality and thereby negatively influenced the visual representation of The Black Body. Objective scholarship focused on the re-examination of the historical narrative as it pertains to representations of the Black Body is required to ‘set the record straight’ and to provide a sound basis for the intercultural discussions that must take place with the wider world if there is to be a better future.
an effort to support this continuing conversation I propose to profile each of the panel participants from the conference by providing some background and a brief discussion of each panel topic as presented at the conference.
was in transition towards independence. Barnor’s early portraitures and street photographs provide a visual history of the development of Ghana from the colonial period through independence and into the modern era. This early work covers the birth of Ghana and includes photographs of Kwame Nkrumah, the future president of Ghana , The Duchess of Kent, Richard Nixon, Andrew Young and many other politicians who visited Ghana in that period.
Lifestyle’ genre. During this period London was rapidly becoming a center for a new cultural revolution. Music, art, and fashion took the city by storm. The fashion world was ablaze and models were making millions. There was little interest however in the black lifestyle. Unable to get work as models notwithstanding black women were major trendsetters on London streets in their mini skirts, high heels and hair styles. 
inception in Johannesburg in the early 50’s, to become one of the most widely read magazines in Africa. Drum was very interested in photographs with black models and news about Africans generally. Barnor had done work for Drum in Ghana and had contacts there.
addicted to a lifestyle that included heavily chromed american cars, jazz music, and freedom. The magazine developed a reputation for dealing with social issues that affected black people in South Africa. The work that these writers and photographers produced at Drum changed the way that Black people were represented in society. Drum has been described by photographer 
Black writers, photographers, and their models. During this period (the ‘London period’) Barnor recruited, discovered and photographed models to fill this demand. As the fight against apartheid intensified the editors of Drum were forced to resign under pressure from the National
Police or to leave the Country to escape arrest. Drum magazine virtually disappeared for a time. The ANC ultimately succeeded in abolishing apartheid with the establishment of a new government. Drum has since reestablished itself and is now once again one of the leading magazines on the continent.
Mr. Barnor has spent 63 years of his life creating and helping others to create representations of the Black Body. His work, its impact and consequences are loud testimony to the importance of the quality of the representations that are made. It was a pleasure to meet and talk to him at the Black Portraitures conference.