2005
Black Archipelago
Writing & Performance from the African Diaspora

A Literary Festival & Symposium
Georgetown University
April 13, 14, & 15, 2005

Special Events: Derek Walcott, in his 75th year, and Linton Kwesi Johnson, on a rare "LKJ in the USA" tour, reading on back to back nights.

Up for discussion: art as social practice in the cross-cultural imaginary, and the question of Diaspora and trans-nationalism in contemporary literary and cultural production.

PARTICIPANTS

Schedule of Events

Wednesday, April 13
3:00 - 4:15 PM
WELCOME & INTRODUCTION (ICC Auditorium)
KEYNOTE LECTURE
Aldon N. Nielson
Kelley Professor of American Literature at the Pennsylvania State University
'Darkness at the Break of Dawn': The Color of Modernity
In sympathy with the writings of W.E.B. DuBois and C.L.R. James, Dr. Nielson posits trans-Atlantic blackness as the condition of possibility for modernity.

4:15 - 5:00 PM
OPENING RECEPTION (ICC Galleria)

7:00 - 7:50 PM
READING / PERFORMANCE (ICC)
M. Nourbese Philip
Alphabet & Resistance
The Toronto-based poet and essayist reads from her newly completed manuscript to explore the DNA structure of our language. Author of She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks, Looking for Livingstone, A Genealogy of Resistance: Essays, and other books, she has received a Governor General's Award (Canada) for poetry.

8:00 - 9:00 PM
READING / PERFORMANCE (ICC)
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Englan' Emergency
Straight from London, the top-ranking poet of Inglan Is a Bitch and Mi Revalueshanry Fren: Selected Poems continues to big up his legend with the recent DVD, LKJ Live in Paris with the Dennis Bovell Dub Band. Heard from Japan to South Africa, Europe to Brazil, the Commissioner of Dub presents his riddim credentials in the USA capital.

Thursday, April 14
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
SYMPOSIUM I (Copley Formal Lounge)
Donna Hemans and Merle Collins join Derek Walcott, Linton Kwesi Johnson, M. Nourbese Philip, Nate Mackey, Kwame Dawes & Mark McMorris (moderator) for Writers & Diaspora Archipelago as a metaphor for continuity and for disconnection.

2:00 - 2:50
READING / PERFORMANCE (ICC)
Jay Wright
Cultural Remix & the Double Dream
The author plots with several interacting cultures to find common ground for an adequate mythology. He has written Transfigurations: Collected Poems, Boleros, Selected Poems of Jay Wright, and numerous plays. Among his honors and awards are a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim, and a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.

3:00 - 3:50 PM
VISUAL ART PRESENTATION (ICC)
Kwame Dawes
Bruised Totems
Distinguised Poet In Residence at the University of South Carolina, Kwame Dawes teases out the complexities of the circulation, preservation, and consumption of African art in the postcolonial context. Author of Bruised Totems (poetry), Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius, and other books, he was born in Ghana.

4:00 - 4:50 PM
READING / PERFORMANCE (ICC)
Nathaniel Mackey
West Coast Bedouin
This student of Dogon cosmology and American jazz has recently published Paracritical Hinge: Essays, Talks, etc. and Four for Glenn. His ongoing poem Song for Andoumboulou has appeared both in print and on compact disc. A Chancellor of the Acadamy of American Poets, he edits the periodical Hambone from his home in Santa Cruz, USA.

7:00 - 7:50 PM
FILM (ICC)
Haile Gerima
Clips from a Nomadic Center
The Ethiopian-born film-maker and cultural activist builds a visual narrative of his life in the trans-continental Diaspora. Internationally acclaimed for films such as Bushmama and Sankofa, he is currently at work on a documentary about the Maroons in the Americas and the Caribbean. He is a professor of film at Howard University in Washington, DC.

8:00 - 9:00 PM
READING / PERFORMANCE (ICC)
Derek Walcott
Upstart at Seventy-five
The 1992 Nobel Laureate and prodigal of the English language continues to astonish in his 75th year. Adding to a recently issued collection of plays, The Haitian Trilogy, his essays, What the Twilight Said, and interviews, Conversations with Derek Walcott, the author published a new book of poems last year, The Prodigal. A MacArthur Fellowship and the Queen's Medal for poetry are among his many honors. He lives in St. Lucia and New York.

Friday, April 15
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
SYMPOSIUM II (311 New North)
Evelyn Hawthorne joins Aldon Nielson, Brent Edwards, Ricardo Ortiz, Meta Jones, Louise Bernard and Lyndon Dominique (moderator) for Criticism & Diaspora
What has been gained for criticism by the emergence of Diaspora as a fundamental concept in the place of Exile, Nomadism, Errancy?

3:00 - 4:20 PM
READING / PERFORMANCE (McNeir Auditorium)
Merle Collins, Kwame Dawes, Donna Hemans, Mark McMorris
Plus One Archipelago DC Three writers, born over the sea & based in Washington, join forces with the founder of Jamaica's Calabash Literary Festival.

4:00 - 6:00 PM
THEATRE (McNeir)
Karen Berman (left), GU Program in Performing Arts and Dorothy Biondi (right), GU Program in Performing Arts present a staged reading, with professional actors, of two short plays by Jay Wright. Berman directs One; Biondi directs Evidence.

The racial and cultural origins of Wright's characters are indeterminate. They could be from anywhere, or from many places at once. They offer an image of what the New World could be.

6:00 PM
CLOSING RECEPTION (McNeir)
Archipelago convenes for a final celebration of continuity in difference.

SPONSORS:
The Lannan Foundation, the Georgetown University College Dean's Office, Office of
the Provost, Office of International Programs, & the Department of English. With special thanks to the Georgetown University Humanities Initiative, Program in Justice & Peace, Program in Performing Arts, Program in African American Studies, & the Writing Program.

Books & CDs provided by Rod Smith
Bridge Street Books
2814 Pennsylvania Ave NW (at M St NW)

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