Making African America:

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4:30 p.m. EST

Session 6: Curating Blackness in Museums and Cultural Spaces

Although measures of diversity name “black” as a single category, some museums and cultural institutions focus on the research, collection, preservation, and display of black diversity. This panel will explore what it means historically, and in a contemporary context, to present diverse black stories, whether for “traditional” museum audiences, predominantly black visitors, or in digital spaces.

• Deborah L. Mack, National Museum of African American History and Culture
• María Elena Ortiz, Perez Art Museum Miami
• Aleia Brown, University of Maryland, College Park
• Diala Touré, Appraisals of Value
• MODERATOR: Ariana A. Curtis National Museum of African American History and Culture

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4:30 p.m. EST

Session 7: Mediating Blackness: A Journalist's Roundtable

Although black migrations within and into the United States are nothing new, articulations of black diversity are receiving a surge in media attention. Black Americans are increasingly naming their transnational, multiethnic, and multilingual realities, among other identities. The journalists on this panel will explore the use of collective terminologies such as African American and black, and discuss how the multiplicity of news media, both written and social, is responding to diverse black perspectives.

• Zain Asher, CNN International
• Carl-Philippe Juste, Miami Herald Media Company
• Felice León, The Root
• Jeneé Osterheldt, The Boston Globe
• MODERATOR: Natalie Hopkinson, Howard University

6:00 p.m. EST

Session 8: Movement of a People: Framing Black Migration on Film

Film can be a powerful visual medium of expression and commentary. This panel, part of the Creatively Speaking film series, will use short films to show various aspects of multicultural black American experiences, including migration pathways, the search for roots, and mixed feelings of both alienation and belonging.

• Cassandra Bromfield, filmmaker, Into My Life
• Roy Clovis, film editor, No Traveler Returns
• Julie Dash, filmmaker, *Standing at the Scratch Line
• Ellie Foumbie, filmmaker, No Traveler Returns
• Kavery Kaul, filmmaker, The Bengali: A Work in Progress Trailer
• MODERATOR: Michelle Materre, Creatively Speaking

Films

• Standing at the Scratch Line, by Julie Dash, 2016 (11 minutes)
  The year 2016 marks a century since the beginning of the first Great Migration of African American families to the Philadelphia area at the start of World War I. Dash captures the stories of a people seeking refuge and freedom in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Working with Mother Bethel AME in Philadelphia, and Mother Emmanuel AME in Charleston, South Carolina, Dash creates a cinematic poem about returning to sacred spaces of departure and arrival.
• No Traveler Returns, by Ellie Foumbi, 2018 (12 minutes)
  Migrating to the United States as a young black male can be a difficult process. For a young African immigrant, the adjustment can at times be overwhelming. This beautifully shot black- and-white film tells the story of one young man’s struggle to adapt to life in America, which eventually pushes him toward an existential crisis.
• The Bengali: A Work in Progress, by Kavery Kaul, 2020 (8-minute trailer)
  An untold story of ties between South Asians and African Americans in the United States. In the early 1900s, an Indian Muslim man marries an African American Christian woman. A granddaughter of this vibrant cultural tangle travels to Bengali, India, in search of family a world apart—a remarkable quest of hope and fear, as she tackles deep divides of culture.
• Into My Life, by Cassandra Bromfield with Grace Remington, Sarah Keeling, and Ivana Hucíková, 2018 (15 minutes)
  Since 1965, an African American mother-daughter filmmaking duo has chronicled their lives on 8-mm film. Into My Life pays tribute to their drive for self-preservation and self- representation, highlighting the memories, identities, and relationships housed within their archive. From Puerto Rico to Lindsay Park in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the women experience vast changes to the places they have made their home.

1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EST

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Community Day: Telling Tales of the Diaspora

This community day engages visitors in exploring what diaspora is and what it means to them. Dr. Jessica Harris will discuss her recent book, Vintage Postcards from the African World: In the Dignity of their Work and the Joy of their Play. During this presentation, selected postcards will come to life through theatrical scenes written and directed by playwright Gabrielle Fulton Ponder.

4:30 p.m. EST

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Session 9: Advancing Blackness in Activism and Justice

Within black populations, despite unvarying concerns about violence and racism, each generation believes more strongly in the possibility of racial equity. Millennials are members of one of the most populous, well-educated, and racially and ethnically diverse generations in the United States. This panel discussion will explore contemporary sites of black activism for millennial leaders, including anti-racism, immigration, and economic justice.

• Malachi Hernandez, Massachusetts State House
• Gregory “Ronnie” James, UndocuBlack Network
• DeJoiry McKenzie-Simmons, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• Nakia Woods, Black Alliance for Just Immigration
• MODERATOR: Nana Afua Brantuo, Justice for Muslims Collective

6:00 p.m. EST

Session 10: I, Too, Sing America: Writing Blackness in Poetry and Fiction

This panel discussion brings together renowned authors whose cultural roots span the African diaspora. They will discuss their use of the written word as a medium to communicate black immigrant experiences, including the complexity of encounters with other black Americans in the United States.

• Dinaw Mengestu, author
• Edwidge Danticat, author
• Elizabeth Acevedo, poet and author
• MODERATOR: Joanne Hyppolite, National Museum of African American History and Culture