About

African diaspora cultural practices have been a site of knowledge production, self-affirmation, spiritual awareness, community building, and resistance to social, racial, and economic injustice. Yet, African diaspora dance and culture have a long and varied history in the modern world, ranging from severe official repression to tacit state support throughout the Americas. For example, between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, numerous state and colonial officials suppressed Africana practices, regarding them as threatening to “public health,” “civilization,” “development,” and the stability of colonial regimes. During this period of repression, Pan-Africanists, Black nationalists, and others often encouraged the resurgence or re-imagination of African diasporic cultural practices as a component of their struggles for liberation, equality, and independence. In the mid-twentieth century, amidst the Civil Rights movement in the United States, the Cuban revolution, the decolonization of Africa and the Caribbean, and the establishment of Black Studies departments and African universities, the former restraints on African diaspora dance practices were relaxed in many places. Some states even officially embraced African diaspora dance cultural practices as representative of their multi-racial/multi-ethnic society and/or post-colonial identity. Today, African diaspora dance continue to play an important role in many societies, as a form of protest, a method of expression, means of constructing identity and particularly as a lure for cultural tourism. However, three years following the assassination of George Floyd, there has been an evident influx of restrictions and banning of Black artistic work, theories and histories throughout our education systems. How do we utilize our artistic practices and resources to defeat the repeat banning of Black voices and culture?

 

We invite researchers, artists and practitioners who examine any aspect of the repression, re-imagination, or celebration of African diaspora artistic, cultural, or spiritual practices to submit a proposal for a scholarly presentation, dance workshop or performance.