Beyond The Black Atlantic

A groundswell of complex events around the globe have made discussion surrounding the Western Eurocentric, often prejudiced notion of Blackness even more relevant and controversial in recent years. Social conflicts in Western societies that were long thought to have been overcome such as those in the United States, for example have sparked new awareness among members of the Black community and simultaneously brought the idea of a global, polyphonic Black culture (the Black Atlantic) to the fore. Coined in the year 1993 by British sociologist Paul Gilroy his book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double-Consciousness is considered a key work of contemporary research on the culture and politics of the African diaspora in the western world. Black culture is community-building, questions colonial amnesia and calls for a radical rethinking of our Western societies. All too often, Black artists have been regarded one-dimensionally as representatives of their community, a factor that has contributed to their marginalization. This publication aims to show a range of artistic positions that address issues relevant to society, including the complexity of identities, the ambivalence of visibility and transparency, and the repression of history in educational settings, to name just a few. Though the works can be considered against the historical background of the Black Atlantic, they also point far beyond it in terms of both form and content. Exhibition: Kunstverein Hannover, Germany (15.02. - 01.06.2020).

Debates about the ‘Black Atlantic’ have alerted us to an experience of modernization that diverges from the dominant Western narratives of globalization and technological progress. This outstanding volume expands the concept of the Black Atlantic by reaching beyond the usual African-American focus of the field, presenting fresh perspectives on postcolonial experiences of technology and modernization. A team of renowned contributors come together in this volume in order to: redefine and expand ideas of Black Atlantic challenge unified concepts of modernization from a postcolonial perspective question fashionable concepts of the transnational by returning to the local and the national offer new approaches to cross-cultural mechanisms of exchange explore utopian uses of technology in the postcolonial sphere. Exploring a variety of national, diasporan and transnational counternarratives to Western modernization, Beyond the Black Atlantic makes a valuable contribution to the fields of postcolonial, literary and cultural studies.

An account of the location of black intellectuals in the modern world following the end of racial slavery. The lives and writings of key African Americans such as Martin Delany, W.E.B. Dubois, Frederick Douglas and Richard Wright are examined in the light of their experiences in Europe and Africa.

A groundswell of complex events around the globe have made discussion surrounding the Western Eurocentric, often prejudiced notion of ?Blackness± even more relevant and controversial in recent years. Social conflicts in Western societies that were long thought to have been overcome ? such as those in the United States, for example ? have sparked new awareness among members of the Black community and simultaneously brought the idea of a global, polyphonic Black culture (the ?Black Atlantic±) to the fore. Coined in the year 1993 by British sociologist Paul Gilroy his book ?The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double-Consciousness± is considered a key work of contemporary research on the culture and politics of the African diaspora in the western world. 00Black culture is community-building, questions colonial amnesia and calls for a radical rethinking of our Western societies. All too often, Black artists have been regarded one-dimensionally as representatives of their community, a factor that has contributed to their marginalization. This publication aims to show a range of artistic positions that address issues relevant to society, including the complexity of identities, the ambivalence of visibility and transparency, and the repression of history in educational settings, to name just a few. Though the works can be considered against the historical background of the ?Black Atlantic±, they also point far beyond it in terms of both form and content. 00Exhibition: Kunstverein Hannover, Germany (15.02. - 01.06.2020).

Activating the Past explores critical historical events and transformations associated with embodied memories in the Black Atlantic world. The assembled case-studies disclose hidden historical references to local and regional encounters with Atlantic modernity, focusing on religious festivals that represent political and economic relationships in “fetishized” forms of power and value. Although memories of the slave trade are rarely acknowledged in West Africa and the Americas, they have retreated, so to speak, within ritual associations as restricted, repressed, even secret histories that are activated during public festivals and through different styles of spirit possession. In West Africa, our focus on selected port cities along the coast extends into the hinterlands, where slave raiding occurred but is poorly documented and rarely acknowledged. In the Caribbean, regional contrasts between coastal and hinterland communities relate figures of the jíbaro, the indio and the caboclo to their ritual representations in Santería, Vodou, and Candomblé. Highlighting the spatial association of memories with shrines and the ritual “condensation” of regional geographies, we locate local spirits and domestic terrains within co-extensive Atlantic horizons. The volume brings together leading scholars of the African Diaspora who not only explore these ritual archives for significant echoes of the past, but also illuminate a subaltern historiography embedded within Atlantic cultural systems.

Exploring the intersections of digital humanities and African diaspora studies How can scholars use digital tools to better understand the African diaspora across time, space, and disciplines? And how can African diaspora studies inform the practices of digital humanities? These questions are at the heart of this timely collection of essays about the relationship between digital humanities and Black Atlantic studies, offering critical insights into race, migration, media, and scholarly knowledge production. The Digital Black Atlantic spans the African diaspora’s range—from Africa to North America, Europe, and the Caribbean—while its essayists span academic fields—from history and literary studies to musicology, game studies, and library and information studies. This transnational and interdisciplinary breadth is complemented by essays that focus on specific sites and digital humanities projects throughout the Black Atlantic. Covering key debates, The Digital Black Atlantic asks theoretical and practical questions about the ways that researchers and teachers of the African diaspora negotiate digital methods to explore a broad range of cultural forms including social media, open access libraries, digital music production, and video games. The volume further highlights contributions of African diaspora studies to digital humanities, such as politics and representation, power and authorship, the ephemerality of memory, and the vestiges of colonialist ideologies. Grounded in contemporary theory and praxis, The Digital Black Atlantic puts the digital humanities into conversation with African diaspora studies in crucial ways that advance both. Contributors: Alexandrina Agloro, Arizona State U; Abdul Alkalimat; Suzan Alteri, U of Florida; Paul Barrett, U of Guelph; Sayan Bhattacharyya, Singapore U of Technology and Design; Agata Błoch, Institute of History of Polish Academy of Sciences; Michał Bojanowski, Kozminski U; Sonya Donaldson, New Jersey City U; Anne Donlon; Laurent Dubois, Duke U; Amy E. Earhart, Texas A&M U; Schuyler Esprit, U of the West Indies; Demival Vasques Filho, U of Auckland, New Zealand; David Kirkland Garner; Alex Gil, Columbia U; Kaiama L. Glover, Barnard College, Columbia U; D. Fox Harrell, MIT; Hélène Huet, U of Florida; Mary Caton Lingold, Virginia Commonwealth U; Angel David Nieves, San Diego State U; Danielle Olson, MIT; Tunde Opeibi (Ope-Davies), U of Lagos, Nigeria; Jamila Moore Pewu, California State U, Fullerton; Anne Rice, Lehman College, CUNY; Sercan Şengün, Northeastern U; Janneken Smucker, West Chester U; Laurie N.Taylor, U of Florida; Toniesha L. Taylor, Texas Southern U.

The historical novels of Manuel Zapata Olivella and Ana Maria Gonçalves map black journeys from Africa to the Americas in a way that challenges the Black Atlantic paradigm that has become synonymous with cosmopolitan African diaspora studies. Unlike Paul Gilroy, who coined the term and based it on W.E.B. DuBois’s double consciousness, Zapata, in Changó el gran putas (1983), creates an empowering mythology that reframes black resistance in Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States. In Um defeito de cor (2006), Gonçalves imagines the survival strategies of a legendary woman said to be the mother of black abolitionist poet Luís Gama and a conspirator in an African Muslim–⁠led revolt in Brazil’s “Black Rome.” These novels show differing visions of revolution, black community, femininity, sexuality, and captivity. They skillfully reveal how events preceding the UNESCO Decade of Afro-Descent (2015–2024) alter our understanding of Afro-⁠Latin America as it gains increased visibility. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.