41ST ANNUAL NYASA CONFERENCE PROGRAMNEW YORK CITY • APRIL 1 & 2, 2016

HOSTED BY THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK (CUNY)

& COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

ABOUT NYASA

The New York African Studies Association (NYASA), founded in 1967 as the SUNY African Studies Faculty Association, is a non profit membership association, incorporated as NYASA in 1975, dedicated to advancing the discipline of Africana Studies. As a regional organization, the New York African Studies Association promotes the visibility and advancement of the discipline in New York State and surrounding areas, and offers opportunities for the scholarly and professional development of educators, and enhanced education for community members, leaders and activists.

NYASA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE & OTHER REPRESENTATIVES

Abdul Nanji, PresidentColumbia University

Cheryl Sterling, Past PresidentThe City College of New York, City University of New York (CUNY)

Kevin Hickey, Vice PresidentAlbany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Olaide Juniad, SecretaryNYASA

Jerry Persaud, TreasurerSUNY College at New Paltz

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE & OTHER REPRESENTATIVES, CONTINUED

MEMBERS-AT-LARGE

Cheikh NdiayeUnion College

Sybille Ngo NyeckClarkson University

Deidre Butler Union College

Jean Richard SeverinUnion Institute & University

Locksley EdmondsonAfricana Studies & Research Center Cornell University

NYASA NEWSLETTER CO-EDITORS

Dr. Roger Gocking “Emeritus” Mercy College

Dr. Thomas E. NyquistNyquist Foundation

SECRETARIAT

Corinne NyquistSUNY College at New Paltz

Jerry PersaudSUNY College at New Paltz

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

Kwame AkonorSeton Hall University

Seth AsumahSUNY College at Cortland

John MarahSUNY College at Brockport

Abdul NanjiColumbia University

Jerry PersaudSUNY College at New Paltz

Cheryl SterlingThe City College of New York (CUNY)

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES

Olaide JuniadNYASA

Samuel Osei-AfriyeSUNY College at Oneonta

CONFERENCE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Abdul NanjiColumbia University

Cheryl SterlingThe City College of New York (CUNY)

Kevin HickeyAlbany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Dear NYASA 2016 Participants:The Organizing Committee of the 2016 New York African Studies Association conference welcomes you all to our historic conference in New York City. It has been an honor for us to co-organize this special conference that marks the 41th NYASA conference. We would like to thank all leaders, colleagues, and staff members of our institutions – The City College (CUNY) and Columbia University for all their amazing support.

We look forward to an exciting conference at both personal and intellectual levels.

Cheryl SterlingAbdul Nanji

Kevin Hickey

WELCOME FROM THE NEW YORK AFRICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT

It is indeed my great pleasure to welcome all participants and presenters to the 41st Annual Conference for the New York African Studies Association (NYASA). The theme of the conference, “Music and Arts of Africa and the Diaspora” is critical to African people in the 21st Century. In addition to the importance of theme, this conference is an historic event for the following five markers:

• This is the first time in forty years the Executive Board of NYASA decided to devote a whole c onference on music and arts.

• It is the first time the conference is simultaneously hosted by two institutions in New York City, The City College (CUNY) and Columbia University.

• For City College, this is the first time it is hosting a NYASA Conference.• It is the first time the conference will present live performances.• The last NYASA Conference hosted by Columbia University, was the 5th Annual Conference in

1978, 38 years ago.

I would like to extend our warm thanks to Professor Cheryl Sterling, Director of Black Studies, The City College (CUNY), the former Dean Eric Weitz of the School of the Humanities and Arts and President Lisa Coico at The City College, Professor Mamadou Diouf, Director, Institute of African Studies, Columbia University, Professor Sheldon Pollack, Chair, Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS), Columbia University for hosting and for providing financial support for this conference.

I further extend our gratitude to Professor Alondra Nelson, Dean of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Science, Columbia University, Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Chair, French and Romance Philology Department, Professor Rashid Khalidi, Chair, History Department, and Professor Samuel Roberts, Director of The Institute for Research in African American Studies for their generous financial donations.The work of organizing a conference of this size and scope is no easy task. For this, I thank Professor Kevin Hickey, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, NYASA Vice President and Conference Coordinator. We also thank members of the Local Conference Committee, the administrative staff at Black Studies Program, The City College (CUNY), the Institute of African Studies and MESAAS Department, Columbia University.

We acknowledge and especially thank all Plenary Session participants and Marriame Sy, Director of African Language Program, Columbia University, for her role in organizing special panels on African Languages where presentation are in three African languages, Wolof, Yoruba, and Kiswahili (Swahili).

Congratulations to Professor Deborah Willis for receiving the NYASA Distinguished Africanist Award and thank you for agreeing to give the keynote address.

Every year in recognition for scholarship, leadership, activism, and community service, NYASA gives a Book Award, Honorary Mention of a book(s), The Ali Mazrui Outstanding Publication / Book and Educational Activities Award, The Roger Gocking Award for Best Undergraduate Paper, The Distinguished Teacher Award, and The Community Service Award. We are encouraging NYASA members to submit names for 2017 awards.

Enjoy the conference and New York City.

Sincerely,Mwalimu Abdul Nanji,

President, NYASA.

WELCOMING STATEMENT FROM DR. SHELDON POLLOCK

I am greatly honored to have been asked by my esteemed colleague Abdul Nanji to welcome you to this 41st meeting of New York African Studies Association, which Columbia is honored to support, and I am truly sorry I could not be with you to deliver these few remarks in person.

As it happens, I had to travel to the Association for Asian Studies conference, which is taking place in Seattle. The simultaneity of the two events leads me to contrast the history of regional studies on South Asia—my principal area of teaching and research—with that of Africa, at least as far as the regionalization of regional studies go. I have recently learned about the history of NYASA, from its founding in 197, out of the earlier SUNY-African Studies Faculty Association, its resilience over the following four decades, and the remarkable work it has done in bringing academic expertise on Africa and the diaspora to universities, colleges, and even high schools throughout New York. How remarkable is the contrast with South Asian studies, which has never had any New England regional let alone New York State presence (it barely has a national presence—the meeting I am attending today is dominated by East Asian Studies).

NYASA’s endurance is a testimony to the commitment and dedication of its members, something I saw richly confirmed in the energy that Abdul and his colleagues brought to the organization of this event (in fact, what you may not know is that Abdul was involved in the organization of the very first NYASA conference in 1974, when a student at SUNY New Paltz). I am truly sorry to be missing not only the intellectual exchanges that will take place, but the fabulous music on offer. Please accept my best wishes for a wonderful gathering and celebration of Africa!

Sincerely,Dr. Sheldon Pollock

Arvind Raghunathan Professor of Sanskrit and South Asian Studies,

Chairman

2016 NYASA BOOK AWARD RECIPIENT Seth N. Asumah and Mechthild Nagel (2014)

Diversity, Social Justice, and Inclusive Excellence: Transdisciplinary and Global Perspectives Albany, New York, State University of New York (SUNY) Press

2016 NYASA Book Award Honorable Mention

1. Kofi Ayim (2015), The Akan of Ghana: Aspects of the Past and Present Practices Charleston, NC. Independent Publishing Plateform

2. Abosede George (2014), Making Modern Girls: A History of Girlhood, Labor, and Social Development in the 20th Century Colonial Lagos, Ohio University Press

RECIPIENT OF THE 2016 NYASA DISTINGUISHED AFRICANIST AWARD

Dr. Deborah Willis, University Professor and Chair of the

Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University

Deborah Willis, Ph.D, is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and has an affiliated appointment with the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Social & Cultural, Africana Studies, where she

teaches courses on Photography & Imaging, iconicity, and cultural histories visualizing the black body, women, and gender. Her research examines photography’s multifaceted histories, visual culture, the photographic history of Slavery and Emancipation; contemporary women photographers and beauty.

She received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and was a Richard D. Cohen Fellow in African and African American Art, Hutchins Center, Harvard University; a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, and an Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. Fellow. Willis is the author of Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present; Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty; Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers - 1840 to the Present; Let Your Motto be Resistance – African American Portraits; Family History Memory: Photographs by Deborah Willis; VANDERZEE: The Portraits of James VanDerZee; and co-author of The Black Female Body A Photographic History with Carla Williams; Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery with Barbara Krauthamer; and Michelle Obama: The First Lady in Photographs (both titles a NAACP Image Award Winner). She lectures widely and has authored many papers and articles on a range of subjects including The Image of the Black in Western Art, Gordon Parks Life Works, Steidl, Volume II; America’s Lens in Double Exposure: Through the African American Lens; “Photographing Between the Lines: Beauty, Politics and the Poetic Vision of Carrie Mae Weems,” in Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography & Video, and “Malick Sidibé: The Front of the Back View” in Self: Portraiture and Social Identity. Professor Willis is editor of Picturing Us: African American Identity in Photography; and Black Venus 2010: They Called Her “Hottentot”, which received the Susan Koppelman Award for the Best Edited Volume in Women’s Studies by the Popular Culture/American Culture Association in 2011.

Exhibitions of her art work include: A Sense of Place, Frick, University of Pittsburgh; Regarding Beauty, University of Wisconsin, Interventions in Printmaking: Three Generations of African-American Women, Allentown Museum of Art; A Family Affair, University of South Florida; I am Going to Eatonville, Zora Neale Hurston Museum; Afrique: See you, see me; Progeny: Deborah Willis +Hank Willis Thomas. Gantt Center.

Professor Willis’s curated exhibitions include: “Convergence”, Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans; “Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty,” Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, “Visualizing Emancipation,” Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, “Gordon Parks: 100 Moments,” Schomburg Center; “Posing Beauty Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits” at the International Center of Photography and, “Social in Practice: The Art of Collaboration”, Nathan Cummings Foundation.

In addition to making art, writing and teaching, she has served as a consultant to museums, archives, and educational centers. She has appeared and consulted on media projects including the documentary films such as Through A Lens Darkly, Question Bridge: Black Males, a transmedia project, which received the ICP Infinity Award 2015, and American Photography, PBS Documentary. Since 2006 she has co-organized thematic conferences exploring imaging the black body in the West. Professor Willis has been elected to the board of the Society for Photographic Education, where she was Chair of the Board and received the Honored Educator Award in 2012 and the College Art Association. She holds honorary degrees from Pratt Institute and the Maryland Institute, College of Art. She is currently researching a book on an early 20th century portraitist and educator.

PLENARY SESSION PARTICIPANTS

Plenary Session I – The City College • April 1, 2016

Abdou Mbaye

Abdou Mbaye is a gewel, a griot drummer, from Dakar, Senegal. He is a lead percussionist with the famed ensemble Sing Sing Rhythm and a descendent from one of the oldest griot families in Senegal. He has performed with a wide variety of musicians on New York City’s jazz scene including David Murray and Craig Harris. Widely respected for his skills on the Senegalese sabar drum Mbaye is in high demand in New York and Senegal for Soiree Senegalaise.

Innov Gnawa

Innov Gnawa is a young musical collective dedicated to exploring Morocco’s venerable gnawa music tradition in the heart of New York City. Formed in the summer of 2014 by Moroccan expat Samir LanGus, the group draws on the considerable talents and expertise of Hassan Ben Jaafer, a Maâlem, or master gnawa musician, originally from Fes, Morocco. Under the guidance of Ben Jaafer, Innov has delved deep into the roots and rituals of gnawa music, and made a big splash in NYC, playing some of the

city’s most prestigious rooms including Lincoln Center, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn Bowl and the storied backroom of Brooklyn’s Barbès.

Banning Eyre

Banning Eyre is Senior Editor of Afropop.org, a music commentator for National Public Radio, and the author of three books on African music the most recent of which is his 2015 Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe (Duke UP). His first two books were AFROPOP! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music (1995 with Sean Barlow) and In Griot Time, An American Guitarist in Mali (Temple UP, 2000). Banning has researched music in 16 African countries

publishing articles in over a dozen journals as well as a 2001 report for the Danish human rights organization Freemuse entitled Playing With Fire: Fear and Self-Censorship in Zimbabwean Music. Banning Eyre currently performs with his fusion band Timbila whose roots are in the music of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and he is a contributing musician on numerous CDs by Thomas Mapfumo as well as Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate’s 1999 Kulanjan.

Lunch Session - The City College (CUNY)

Kevin L. Tucker

Kevin Tucker has been described as having both a “very expressive and smooth vocal style”. Kevin has performed in musicals, opera and choral ensembles like the Georgia State University Opera and Americolor Opera Alliance of Atlanta, and with The Lawrence Weaver Choral, Atlanta Voices and The Luke Frazier City Singers of New York. In recording and television, Kevin has performed and recorded with Christine Horn an indie label Alternative R&B artist, Malcolm Caulori a contemporary composer of the recording Dangerous Liaisons, LeSean Lewis’s recital recording concert,

and the 2010 American Idol show jingle for Fox News.

Plenary Session II – Columbia University

Dr. James Conyers

Dr. James Conyers is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Director of Africana Studies at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. He holds a B.A. in Black and Puerto Rican Studies from Hunter College and a M.A. and Ph.D. in African-American Studies from Temple University. His field of teaching and research include African civilizations with a special emphasis on ancient Nile Valley history, culture, and language. He is the first person of African

descent to develop an accredited course in Ancient Egyptian language at a state university in New Jersey. Among his publications are “Edward Wilmot Blyden’s Pedagogy on Race and Education: A Nineteenth Century African-centric Polemic,” and “Love, Sex, Sexuality, and Gender in Ancient Kemet: Paradigms for African-American Male/Female Relationships.” Dr. Conyers has traveled widely in Africa and the Caribbean, and he has lectured all over the world. He currently teaches: Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Language, Ancient Egyptian Culture, Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology, and African-American History and Culture.

Randy Weston

Randy Weston is an internationally renowned pianist, composer, bandleader and cultural ambassador, whose compositions encompass the vast rhythmic heritage of Africa. Still a true innovator and visionary after six decades of active work, Randy Weston continues to inform and inspire. Randy Weston was born April 6, 1926, and raised in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a Jamaican father and a mother from Virginia. As a boy he didn’t have to travel far to hear the early jazz giants that were to influence him. Although Weston cites Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Art

Tatum as piano heroes, it was Thelonious Monk who had the greatest impact. ”He was the most original I ever heard,” Mr. Weston remembers. “He played like they must have played in Egypt 5000 years ago.” Weston’s lifelong connection with African music and culture is due in large to his father, Frank Edward Weston, who told his son that he was, “an African born in America.” “He told me I had to learn about myself, about him and about my grandparents,” stated Weston, “and the only way to do it was I’d have to go back to the motherland one day.”

In 1960, inspired by Nigeria’s newly won independence from the United Kingdom, Weston began to experiment with elements of tribal music as well as those of High Life, Nigerian pop music. On his 1960 album Uhuru Afrika (for which Langston Hughes wrote the liner notes), Weston composed for large ensemble and employed traditional African percussion and rhythms as a framework for a jazz suite. Weston’s affinity for African music became the force behind dozens of albums released over the past five decades. During that time, he has never failed to make the connection between African and American music.

In the late 60’s, Weston left the United States, but instead of moving to Europe like so many of his contemporaries, Weston went to Africa. Although he settled in Morocco, he traveled throughout the continent tasting the musical fruits of other nations. One of his most memorable experiences was the 1977 Nigerian Festival, which drew artists from 60 cultures. “At the end,” Weston says, “we all realized that our music was different but the same, because if you take out the African elements of bossa nova, samba, jazz, blues, you have nothing. To me, it’s Mother Africa’s way of surviving in the new world.”

After six decades devoted to music, Randy Weston continues to record, teach and perform throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe. In 2006 he performed at the Pan African Dance Festival as Cultural Ambassador for the World Culture Open in Kigali, Rwanda. That same year he performed at the Panama Jazz Festival in Panama City and at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with his Quartet and the BBC Big Band in London. He had the honor of playing at the in Kamigamo Shrine in 2008. In 2010 he celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Uhuru Africa recording with a concert celebration.

Randy Weston has been the recipient of many awards, including an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, in June 2006. In 2009, he was added to the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame. On May 11, 2011 Randy received the award of Royal Wissam of National Merit of the Order of Officer by command of His Majesty the King Mohammed VI of Morocco for his lifelong engagement with Morocco. “African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston,” composed by Randy Weston, arranged by Willard Jenkins, was published in 2010.

Rene McClean

Rene McClean was born in New York City, Renè Profit-McLean (a/k/a Muhammad Al-Amien Abdul Kariem) world renowned Multi-reed Instrumentalist (Alto, Tenor, Soprano saxophone, Flutes, Ney, Shakuhachi), Composer, Band leader, Educator and Producer, began his musical training at the age of nine under the tutelage and guidance of his father, world renowned alto saxophonist and educator Jackie McLean. Renè recounts: “My father began giving me the saxophone in stages beginning with the mouth piece then the neck and finally the horn”. As an adoles-

cent, the young McLean was already performing with local Jazz, R&B, Calypso, Latin and other bands of varied musical traditions, making his debut with Jackie McLean’s band in the ear-ly-1960’s as well as leading his own bands.

Renè has performed and recorded as a leader and featured sideman with the crème de la crème of Black Musical tradition such as: the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, Lionel Hampton – All Stars, Tito Puente Orchestra, Caesar Concepcion Orchestra, Frank Foster’s Loud Minority, Sam River’s Harlem Ensemble, Ray Charles Orchestra and the Cape Town SymphonyOrchestra; to the smaller ensembles of : Jackie McLean, Horace Silver, Woody Shaw, Dr. Bill Taylor, Doug and Jean Carn, Baba Olatunji, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Abbey Lincoln, Arthur Prysoc, Little Jimmy Scott, Dexter Gordon, James Moody, Yusef Lateef, Jaco Pastorius, Jerry Gonzales’ Forte Apache Band, Hamza El Din, as well as incollaboration with premier poet-activist Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), Jayne Cortez/Fire Spitters and as Musical Director/ Composer for the production of Ntozake Shange’s play “For Colored Girls…”, choreographed and directed by George Faison and Oedipus the King directed by Jonathan Wilson, Mclean has also appeared in the movie Cotton Club and advertising adds for BASF and Smith & Barney Investments.

Kewulay Kamara

Kewulay Kamara, poet-storyteller, multi-media artist and lecturer, has been the subject of articles in The New York Times and has appeared on A&E Television, PBS, and other outlets. Kewulay has performed at St. John the Divine, Symphony Space, City Center, Oxford University, and the Dodge Poetry Festival. He narrated the TBS documentary, “Legends of the Bushmen.” He directed In Search Finah Misa Kule: the story of a people who live by the word, a documentary of epic poetry, history and music. Mr. Kamara is a senior consultant, expert facilitator, for UNESCO.. He was

recently featured in TEDx, A Foresight Storytelling Experience and in Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting (AIB)’s Sacred Sounds.

Rashidah Ismaili Abu-Bakr

Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr is a poet, playwright, and a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Her work is widely anthologized and has been translated into; Arabic, Catalan, Dutch, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Papiamento, Spanish, Turkish and Uzbek. She is the author of five collections of poems. A play, “RiceKeepers” has been published and performed nationally and internationally. Most recently she has officiated at several memorials for Sathima Bea Benjamin, a South African Jazz singer and former exile, Jayne Cortez, and Amiri Baraka. She attended the 40th Anniversary of

African Literature Association, in South Africa where she presented a paper on the “Exile Community in New York of South African Artists and Activists.” Her novel in linked stories; Autobiography of the Lower East Side has just been published by North Hampton Press. Ismaili-AbuBakr is active in the Harlem community and hosts Salon d’Afrique, where artists, cultural workers from all over the world gather. She is featured in the documentary movie; “Zwelededumile,” by Ramadan Suleman. The film is a tribute to the late visual artist Dumile Feni, who lived in exile in England and finally America for over twenty five years. He died on the eve of his return to South Africa. Her poem is a dirge she composed for him and is prominent in the film. She is currently completing a novel.

Plenary Session III – Columbia University • April 2, 2016

Taoufik Ben Amor

Dr. Ben Amor specializes in Arabic language and linguistics, language and identity, Arab music, and music in Sufism. His research combines his interests in music, language and identity in the Arab world through the study of lyrics. His most recent papers are entitled “The Making of Tradition: Standardization of the Lyrics of the Tunisian Andalusian Malouf,” “States of Mind: Music in Islamic Sufi rituals,” “The Politics of Language and the Formalization of the Iraqi Maqam,” and “Bilingual Dissidence:

Arabic and French in Algerian Rai Music.” Dr. Ben Amor is currently working on a book entitled: The Making of Tradition: Language, Music and Identity in the Arab World. Professor Ben Amor is also a performing musician and music producer.

Matthew Morrison

Matthew D. Morrison is an Assistant Professor in the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Matthew has served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Current Musicology. His published work has appeared in publications such as the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the Grove Dictionary of American Music, and on Oxford University Press’s online music blog. Matthew is currently the

Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs for the W. E. B. Du Bois Scholars Institute at Princeton University. His in-progress book project, American Popular Sound: From Blackface to Blacksound, considers the implications of positing sound and music as major components in both individual and societal identity formations, particularly the construction of race. Matthew also curates and contracts a variety of performances featuring some of the most dynamic musicians in the New York City metro area.

Imani Uzuri

Composer and vocalist Imani Uzuri’s work has been called “stunning’’ by New York Magazine. She travels internationally creating concerts, experimental theater, performance art and sound installations in venues/festivals including Joe’s Pub,The Kitchen, Whitney Museum, Central Park Summer Stage, Performa Biennial, MET Breuer and MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). The Village Voice says, “Imani Uzuri is a constant surprise... seamlessly combining jazz, classical, country and blues motifs

into highly personalized compositions.”

Uzuri is currently composing a new musical GIRL Shakes Lose Her Skin with book by playwright Zakiyyah Alexander (featuring the poetry of Sonia Sanchez). She recently premiered her first orchestral composition Placeless at Ecstatic Music Festival and was subse-quently named by The New Yorker as one of the emerging “female composers edg[ing] forward”. Uzuri was a 2015 Park Avenue Armory Artist-In-Residence and she is currently composing her first opera Hush Arbor as a 2015 MAP Fund grantee. The New York Times has called Uzuri’s music “stirring”. Spring 2016, marks her Lincoln Center American Songbook debut. Her scholarly interests focus prominently on Black American vernacular sacred music practices. www.imaniuzuri.com

CONFERENCE SITE on FRIDAY APRIL 1st at The City College (CUNY)AARON DAVIS HALL, 135TH and Convent Avenue.

8:00 AM-5:00 PM Registration • Aaron Davis Hall Lobby

9:15 AM-9:30 AM Opening Remarks • Aaron Davis Hall, Theatre B

9:30 AM – 10:30 AM Keynote Address – Prof. Deborah Willis • Aaron Davis Hall, Theatre B Recipient of NYASA Distinguished Africanist Award

10:45 AM-12:15 PM Plenary Session I • Aaron Davis Hall, Theatre B

Senegalese Mbalax & World Music • Abdou Mbaye

Moroccan Gnawa Fusion • Innov Gnawa Samir Langus, Amino Belyamani, Maalem Hassan, Ben Jaafer

Zimbabwean Chimurenga • Banning Eyre Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe

12:30 – 1:45 Lunch • Roof Deck, Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, The City College 141 Convent Avenue, off 135th Street and Amsterdam Avenue

In performance: Kevin Tucker and His Jazz Trio

Panel SessionsBernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture

All Panel Sessions will be held at Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture

2:00 PM – 3:15 PM Panel Session I

Panel A: Musical Blackness across Generational Streams Chair: Mark Christian, Lehman College, CUNY • Room 111

“Sonic Realism, Sonic Actualism and Black Electronic Music”Damian Scott, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

“The Temptations: Psychedelic Blackness in 1968-1974”Mark Christian, CUNY Graduate Center/Lehman College

“We Got the Jazz: Next Generation Jazz & Reviving the Scene in the Digital Era” Aja Burrell Wood, University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance

“Amina Baraka Sings the Blues”Janee A Moses, University of Michigan

Panel B: Art in Social Dialogue Chair: Stanley Thangaraj, The City College, CUNY • Room 2M23

“Why Have There Been on Great Black Artists?” Kayla Coleman, The City College of New York – CUNY

“Afro-Latina: Intimacies and Identities: A Visual Ethnography” Tau Battice, Guttman Community College – CUNY

“He Who Buys your Wares, Buys Your Tongue: The Necessity for Artispreneurs”Nicole Goodwin, The City College of New York – CUNY

“Exploring of 1960’s -1970’s Black Films and Its Impact”Victoria Juste, The City College of New York – CUNY

Panel C: Music Theory, Spirituality and Technology Chair: Adrienne Petty, The City College, CUNY • Room 3M11A

“Contemplations on Curaçaoan Consciousness Poetics: An Examination of Oswin “Chin” Behila’s Lyrical Ideologies and Levi Silvanie’s Ami Ta KòrsouFlorencia V. Cornet, University of South Carolina

“The Transformative Power of Ogun: Performance, Music and Spirituality”Shelby E. Carpenter, Roger Williams University

“Ahiajioku in Chicago: Festival, Music, and Nigerian Igbo Identity Performance in a North American City” Austin C. Okigbo, University of Colorado – Boulder, College of Music

“Muslim Practices in Senegalese Urban Dance Music”Timothy Mangin, The City College of New York – CUNY

Panel D: The City College Student Panel – Literature in the Africana World Chair: Cheryl Sterling, The City College, CUNY • Room 3M11B

“Oligarch and Peasant: Mediating National Trauma in Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents and Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones” Sophia Monegro, The City College of New York – CUNY

“Geographies of Caribbean Bodies in Queer Time: Sirena Selena and Geographies of Home”Wendyliz Martinez, The City College of New York – CUNY

“The Weight of Inheritance: From Mothers to Daughters, Passing Oppressions from One Generation to the Next”Marie Brewer, The City College of New York – CUNY

“Love and Malady in Wizard of the Crow’s Postcolonial Aburiria”Bilha Njuguna, The City College of New York – CUNY

Panel E: Artistic and Spiritual Narratives of Africa and the Diaspora Chair: Kathleen O’Mara, SUNY – Oneonta • Room 3M23

“Carving out a New Life: Design Motifs of the Surinam Maroons”David Jamison, Miami University

“Spirit Practices in the Making of Queer Community in Ghana” Kathleen O’Mara, SUNY – Oneonta

“La Batalla Sagrada: Sacred Martial Arts in the Venezuelan Son de Negros”T.J. Desch-Obi, Baruch College – CUNY

“Yoruba Islamic Verse ‘Waka’ between Spirituality and Profanity: Issues in Expressive Performance”Amidu Sanni, Lagos State University

3:30 PM – 4:45 PM Panel Sessions II Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, The City College 141 Convent Avenue, off of 135th Street and Amsterdam Avenue

Panel A: The Politics in Music Chair: Joseph McClaren, Hofstra University • Room 111

“Rethinking the African Link: Nationalism and Ethnicity as Jazz Signifiers” Joseph McClaren, Hofstra University

“The Politics of Song: Creolization as an Art Form” Simone A. James Alexander, Seton Hall University

“The Congolese Music and Its Socio-Political Significance: A Comparative Reflection on the Works of Luambo Makiadi a.k.a. Franco, Tabu Ley, a.k.a. Rochereau and Abeti Masekeni a.k.a. the Queen of Rumba”Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, Cornell University

“The International African Arts Festival as a s Premier Musical and Artistic Expression of Cultural Nationalism and Pan-Africanism” Segun Shabaka, International African Arts Festival

Panel B: Music in the Contemporary Diaspora Chair: Jerry Persaud, SUNY – New Paltz • Room 2M23 “The Harlem Sound of Music” Timothy McGhee, The City College of New York – CUNY

“The Weeknd, Cardi B and Why We Need Stripper Narratives”X’ene Taylor, University of Texas “Usa La Razón”Carmelo J. Cintrón Vivas, Rutgers University

“Kanye West’s Lyrics of Mobility”

Keevin Brown, The City College of New York – CUNY

Panel C: Gender and the Role of the Creative ArtistChair: Remi Alapo, National Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals • Room 3M11A

“The Nature of Women: Does Being a Woman Change Artistic Output?”Bridgette Kariuki, Makerere University

“Black Feminist Art Poster Presentation and Spoken Word Performance” Kiana Miller, Union College

“The Relationship Between Music and Gender in a Globalised World” Patience Agwu Uzoma, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki

“Generation X: The Role of Culture on the Leadership Styles of Women in Leadership Positions” Remi Alapo, National Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals

“Black Women’s Voices in Brazilian Art” (1940-1950)”Edilza Sotero, Brown University

Panel D: Politics, Music and the Arts Chair: Yayra Sumah, Columbia University • Room 3M11B “Postcolonial Fabrics in Contemporary African Art”Yayra Sumah, Columbia University

“Abdellatif Kechiche and the Spectacle of Otherness: Music and Dance in Venus Noire (2010)” Claire Mouflard, Union College

“Deeds, Words, and Music: Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, and the Turn to Black Power”Henry Williams, The City College of New York – CUNY

“Beyoncé and Barack in Formation: How do Freedom, Gender & Black Media Matter in the Final Year of the Obama Administration?”Dionne M. Bennett, New York City College of Technology – CUNY

Panel E: Music and Art as a Force of Political ExpressivityChair: Kevin Hickey, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS) • Room 3M23

“Free Jazz and Freedom: Oppression and Breaking the Bonds”Lewis Rosengarten, SUNY – Cortland

“Reggae, Afro-Beat and Socio-Political Resistance: Reimmortalizing Bob Marley and Fela Kuti”Seth Asumah, SUNY – Cortland

“Black Athena and the Play of Imagination,” Mecke Nagel, SUNY – Cortland

“Jazzed Images—The Ornithological Arguments of Jean-Michel Basquiat”Kevin Hickey, ACPHS

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM NYASA E-Board Meeting

6:30 PM – until Gathering at Sugar Bar – 254 West 72nd Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue

9:30 PM – 3:00 AM Live Jazz and Blues Music at Showmen’s Jazz Club 375 West 125th Street – between St. Nicolas Ave and Morning Side Ave. (No cover charge)

CONFERENCE SITE on SATURDAY APRIL 2nd at Columbia UniversityKNOX HALL, 606 WEST 122ND STREET

8:00 AM – 2:00 PM Registration, Lobby - Knox Hall 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM NYASA Business Meeting, rm. 403 – Knox Hall

Panel SessionsColumbia University

All Panel Sessions will be held in Knox Hall, 606 West 122nd Street

9:30 AM – 10:45 AM Panel Sessions III

Panel A: Music as a Social Force in the Africana WorldChair: Deidre Butler, Union College • Room C01

“How Can We Tell That Africa Is in The House? Introducing The West African Diasporic Blues Complex”Karen M. Wilson-Ama’Echefu, University of Calabar

“Healing Arts and the Arts of Healing” Hawthorne Smith, Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture

“Gnawa and their Spiritual Music”Latifa Bounou, SUNY – Oneonta “#Blacklives Matter: Hip Hop Connections”Deidre Butler and Jermaine Wells, Union College, Schenectady, New York

Panel B: ‘Is Africa Rising? Re-Thinking Development Economics on The Continent”Chair: Seth Asumah, SUNY – Cortland • Room 101

“Capacity Development in Africa: Reflections on some of the Pre-requisites”Karl Botchway, New York City College of Technology/CUNY, and Jamee Moudud, Sarah Lawrence College

“The African Union’s Foreign Economic Policy: Taking Stock through the Decade and Half”Kwame Akonor, Seton Hall University “Resource Capitalism and Runaway Development: Power and Class Consequences in West Africa”Naaborle Sackeyfio, Pennsylvania State University – Behrend

“The Political Economy of Local Inequalities: Toward Shared Growth and Development in Ghana” Richard Severin

“The Political Economy of Contemporary Africa: Lessons from the Scrambles for Africa”John Karefah Marah, SUNY –Brockport

Panel C: Women, Music, Power and Gender Equality in the Africana WorldChair: N’Dri T. Assie-Lumumba, Cornell University • Room 103

“Women, Music and Power in Africa: Enduring Aesthetic and Declining Significance of in the Political Arena”N’Dri T. Assie-Lumumba, Cornell University

“Marginalization of Women’s Humor in Everyday Life: Gender, Culture and Humor in Africa”Shamila Namulindwa, Makerere University

“Gender and Art” Diedre Kirkem, SUNY – Cortland

Panel D: Rethinking Africana Economic Development Chair: Seifudein Adem, Binghamton University • Room 104

“Towards a New Paradigm of Economic Modernization”Seifudein Adem, Binghamton University

“Global Africa, Black Nationalism, Jazz Improvisation and Critical Political Economy Approaches, Africana Studies”Darryl C. Thomas, Pennsylvania State University

“The Rising Tide of Africa’s Population, There Is No Strength in Numbers”Kelly Ndubuka, Independent Scholar

“Redesigning the Family? National Planning for Resettlement Housing in Ghana”Alice Jones-Nelson, The Cooper Union

Panel E: Performance, Politics and Development in Post-Colonial Africa Chair: M. M. Fadakine, University of Lagos • Room 114

“Popular Art & the Semiotics of Citizenship: Julian Beinart’s Documentation of the Western Native Township, Johannesburg”Ayala Levin, Columbia University

“Okumkpo Masquerade Concert: Traditional Public Theatre & Social Commitment in Afikpo, Southeastern Nigeria”Richard Oko Ajah, University of Uyo

“State Development and The Arts, The Dilemma of Africa”M. M. Fadakine, University of Lagos

“Kabaari (The Arena): Cultural Performing Arts as a medium of Peace Building and Social Harmony”Milton Wabyona, Makerere University

Panel F: Music, Language and Literature Chair: Yannik Marshall • Room 116

“Wassoulou Music and Women Writers From Mali”Cheryl Toman, Case Western Reserve University

“How Traditional African Music has Influenced Hip Hop Today”Adesola Belo, Imperial College London

“Language is a Fruit the Skin of Which is Called Chatter: Nathaniel Mackey’s Diasporic Tales of Diet-as-Dialect and Dialect-as-Drum”John Kimo Reder, Borough of Manhattan Community College – CUNY

“Music, Politics and Citizenship: Case of Y’ene a Marre/Fed Up Movement in Senegal”Saliou Dione, Cheikh Anta Diop University

Panel G: Art in Social Dialogue IIChair: Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, Cornell University • Room 207

“From Cloth Types to Cloth Meaning and Symbolism among the Tiv, Idoma, Igede and Etulo of Central Nigeria”Nina Perpetua Waapela, Benue State University

“Olubugo (Bark Cloth) Sculptor/Visual Artists”Odongkara Barnabas, Makerere University

“Music and the Arts in Application: Case Studies – Rwanda and Uganda”Nakayiza Agnes Kalule, Makerere University

“Interactive Event Painting and Exhibition”Tibirusya Rolands Roldan, Makerere Univeristy

11:00 AM – 12:15 PM Panel Sessions IV

Panel A: Images, Performance, Resistance, in Political Art and CultureChair: Kwame Akonor, Seton Hall University • Room C01

“‘Say What One Mo’ Time!: Racial Violence in The 21st Century Through the Lens of The BOONDOCKS”George White, York College – CUNY

“Theatre and Socio-Political Consciousness: Performing Trauma and Memory to Legitimize the Claim for Restorative Justice in Northern Uganda”Viola Karungi, Makerere University

“The Secrets of Survive in Salloum Refugee Camp Project”Serena Thomas, The City College of New York – CUNY

“The Representation of Pressing Issues in Senegambia through the Painting: Terrorism as a Case in Point”Abdou Kane Ndaw and Momodou Bah

Panel B: Music, Lyrics, and Spirituality in the African WorldChair: Cheikh M. Ndiaye, Union College • Room 101

“Hizbut Tarqiyya: Songs and Spirituality”Cheikh M. Ndiaye, Union College

“A Discourse Study of Selected Nigerian Hip Hop Music”Ngozi U. Emeka-Nwobia, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki

“The Role of Songs, Music and Dance Among the Adzov in Tiv Religion”Sarwuan Daniel Shishima, The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies – Kuru

“Influence of Tonal Inflection on Igbo Church Vocal Music of Nigeria: The Art of Africa and The Diaspora”Louis Ngozi Ekezie

Panel C – Music, Literature and the ArtsChair: Jerry Persaud, SUNY – New Paltz • Room 103

“The Seven Functions of Music in Africa and the Diaspora” Thomas Uthup, and Verlaine D. Soobroydoo, Baldwin Wallace University

“Hit me with Music: Caribbean and African Music in the Virtual Diaspora of You Tube Culture”Jerry Persaud, SUNY – New Paltz

“Paranoia as a Catalyst for Creativity: a Tale of an African ‘Oliver Twist’”Garhe Osiebe, University of Birmingham

“Pan –Africanism in the Music of the New World Enslaved”Aminah Wallace, SUNY – Albany

Panel D – Diaspora Subjectivities Chair: Assefaw Bariagaber, Seton Hall University • Room 104

“Afro-Asian and the Effects of Globalization”Gabrielle Alcindor, SUNY – Cortland

“‘They Don’t Care About Us’: An Examination of Cultural Citizenship and Political Activism Among Afro- Brazilian Youth in Salvador, Bahia”Gillian Maris Jones, Brown University

“An Analysis of Carnegie Corporation’s Great Immigrants Honorees, 2006-2015: Gender, Race, Ancestry, Educational Attainment, Previous Citizenship, Month and Year of Birth, and Net Worth”Amadou Jacky Kaba, Seton Hall University

“Booker T. Washington and the New National Negro Business League”Michael Boston, SUNY – Brockport

“Health, and Infrastructure Breakdown in African-American Diasporas: From Hurricane Katrina to the Flint, Michigan Water Crisis”David McBride, Pennsylvania State University

Panel E: Art, Spirituality and Migration Chair: John Karefah Marah, SUNY - Brockport • Room 114

“The Role of Religious Art in Tiv Religion and Culture”Katsina Robert Iornenge, Benue State University

“Un/Fixed Homeland”Grace Aneiza Ali, New York University

“Painting the Many Faces of Eshu”Sonia Cristina Hart, University of California – Berkeley

“A Diaspora of Opportunities: Ethiopians in Counter – Reformation Rome, 1540-1560”Sonia Cristina Hart, University of California – Berkeley

Panel F: Traditional and Popular Music and Culture in Post-Colonial AfricaChair: Olaide Juniad, NYASA • Room 116

“Music in Ghana Before Colonialism and Post Colonial Era”Samuel Afriyie, SUNY – Oneonta

“Interrogating Tour Narratives in Ghana’s Castles”Brempong Osei-Tutu, Syracuse University

“Expressions of Popular Musical Culture in Postcolonial Nigeria”James Tar Tsaaior, Pan-Atlantic University School of Media and Communication

“Traditional Music in Ghana Churches: Transformations and Problems”Samuel Elikem and Kwame Nyamuame, Binghamton University

Panel G: Intersections Between Music and EducationChair: Samuel Fury Childs Daly • Room 208

“Socially Conscious Children’s Music: A New Perspective on Senegalese ‘Youth’”Lynne Stillings, CUNY Graduate Center

“Re-Appropriating Violent Caribbean Music as Praxis of Care”Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams, Gettysburg College

“Education, Curriculum and the Under-represented Students”Janis Massa, Lehman College – CUNY

“Teaching Hip Hop History and Practice Together in the Public Urban Classroom”Rachel Rubin, University of Massachusetts – Amherst

Location for Lunch and Afternoon Program:Union Theological Seminary – Social Room

3041 Broadway, between 120th and 122nd Street, adjacent to Knox Hall, Columbia University

12:30 PM – 1:45 PM Lunch

2:00 PM – 3:15 PM Plenary Session II Moderator -- Dr. James Conyers, Chair – Africana Studies, Kean University

In conversation with artists: Randy Weston, Dr. Rashida Ismaili, Kewulay Kamara, Rene McLean

3:30 PM – 4:45 PM Plenary Session III – Performances

“Into the Diaspora and Back From the Diaspora: The National Status of Maluf and Stambeli Music in Tunisia”Taoufik Ben-Amor, Columbia University

“Black Resonance in European Cosmopolitan Performance and Identity.” Matthew Morrison, New York University

“Tarrying for the Spirit: Exploring Melsima, Heterophony & Antiphony in Black American Sacred Singing Practices”

Imani Uzuri, Columbia University

Closing Remarks: Professor Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University

Director Mamadou Diouf earned his doctorate from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. His research interests include urban, political, social and intellectual history in colonial and postcolonial Africa. His recent publications include: Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal [2013]; Rhythms of the Afro-Atlantic World. Rituals and Remembrances (with Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo) [2010]; New Per-spectives on Islam in Senegal: Conversion, Migration, Wealth, and Power (with Mara A. Leichtman) [2009], Histoires et Identités dans la Caraïbe. Trajectoires Plurielles (with Ulbe Bosma) [2004], La Construction de l’Etat au Sénégal (with M. C. Diop & D. Cruise

O’Brien) [2002], Histoire du Sénégal: Le Modèle Islamo-Wolof et ses Périphéries [2001], Les Jeunes, Hantise de l’espace public dans les sociétés du sud? (with R. Collignon) [2001].

SPECIAL COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AFRICAN LANGUAGE PROGRAM SESSIONSSaturday, April 2nd, 2016, Knox Hall

9:30 AM – 10:15 AM • Room 507 Roundtable: This session will be in English “What Future for African Languages in U. S. Institutions of Higher Learning”Presenters: Marriame Sy, Columbia University; John Mtembezi Inniss, Delaware State University; Stephane Charitos, Columbia University (Tentative)

10:20 AM – 11:00 AM • Room 507 Elementary Wolof, Yoruba & Swahili Class Presentations

Moderator: Marriame Sy, Columbia University

11:05 AM – 11:30 AM • Room 507 Language Specific Session I

Intermediate Swahili Class: “Wanawake Maarufu wa Karene ya Ishirini na Moja” (Famous 21st Century Women)Moderator: Briana Alston, Columbia Univessity

“Serena Willliams”Briana Alston, Columbia University

“Leymah Gbowee”Omnia Saed, Columbia University

“Michelle Obama”Nia Brown, Columbia University

“Mae Jemison” Nia Hollister-Bernier and Elizabeth Runtz, Columbia University

11:05 AM – 12:05 PM • Room 403 Language Specific Session II

Advanced Wolof Class • Moderator: Devon Golaszewski, Columbia UniversityPresenters: Devon Golaszewski, Mamasa Dukureh,Courtney Pedersen, Columbia University

11:35 AM – 12:15 PM • Room 507 Language Specific Session III

Advanced Swahili Class: Maswala ya Utamaduni Afrika” (Cultural Issues in Africa)Moderator: Sara Weschler, Columbia University Presenters: “Mawazo ya Jumia ya Afrika Mashariki” Adam Sebastian Cole, Columbia University

“Mabadiliko ya Muziki wa Kisasa katika Ghana” Yayra Sumah; MESAAS, Columbia University

“Utamaduni wa Nguo Khanga” Sara Weschler, Columbia University

“Lugha na Ukoloni

Caity Bolton, CUNY Graduate Center

12:30 PM – 1:45 PM Lunch Union Theological Seminary • Social Room

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO SPONSORS OF NYASA 2016 and the Friends who Supported Conference 2016

THE CITY COLLEGE (CUNY)

President Lisa CoicoThe City College, City University of New York

Acting Dean Doris CintrónSchool of Humanities and the Arts

Prof. Eric WeitzDistinguished Professor, History

Prof. Adrienne PettyAssociate Professor, History

Prof. Stanley ThangarajAssistant Professor, Anthropology

Prof. Timothy ManginAdjunct Professor, Black Studies

Greg ShanckDirector, Aaron Davis Hall

Michael MillerDirector of Operations, The Bernard and

Anne Spitzer School of Architecture

BLACK STUDIES STAFF

Jodi-Ann FrancisAssistant Director

Kevin Tucker Kwanasia Shambley

Victoria Juste Fariha AmbiaMarie Brewer

Roseanear Nurse

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

We appreciate the sponsorship and we want to thank

Professor Alondra Nelson Dean of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Professor Mamadou DioufDirector of Institute of African Studies

Professor Sheldon PollackChair, Department of Middle Eastern,

South Asian and African Studies

Professor Souleymane Bachir DiagneChair, Department of French and Romance Philology

Professor Rashid KhalidiChair, Department of History

Professor Samuel RobertsDirector, Institute for Research for

African American Studies

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, CONTINUED

For Administrative Assistance, we are grateful and thank

Dr. Jinny PraisAssistant Director, Institute of African Studies

Anna SchafferProgram Assistant, Institute of African Studies

Clifford Duong Programming Intern, Institute of African Studies

Tiffany ChangProgramming Intern, Institute of African Studies

Krista JorstadProgramming Intern, Institute of African Studies

Jessica RechtschafferDirector of Academic Administration and Finance, MESAAS

Michael FishmanAdministrative Assistant, MESAAS

Irys SchenkerAdministrative Assistant, MESAAS

Shaw D. MendozaAssistant Director, IRAAS

Sharon HarrisAdministrative Assistant, IRAAS

Michael E. Orzechowski Director of Housing & Campus Service, Union Theological Seminary

For Assisting in organizing panels for African Language Program, we thank

Marriame SyCoordinator of African Language Program, MESAAS

For Assisting in conference events, we thank

Sara WeschlerGraduate Student, MESAAS

Nile DaviesGraduate Student, MESAAS

Yannik MarshallGraduate Student, MESAAS

Columbia University African Students Association Leaders and Members

For Technical Assistance, we thank

Issa Gueye Computer Consultant, Information Technology, Columbia University School of Law

Donald JoshuaDirector of Information Technology, Union Theological Seminary

ALBANY COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND HEALTH SCIENCES

Jacqueline KirkpatrickAdministrative Assistant

Special Thanks from the Conference Organizing Committee to:

P&P Marketing & Promotions for creative design and their professionalism in producing this program

1550 Altamont Ave, Schenectady, NY 12203 • 518-944-6020 • info@printzandpatternz.com