NYU Professor Dr. Deborah Willis is among the principal organizers and collaborators to produce ‘Black Portraiture(s): The Black Body in the West’ in Paris, France January 17-20, 2013. The conference is sponsored by Harvard University and NYU among others. Over 500 scholars and artists have registered to attend. Participants and guests are expected to arrive from many countries including France, US, UK, Germany, Nigeria, Angola, SA, Netherlands and the Caribbean. This conference will be the fifth in the series since 2004.
Black Portraiture(s) explores the ideas of self-representation, desire, and the exchange of the gaze from the 19th century to the present day in fashion, film, art, and the archives. How are these images, both positive and negative, presented to define, replicate, and transform the black body? Why and how does the black body become a purchasable commodity in a global marketplace…and what are its legacies? Also importantly, what should be the responses and implications for the future? How can performing blackness be more liberating for performer and audience? Can the black body be de-racialized to emphasize cultural groupings in encouraging appropriation among varied performers across racial lines?
The conference draws on the ideas and works of leading and emerging writers, photographers, scholars, artists, curators and filmmakers of our time. One aim is to encourage a broader discussion of the contributions from Africa and the African diaspora in the popular discourse. How the black body has been imagined in the West has always been a rich site for global examination and contestation. The representation and depiction of black peoples has often been governed by locally prevailing attitudes about race and sexuality.
It is both important and significant that this project represents the collaboration among such a diverse group of distinguished international scholars, artists, and intellectuals.
Event Organizers: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deborah Willis, Manthia Diawara, Jean-Paul Colleyn, Lydie Diakhate, Awam Amkpa, Chery Finley, Anne-Christine Taylor-Descola, Anna Laban, Christine Barthe, Caroline Montel-Glenisson, Raissa Laheine, Thelma Golden, and Nicholas Bourriaud.