3rd Rencontres of the Frantz Fanon Foundation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Nov. 17 & 18, 2018. Hosted by the Rutgers Advanced Institute for Critical Caribbean Studies (RAICCS), Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
The despised, the insulted, the hurt, the dispossessed — in short, the underdogs of the human race were meeting. Here were class and racial and religious consciousness on a global scale. Who have thought of organizing such a meeting? And what had these nations in common? Nothing, it seemed to me, but what their past relationship to the Western world had made them feel. This meeting of the rejected was in itself a kind of judgment upon the Western world!–Richard Wright
So, my brothers, how could we fail to understand that we have better things to do than follow in that Europe’s footsteps? This Europe, which never stopped talking of man, which never stopped proclaiming its sole concern was man, we now know the price of suffering humanity has paid for every one of its spiritual victories. Comrades, the European game is finally over, we must look for something else. We can do anything today provided we do not ape Europe, provided we are not obsessed with catching up with Europe.–Frantz Fanon
SATURDAY
Nov. 17th
9:00 am. Welcome, opening poems and introduction.
9:30 to 11:00 am. Decolonizing Critical Theory and International Relations.
Robbie Shilliam, Johns Hopkins University. “From Bandung to Ethiopia via Fanon.”
Oscar Guardiola, Birbeck College, University of London. “Blessed is Darkness: Bandung, the Tricontinental, and Black Justice.”
Jeong Eun Annabel We, Rutgers University, New Brunswick. “The Spirit of Bandung in the Transpacific: Beyond Fascist Mobilization and the Korean Division System.”
Jesús Alberto García, General Consul of Venezuela in New Orleans. “From Bandung to the Africa-South America Conference: The Condemned of the Earth and Neoliberalism in Latin America/De Bandung a la conferencia Africa-América del Sur: Los condenados de la tierra y el neoliberalismo en América Latina.”
11:00 to 12:00 pm. Decolonizing Critical Theory and Community Engagement.
“Walking and Building: A conversation about Non-alignment, Fanon, and Zapatismo Beyond Borders” with Teresa Vivar, Executive Director of Lazos America Unida & Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
1:00 to 2:30 pm. Decolonization within and without the Academy.
Norman Ajari, Université Toulousse, Jean Jaurès. “The Slave Narratives We Write: On Black Intellectuals, Dehumanization and Commitment.”
Zandisiwe Radebe, University of South Africa. “Building the Azania We Deserve: A Decolonial Turn for (Thoughtful) Activism.”
Samuel Bañales, California State University, Stanislaus. “Ethnic Studies via Bandung and Fanon: Parallels, Pitfalls, and Possibilities.”
2:30 to 4:00 pm. Decolonization in and through Music and Dance.
Jessica Friedman, University of California, San Diego. “Dancing a Decolonizing Technique.”
Tamara Levitz, University of California, Los Angeles. “Fanon’s Sonic Imagination.”
Carther Mathes, Rutgers University, New Brunswick. “Resonance and Remix: Writing Decolonial Soundscapes”
4:00 to 4:45 pm. Talk and performance.
Lewis R. Gordon. “On Musical Consciousness, with Respect to Fanon” (Gordon on drums; with Greg Doukas on guitar)
5:30 to 9:00 pm. Music, Visual Art, and Decolonization. (Lazos Community Center, New Brunswick, 57 Livingston Ave.)
Featuring Deborah Vargas (Rutgers Term Chair in Sexuality, Gender, and Race) presenting about “Brown Pride, Black Love: On Musical Matter”, and participation by community artists and activists from New Brunswick and New York City. Detailed program TBA.
SUNDAY
Nov. 18th
10:30 to 12:00 pm. Visual Art and Decolonial Aesthetics in the Spirit of Bandung.
Nicholas Mirzoeff, New York University. “Face Forward: For a Decolonial Devisuality.”
Amin Husain (MTL Collective and Decolonize This Place), Marz Saffore (MTL + Collective and Decolonize This Place), and Nitasha Dhillon (MTL Collective and Decolonize This Place). “Artist-as-Organizer: Decolonial Formations and Direct Action in Our Cities.”http://www.decolonizethisplace.org
Claudio Mir. Senior Program Coordinator, The Collaborative Center for Community-Based Research and Service, Rutgers U., New Brunswick. “New Brunswick, Gentrification and Community-Based Art Making.”
1:00 to 2:00 pm. Book Launch. Frantz Fanon. Alienation and Freedom. Fanon, Freedom and Alienation.
Mireille Fanon Mendès France, President of the Frantz Fanon Foundation.
Robert J.C. Young, New York University, author of Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction,Empire, Colony, Postcolony, and co-editor of Alienation and Freedom
Lewis R. Gordon, author of What Fanon Said, Fanon and the Crisis of European Man, and editor ofFanon: A Critical Reader.
Members of the Rutgers Decoloniality Cluster.
2:00 to 3:30 pm. Health, Gender, and Decoloniality: Fanonian Insights.
Tala Khanmlek, Princeton University. “Outside the Medical Industrial Complex: Health Activists in NYC’s LGBTQIA of Color Community.”
Carolyn Ureña, Princeton University. “Fanon’s Idealism: Resignation, Healing, and the Spirit of Bandung.”
Stephen Sheehi, College of William & Mary, and Lara Sheehi, George Washington University. “Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Searching for a Decolonial Practice and Theory.”
3:45 to 5:00 pm. Notes on the Unfinished Project of Epistemic, Material, and Symbolic Desegregation, Decolonization, and Reparations: Critical Responses to Liberal Multiculturalism, Diversity, and Inclusion.
Mireille Fanon Mendès-France, Frantz Fanon Foundation. “Reparation, Necessary Step Towards Emancipation”
Justin Hansford, Howard University. “The Relevance of Franz Fanon to the Black Lives Matter Movement.”
Members of the Decoloniality Cluster. Notes on Material, Symbolic, and Epistemic Desegregation, Decolonization, and Reparations
5:00 to 5:30 pm. Closing and Looking Forward.
