Panel Discussion

The Performance of Blackness in Contemporary Brazil, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic

Thu, Sep 7, 2017

6:00 PM–8:00 PM

Martin E. Segal Theatre

This panel explores the performance of blackness in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil and its transnational resonance with black cultural producers in other Latin American countries. Performance here is broadly defined as the cultural expression of blackness in these three countries and beyond, and will be examined through the lens of sociology, literature, art history, and performance studies. While much of Latin American Studies generally marginalizes studies of race relations and blackness, this panel aims to think of the performance of blackness as a basic component of the continent’s identity formation and cultural production.

Moderator: Robert Reid-Pharr

Presenters:

Dadland Maye
Ph.D. Candidate, English, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Assembling Queer Activist Histories of Haiti

Fabiana Lopes
Ph.D. Student, Performance Studies, New York University
Black Performance in Brazil: Hidden Stories and The Rough Vibrancy of Now

Marcos Teixeira de Souza
Professor, Sociology, Universidade Estácio de Sá, Rio de Janeiro
Racial Integration at the Festival of the Pomeranos in Espírito Santo

Abigail Lapin Dardashti
Ph.D. Candidate, Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Framing the Border: Hispañola’s Border through Contemporary Photography

Cosponsored by Advanced Research Collaborative, and the PhD Program in Art History at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

Image: People riding a tap-tap on the main road connecting the frontier with the town. Ouanaminthe is the largest town in the northeast of Haiti adjacent to the border. With a population of roughly 120,000, it has grown exponentially over the last decade in part to bilateral economic developments and trade with the mirroring Dominican town of Dajabón, which has a population of around 40,000.