{"id":498,"date":"2011-05-05T14:03:14","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T21:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-hemsouths-english-ucsb-edu-v01.pantheonsite.io\/?p=498"},"modified":"2015-11-03T14:05:15","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T22:05:15","slug":"black-performance-theory-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hemsouths.english.ucsb.edu\/?p=498","title":{"rendered":"Black Performance Theory 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hemispheric South\/s Research Initiative<\/span><\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

Department of English, University of California at Santa Barbara<\/span><\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cBPT 2011 :: Hemispheres & Souths\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

Black Performance Theory Conference, May 2011.<\/p>\n

Participants (not in order pictured): <\/span>Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Matt Richardson, E. Patrick Johnson<\/span>, <\/span>Jeffrey McCune, Venus Opal Reese, N. Fadeke Castor, Antonio Cuyler, Monica Ndounou, Anita Gonzalez, Thomas DeFrantz, Anna Scott<\/span>,<\/span> Anna Bean, Harvey Young, Koritha Mitchell<\/span>, <\/span>Christina McMahon, Melissa Blanco Borelli, Rashida Braggs, <\/span>Hershini Bhana Young, Uri MacMillan, Sarah Jane Cervenac, Grisha Coleman, Yolanda Covington Ward, Raquel Monroe, Stephanie Batiste, Kristie Soares, Jayna Brown<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Hemispheric South\/s Research Initiative is very pleased to host the 2011 meeting of the Black Performance Theory working group, \u201cBPT 2011 :: Hemispheres & Souths\u201d happening May 6-7, 2011 at the University of California, Santa Barbara. At each meeting, a small cadre of scholars and practitioners share work in experimental sessions that have included dance performances, play readings, poetry and solo performance work, film screenings, flash animation presentations, and the creation of group improvisations. A space for active Witnessing allows audience members to engage productively with Participants\u2019 contributions.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s overarching theme draws inspiration from contemplations of black meetings and crossings in hemispheric and global souths. <\/span>BPT:: \u201cHemispheres & Souths\u201d invokes the vast and broad oceanic and land-based circulations of black performance.<\/span> The 2011 working group<\/span> <\/span>seeks to link the translations, transmigrations, transnationalisms, and diasporisms implied by the notions of a Hemispheric South and a Global South to performance as practice and to nuances of race as performance. Participants\u2019 work constitutes a provocation that suggests unexpected routes of diaspora across “Hemispheres” and “Souths.” Presentations can be partially literary, but contain an element of performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

In preparing an offering for the group this year, Participants take up the overarching concept of a cardinal point like “South” or “West,” \u201cEast\u201d or \u201cNorth\u201d and work it through a combination of texts and\/or scholarly works. For example, presenters might pick an imaginary place like the “dirty dirty South” and theorize it through Appurandi, Wyclef Jean, and Zora<\/span> <\/span>Neale Hurston to offer a hybrid performance of black social dance circa 1920 and 1990. <\/span>Other imaginative structures might include \u201cUp South,\u201d \u201cDown South,\u201d \u201cSouthsides,\u201d \u00a0\u201cPacific Rims,\u201d \u201cAtlantic Rims,\u201d \u201cBlack Cities,\u201d \u201cBlack Wests,\u201d \u201cI(s)-lands, \u201d\u201cPromised Lands\u201d… etc<\/em> . to theorize Black “Hemispheres & Souths” in performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Participants work in teams to construct creative presentation formats beyond the traditional conference-style reading of prepared papers. In this way BPT:: \u201cHemispheres & Souths\u201d facilitates live, creative collaborative adventures in theory and performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Black Performance Theory working group is a collective of scholars working on the theory, history, and practice of African American expressive cultures. The experience of writing and performing theory links scholars and scholar\/performers in unique modalities of conversation, debate, and collaboration. Diverse disciplinary perspectives provide an unbounded look at performative commonalities of African diaspora including, but not limited to, gospel music, concert dance, hip hop music, black church oratory, architecture and public space theory, theater historiography, and queer cultures. We strive for vibrant critical discussion of methodologies, paradigms, and approaches to theorizing black performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

This eighth invitation-based convening of BPT elaborates an exciting tradition of innovation inaugurated by Thomas DeFrantz and Richard Green in 1998. Working Group Meetings have included:<\/span><\/p>\n