Resisting a Wilting Society: To Blossom

My thesis, for which I was awarded a PhD by the University of Nottingham (UK) in 2004, argues that a critical reading of photographs can make a unique contribution to our understanding of racialised space and the struggle for the legal and symbolic ownership of place within black urban life, specifically in Harlem in the first half of the twentieth century. As both a ‘culture capital’ and a ghetto in the popular imagination of the twentieth century, Harlem is a complex and ambiguous place. Located within the grid of the American metropolis but set at a distance by de facto, if not de jure segregation, Harlem is the paradigm of the black city within a city. Dominance and resistance are expressed spatially at all levels, from the cityscape to the space created by the body. I argue that, in depicting these spaces, photographs can serve as a powerful tool to perceive, imagine and make manifest the complexities of Harlem, exposing the effects of absent white power but also making visible the construction of spaces of resistance. The Introduction outlines the historical and theoretical context and explains the methodology used in the critical readings of photographs that follow. Chapter One looks at Harlem as a distinctive landscape, the paradigmatic black city produced by white power and black resistance. Chapter Two looks at political events on the streets of Harlem, where African Americans write their protest on the urban fabric. Chapter Three looks closely at street life, uncovering how city space is claimed and defended as African Americans become urban and learn to ‘know their place’. Chapter Four enters the Harlem apartment, a compromised private space where African Americans have, nevertheless, created a ‘home place’. Chapter Five examines the body as it performs in the space of the photographic studio and in the city. Chapter Six brings these themes together in an analysis of The Sweet Flypaper of Life, a photo text about Harlem, as a story of spaces and spatial practices.

FIELD: A Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism, 2020

FIELD: A Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism is pleased to announce the launch of issue #15, “Learning Art and Resistance from the South”. This issue was guest edited by Eva Marxen of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It consists of a series of essays, interviews and other documents generated in response to the exhibition Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy and Activism in the Americas. The exhibition, curated by Bill Kelley, Jr., was featured at the SAIC Sullivan Galleries in 2018. As part of the exhibition the Sullivan Galleries organized a number of public programs and events, from which the following material was drawn. This issue of FIELD, like the exhibition which was its catalyst, understands artistic practice and political praxis as interdependent and mutually enriching. It locates an important nexus for these concerns in a range of new artistic and cultural projects developed in Latin America over the past decade. One of the primary focal points for the essays included here is the ongoing struggle against neo-liberal capitalism. If we want to develop a deeper understanding of the corrosive nature of neo-liberalism, and the forms of resistance necessary to challenge it, we have much to learn from the Latin American experience. One of the most important lessons it can offer us concerns the generative nature of resistance itself. For the artists and collectives presented in this issue of FIELD political resistance is not simply utilitarian, but rather, constitutes a form of creative production that is capable of generating its own unique forms of insight, and of re-shaping consciousness, and subjectivity, itself. What emerges from these practices is not merely the epiphenomenal expression of a naïve and spontaneous “actionism” but rather, a coherent pedagogical and critical methodology from which new paradigms of both resistance and creation can emerge. This issue of FIELD features bi-lingual translations in Spanish and English. Contributors include Almudena Caso and Hannah Barco, David Gutiérrez and Paulina E. Varas, Dignicraft and Ionit Behar, the Iconoclasistas collective, Sandra de la Loza, Eduardo Molinari and Josh Rios, Red Conceptualismos del Sur, Guillermo Rivera-Aguilera and Luis Jiménez, Mirliana Ramírez-Pereira and Eva Marxen. FIELD is available on-line at: http://fieldjournal. com/.

2022

Any reader of black literature — whether African-American or Franco/Afro-Caribbean — will have recognized in this title two major references in this field, two essential authors: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and Frantz Fanon. “Let the world be a Black poem” is a verse from his poem Black Art. The scansion of the latter by the activist and poet Baraka is a jazzistical invitation to fight against segregation and the Jim Crow laws that still prevailed in the country. The Wretched of the Earth (Les Damnés de la Terre) is a literal quote of the masterful work of the Martinican psychiatrist, thinker and activist Frantz Fanon, Omar, companion in the fight of independence-seeking Algeria and its people. In terms of literature and sociology, almost everything is said through these two works. Literature is elevated here to the rank of weapons of war and mobilization, of emancipation and community progress. Incidentally, how can we not accept as absolute the inalienability of the unbreakable link, in our view, between literature and sociology? Notwithstanding the fact that sociology is our favorite field, our art (poetry, performance and even choreographic creation) is undeniably engaged! During the conference around Frantz Fanon which I attended and participated in a few years ago at the University of Mostaganem itself, I was shocked by some literary analysis made of the work of Toni Morrison. Questions and analyzes were brought and provoked my indignation somewhat, while I perceived the ineffable deficiency in terms of sociology of black worlds. How can one read or write about these literatures and these communities without considering the contexts that shaped them? Thus, I decided to draw inspiration from it for this keynote that I am invited to deliver to highlight the fundamental usefulness of literature for our black communities. I will sometimes use an inclusive approach (within reason), since I will express myself and analyze the theme at hand from my own perspective: as woman, black (mixed race), Caribbean, Afrodescendent, womanist activist and of a certain Negritude , and committed researcher. My argument will answer the following question: how is literature sociologically emancipatory for oppressed peoples? After having documented the past and contemporary sociological, historical contexts of the Black Diaspora and the rules of literary analysis that it seems essential for us to see applied, we will explore the best-known literary genres to bring to light what makes them sociological keys, since they are testimonials, social chronicles, tools of advancement and evolution, but also of identity and national/ist construction: journal/diary (i.e. The Color Purple by Alice Walker), poetry (Notebook of a Return to the Native Land / Cahier d'un retour au pays natal / Aimé Césaire, Amiri Baraka’s poetry, Cette igname brisée qu’est ma terre natale / This Broken Yam That Is My Native Land by Sonny Rupaire or even Balles d'or / Golden Bullets by Guy Tirolien…), novel (works by Raphaël Confiant, Maryse Condé, Patrick Chamoiseau, etc.), short stories ( Haïti noire, for example) and essay (Peau Noire, Masques Blancs / Black Skin, White Masks or Les Damnés de la Terre / The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, …). Without being exhaustive here, this overview will allow us a bibliographical approach, as well as an exploration of other questions raised: Can we write in the name of art for art's sake when we write in a dominated country? Keywords Americas — French Overseas – USA — Blackstream — Literature — Postcoloniality— Decolonial — Black Art Movements.

VUE (Voices in Urban Education)

Patrice and Coco are the creators and performers of the spoken word piece "Willful Defiance," produced in association with the book Willful Defiance: The Movement to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline, authored by Mark Warren. In this interview, Patrice and Coco discuss the role of spoken word and the arts in empowering young people, dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, and partnering with community-engaged scholarship to engage participants in building a movement for educational justice. this interview that the lines that are often drawn between organizing, artistic Expressions in Urban Educationression and research are false; rather in the hands of organizers like Patrice and Coco, they form an integrated whole, driven by a passion for children and for justice.

Literacy as an aesthetic of resistance: The silent revolution from the margins to the center (Atena Editora), 2024

This article investigates how literacy can also be seen and understood aesthetically. Adopting a qualitative approach, centered on a narrative case study of a 65-year-old man participating in a literacy program, interviews were carried out in the context of an adult literacy course. The article first discusses the historical evolution of philosophical aesthetics, highlighting its limitation in considering some actions as aesthetic. In this sense, the research appropriates the ideas of contemporary artists, such as Marcel Duchamp, with his ready-mades, to show how the notion of aesthetics can be expanded, thus inaugurating a true revolution not only in aesthetic judgment, but also in subjective perception of the artist, who ultimately decides what art is. Duchamp, therefore, by challenging traditional concepts of art, proposes that choice and context are sufficient to transform common objects into artistic expressions. In this context, the ability to read and write represents an artistic act, as it redefines identity, similar to the transformation of common objects into art. Furthermore, the article emphasizes the importance of including marginalized voices in academic research and promoting an interdisciplinary vision that values subjectivity and lived experience. It is highlighted how literacy can elevate the common to a status of dignity and recognition, transforming lives through education as a true artistic expression.

2004

My thesis, for which I was awarded a PhD by the University of Nottingham (UK) in 2004, argues that a critical reading of photographs can make a unique contribution to our understanding of racialised space and the struggle for the legal and symbolic ownership of place within black urban life, specifically in Harlem in the first half of the twentieth century. As both a ‘culture capital’ and a ghetto in the popular imagination of the twentieth century, Harlem is a complex and ambiguous place. Located within the grid of the American metropolis but set at a distance by de facto, if not de jure segregation, Harlem is the paradigm of the black city within a city. Dominance and resistance are expressed spatially at all levels, from the cityscape to the space created by the body. I argue that, in depicting these spaces, photographs can serve as a powerful tool to perceive, imagine and make manifest the complexities of Harlem, exposing the effects of absent white power but also making visible the construction of spaces of resistance. The Introduction outlines the historical and theoretical context and explains the methodology used in the critical readings of photographs that follow. The balance of the full text will be shortly be posted, chapter by chapter. Chapter One looks at Harlem as a distinctive landscape, the paradigmatic black city produced by white power and black resistance. Chapter Two looks at political events on the streets of Harlem, where African Americans write their protest on the urban fabric. Chapter Three looks closely at street life, uncovering how city space is claimed and defended as African Americans become urban and learn to ‘know their place’. Chapter Four enters the Harlem apartment, a compromised private space where African Americans have, nevertheless, created a ‘home place’. Chapter Five examines the body as it performs in the space of the photographic studio and in the city. Chapter Six brings these themes together in an analysis of The Sweet Flypaper of Life, a photo text about Harlem, as a story of spaces and spatial practices.

College Art Association Conference, 2019

ABSTRACT Teaching illustration in the periphery of capital/empire reveals contradictions of disconnection and uprootedness concerning culture, language, community, and artistic practice. Analyzing and contesting this fracture has a long history. Paulo Freire stated: “The oppressed want at any cost to resemble the oppressors”, Frantz Fanon referred to the “colonized mind”, and Patrick Lumumba called for “mental decolonization”. Given the structural nature of colonial education, within which students are educated outside of local language, culture, and majority class, how might it be possible to reintegrate with local space, popular realm, and community-mindedness? How would an awareness of globalization, liberalism, and imperialism have an impact on their projects and their local artistic practices? Finally, what are the negative effects/disincentives of taking political stands in terms of personal and/or commercial work, given a globalized art industry itself imbued with neo-liberal and capitalist norms? This presentation reflects on twelve years of teaching in Greater Syria. Themes examined include communal and collaborative work; the collision of local and colonial languages; the interaction with displaced, dispossessed, and marginalized populations; the exploration of social issues beyond imperialist and humanitarian imperialist contexts; as well as concepts of fractured, uprooted, and affected identities. The presentation explores as well how such pedagogical foci might be applicable in the core of capital/empire, as well as among disparate and seen-as unrelated communities. KEYWORDS Decolonization methodologies Indigenization Visual Arts Illustration Class Marxism Antonio Gramsci Mehdi ‘Amel Anti-capitalism Anti-globalization Extirpation Colonialism Social Death ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful for feedback from Jamaa Al-Yad members Lara Atallah and Karim Eid-Sabbagh​, as well as for the input, work, and support from my students over the past decade and a half. No greater inspiration exists for my efforts. NOTE This is an expanded version of the presentation given at the CAA Conference in New York City, February, 2019.

The Black Scholar, 1999

My thesis, for which I was awarded a PhD by the University of Nottingham (UK) in 2004, argues that a critical reading of photographs can make a unique contribution to our understanding of racialised space and the struggle for the legal and symbolic ownership of place within black urban life, specifically in Harlem in the first half of the twentieth century. As both a ‘culture capital’ and a ghetto in the popular imagination of the twentieth century, Harlem is a complex and ambiguous place. Located within the grid of the American metropolis but set at a distance by de facto, if not de jure segregation, Harlem is the paradigm of the black city within a city. Dominance and resistance are expressed spatially at all levels, from the cityscape to the space created by the body. I argue that, in depicting these spaces, photographs can serve as a powerful tool to perceive, imagine and make manifest the complexities of Harlem, exposing the effects of absent white power but also making visible the construction of spaces of resistance. The Introduction outlines the historical and theoretical context and explains the methodology used in the critical readings of photographs that follow. Chapter One looks at Harlem as a distinctive landscape, the paradigmatic black city produced by white power and black resistance. Chapter Two looks at political events on the streets of Harlem, where African Americans write their protest on the urban fabric. Chapter Three looks closely at street life, uncovering how city space is claimed and defended as African Americans become urban and learn to ‘know their place’. Chapter Four enters the Harlem apartment, a compromised private space where African Americans have, nevertheless, created a ‘home place’. Chapter Five examines the body as it performs in the space of the photographic studio and in the city. Chapter Six brings these themes together in an analysis of The Sweet Flypaper of Life, a photo text about Harlem, as a story of spaces and spatial practices.

Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry, 2021

In this article, the writings of three prolific writers, Canadian Katherine McKittrick, Canadian-Trinidadian Marlene NourbeSe Philips and American Maya Angelou, intersect at the point of Black liberation and form a singular voice where a reimagined freedom can emerge. The piece begins with McKittrick’s research of Black geographies and what Black freedom as a destination looks like, by way of a fixed Underground Railroad journey to settlements like Ontario’s Negro Creek Road. It further interrogates and reverses the power dynamic between the European colonizer and Black settler, by engaging with Philip’s novel, Harriet’s Daughter. Here, teen protagonist, Margaret, changes the rules of her Underground Railroad game, making it possible for anybody to be a slave. Finally, these ideas are connected to Angelou’s autobiographical accounts of racism in the Deep South and her poetic expressions of hope and freedom through her writings, Caged Bird and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.