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| Photo from "Moko Jumbies: The Dancing Spirits of Trinidad." Published by Pointed Leaf Press, LLC Copyright 2004 Stefan Falke |
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Conference on African and Afro-Caribbean Performance
University of California, Berkeley, Sept 26-28, 2008
(the event has now passed; this website is an archive)
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Featured speakers:
Gerard Aching, New York University
Author of Masking and Power: Carnival and Popular Culture in the Caribbean
Pauline Malefane, South Africa's Isango Portobello Productions
Star and translator of the film u-Carmen eKhayelitsha
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, International Center for Writing and Translation, UC Irvine
One of Africa’s most acclaimed playwrights and novelists
Tejumola Olaniyan, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Author of Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance: The Invention of Cultural Identities
in African, African-American, and Caribbean Drama
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As studies of African and Afro-Caribbean performance have acquired a wider relevance during the last decade, it is now time to examine the diverse critical approaches currently being practiced within these fields. How are African and Afro-Caribbean cultures being constructed, analyzed, and re-imagined by recent discussions about theatricality, transnationalism, diaspora, translation, Circum-Atlantic exchanges, or cyberspaces? The conference’s program brought together a diverse array of presenters from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and the United States who deal with topics that include--among others--dance, drama, community theater, the links between social justice and performance, rituals, religious events, diasporas, carnival, and intercultural barterings.
This conference also gathered several organizations with overlapping interests: two UC-wide Multi-campus Research Groups including one in International Performance and another focused on African Studies; a special session hosted by the African Theater and Performance Working Group of the International Federation for Theater Research (IFTR); the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), which is a co-sponsor having provided support for Africa-based scholars to attend; and scholars located throughout the U.S, Europe and Africa who will be attending and giving presentations. In addition, the conference will serve a focal point for organizing a renewed interest in humanities and arts-based research on the UC Berkeley Campus, with links in particular to the Departments of Music, African-American Studies, History, Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies, and the School of Information. In association with his conference, the journal Theatre Survey will be publishing a special issue on African and Afro-Caribbean performance.
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Conference Planning Committee
Leo Cabranes-Grant, UCSB, Co-Convener
Catherine M. Cole, UC Berkeley, Co-Convener
Moradewun A. Adejunmobi, UC Davis
Frank Wilderson, UC Irvine
Campus Advisory Committee
Catherine Cole, Chair; Theater, Dance and
Performance Studies (TDPS)
Kwame Braun, Film Studies
Jenna Burrell, School of Information
James Davies, Music
Abena Dove Osseo-Asare, History
Kathy Geritz, Pacific Film Archive
Jocelyn Guilbault, Music
Percy Hintzen, African American Studies
C. K. Ladzekpo, Music
Martha Saveedra, Center for African Studies
Michael Watts, Center for African Studies
Brandi Wilkins-Catanese, African-American Studies and TDPS
Campus Coordinating Committee
Cour Dain, TDPS
Jasmine Johnson, African American Studies
Ariel Osterweis Scott, TDPS
April Sizemore-Barber, TDPS
Scott Wallin, TDPS
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Click images for more information on featured speakers
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| Ngugi wa Thiong'o, International Center for Writing and Translation, UC Irvine |
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| Tejumola Olaniyan, Louise Durham Mead Professor, English, UW-Madison |
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| Isango Portobello Productions |
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| Gerard Aching, Assoc. Prof. Spanish, New York University, Author of "Masking and Power" |
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Funding and Co-sponsorship
Presented by UC Berkeley’s Dept. of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
With generous co-sponsorship from:
• The American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) has provided funding to help defray travel costs for scholars coming to the conference from Africa.
• UC Berkeley’s Consortium for the Arts is sponsoring a 10-day campus residency by South African opera singer Pauline Malefane from Isango Portobello Productions. In addition to her participation in the conference and screening, Malefane will be visiting various classes at Berkeley the week after the conference.
• The University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA) is co-sponsoring Pauline Malefane’s visit at Berkeley and also at UC Irvine where she will be hosted by Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Center for Writing and Translation
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• The Pacific Film Archive is sponsoring the screening of U-Carmen
• Additional conference programming support is provided by the UC-wide International Performance Multi-campus Research Group and African Studies Multi-Campus Research Group
• Campus co-sponsorship provided by UC Berkeley's Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities; the College of Letters and Science Division of Arts and Humanities; the Departments of African American Studies, Anthroplogy, English, Film Studies, History, and Music; and the Center for African Studies
• External affiliates include the African Theatre and Performance Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) and the journal Theatre Survey, which is publishing a special issue on African and Afro-Caribbean Performance in 2009.
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