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THIS EVENT HAS TAKEN PLACE AND IS RECORDED HERE AS AN HISTORICAL ARCHIVE.
A REPORT OF THIS EVENT IS INCLUDED HERE

 

LogoTHE GROUND TOGETHER II: ASSESSING THE STATE OF BLACK ARTS FOR 2000 AND BEYOND: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE
Armour J. Blackburn University Center & Howard University Book Store

Conference is free and open to the public.
For more info, call (202) 806-6730

You are all cordially invited to attend The Ground Together II: Assessing the State of Black Arts for 2000 and Beyond: An Interdisciplinary Conference, scheduled for Saturday, March 4th, on the campus of Howard University at both the Blackburn Center and the Howard University Bookstore. We hope that the program provides interest for you and inspires you to bring your students, to invite your colleagues, and, of course, to attend yourself. It is also our hope to interest the full academic community in the works and achievements of Black arts and Black arts practitioners. -- Dr. Sandra Shannon, Dept of English, Conference Organizer

In follow up to the series of discussions and debates in October 1998, this year's conference offers increased focus on the creative process and the Black press, while continuing the general focus upon an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of Black art and its manifestations in, among other areas, arts institutions, academic institutions and economic systems. Arts practitioners, arts institution administrators, faculty, students and the general public will find topics of interest. Featured speakers will include the following:

Dorothy GilliamMORNING
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
10:30AM

Dorothy Gilliam
Director of Young Journalist Development Program
The  Washington  Post

"THE ART OF WRITING"

 Jabari AsimKEYNOTE ADDRESS
5:30 PM

Jabari Asim
Senior Editor
The  Washington  Post

"HONORING THE TRADITION OF BLACK ARTS"

Continental Breakfast 8:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. Ballroom Lobby

Opening Plenary Session 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. East Ballroom
Invocation: Professor Ofari Ansah, Department of Art History
Welcome: Dr. Sandra G. Shannon, Department of English
Introduction of Morning Keynote Speaker, Department of Journalism

Morning Keynote Address: "The Art of Writing"
Mrs. Dorothy Gilliam
Director of Young Journalist Program for Washington Post
Breakout Session I: "Laying Out New Directions for the Expansion of Black Arts"
Armour J. Blackburn University Center
10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

Session A:
"Expanding Low/No Budgets as Prophets in Your Own Land"
Prester Pickett, Daniel Gray-Kontar, Kecia Green, David Steward, and Sherry Walker Cleveland State University

Auditorium

Session B:
"The Black Woman as Object and Symbol: Revisiting the Place of Black Women Poets in the Harlem Renaissance"
Dr. Ajuan Mance, Mills College

"The Black Poet and the American Literary Tradition: Blues Philosophy and Identity"
Walton Muyumba, Indiana University

"The Reviews: Implications, Consequences, and Comparison in the Negotiation and Placement of Contemporary African American Women Playwrights"
Kimberly Dixon, Northwestern University

Moderator: Dr. Jon Woodson, Department of English, Howard University

Reading Lounge

 Breakout Session II: "We Must Develop New Guidelines for the Protection of our Cultural Property"
Armour J. Blackburn University Center
12:00 p.m. - 1:15 a.m.

Session A:
"Using the Internet to Advance Black Arts"
Kalamu ya Salaam, Nommo Literary Society; Troy Johnson, African American Literature Book Club; Jiton Davidson , Fyah.com"; and Dr. Askhari Johnson Hodari, de Griot Space

Auditorium

Session B:
"Offering Ifa As a Paradigm for Literary Criticism: Tina McElroy Ansa’s Baby of the Family"
Georgene Bess, Georgia Southern University

"On the Performance of Knowledge: Multicultural Desire and Intellectual Balkanization"
Robert Craig Baum, August Wilson Fellow, University of Minnesota

‘Whiteness Studies,"
Jonathan Gray, Fordham University

Moderator, Dr. Dana Williams, Louisiana State University

The Gallery

Session C:
"How to Create a Student-Run Black Arts Organization"
Jennifer Glasper, Arnyka Harris, and Eric Styles, Black Arts Collaborative, University of Cincinnati

Hilltop Lounge

Lunch 1:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. (with Performance) West Ballroom

Conference Resumes at Howard University Bookstore; 2225 Georgia Avenue, NW; Washington, DC; 202-238-2640 (within reasonable walking distance from Blackburn Center; directions provided)
Breakout Session III
"Theater Asserts That All of Human Life is Universal:  Love, Honor, Duty, Betrayal Belong and pertain to every culture or Race"
2:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. Howard University Bookstore, 2225 Georgia Avenue, NW

Session A:
"Creating and Sustaining Hip-Hop Theatre"
Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds and Rickerby Hinds, University of Cincinnati

"Hip-Hop and the Visual Arts"
Franklin Sirmans, New York School of the Visual Arts

Moderator: Jennifer Young, Howard University

Second Floor Lounge

Session B:
"Dancer Possessed: Katherine Dunham’s Dance Technique in the European Film "Mambo" (1954)"
Dr. Dorothea Fischer-Hornung, University of Heidelberg, Germany

"The Cultural Language and Integration of Dance and Theatre as Performance Tools"
Sherrill Berryman Johnson, Howard University

"The Emergence of Stepping As An American Dance Tradition"
C. Brian Williams, Step Afrika!

Moderator: TBD

Cafe Lounge

 Breakout Session IV
"We can make a Difference: Artists, Playwrights, Actors...We Can be the Spearhead of a Movement to Re-ignite our People's Positive Energy for a Political and Social Change..."
4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. Howard University Bookstore, 2225 Georgia Avenue, NW

Session A:
"Sharing America’s National Treasures: Economics and the Black Classical Musician"
Alfonso Pollard and Dr. Leon Neal, American Federation of Musicians

"At the Crossroads of Form and Function: August Wilson’s Dramatic Series"
Kamilah Briscoe, Princeton University

Moderator: Dr. Daphne Duval Harrison, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Cafe Lounge

"Session B:
"Strategies for Teaching Black Arts: Reclaiming Our Cultural Capital"
Dr. Augustus Clay, California State University

"The Need for Developing Dramatic Material for Black Children"
Useni Perkins, Chicago State University

"Black Culture at the Crossroads"
Ewure Osayande, Talking Drum Communications

Moderator: Joyce Camper, Howard University

Second Floor Lounge

Break 5:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Introduction of Keynote Speaker, Dr. Sandra Shannon
Keynote Address "Honoring the Tradition of Black Arts"
Jabari Asim
Senior Editor, Washington Post Book World

Second Floor Lounge

Reception / Book Signing 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

First Floor and Cafe Lounge Areas

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Official Conference Hotels:
The Holiday Inn or the Town Center Hotel in Silver Spring, MD (301-589-0800 or 301-589-5200). A special group rate of $79 per  night for GTII affiliates has been arranged. When calling for reservations, remember to identify yourself as a conference participant. Both hotels are within walking distance of each other and several miles from Howard's University's campus. For your convenience, a one-time roundtrip van service to and from Howard's campus has also been arranged, compliments of GTII organizers.

The conference is free and open to the public. For travel information, to reserve seating for groups or classes, or to receive any other information, please contact Dr. Sandra Shannon at sshannon@fac.howard.edu. Please share this information with colleagues and friends who may share an interest in Black arts at the millennium, and please forward this announcement as needed. We hope you will join us for a lively exchange and encourage others as well.