Jamaican Maroon Cultural Group - Fall 2016 US Tour
Through the support of the Center for Collaborative and International Arts (CENCIA) at Georgia State University and other organizations, the Granny Nanny Cultural Group, a 12-member Jamaican Maroon performance ensemble from the Moore Town Maroon settlement, will be touring the United States in fall 2016. The group was formed in the early 1990s to honor the legacy of their 18th century Akan priestess and warrior ancestor, Queen Nanny of the Windward Jamaican Maroons (AKA Grandy Nanny, Granny Nanny, or Nanny of the Maroons), who is Jamaica's only female National Hero. They will be staging musical performances, conducting master workshops and demonstrations (drumming, dancing, singing, and arts & crafts), and giving talks at colleges, universities, K-12 schools, libraries, community centers and festivals. In 2008, the Maroon heritage of Moore Town was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (originally proclaimed in 2003). In 2015, their ancestral territories in the Blue & John Crow Mountains National Park in Jamaica were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.
The Director of the Granny Nanny Cultural Group, Major Charles Aarons, is a world-renowned master drummer, Abeng (side-blown cow's horn) blower, traditional healer, oral historian, and cultural activist. Major Aarons has performed on important stages in Jamaica, the United States and Europe, including during the historic visit of Nelson and Winnie Mandela to Jamaica in 1991, as well as at the 1992 American Folklife Festival at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. He has also given lectures and conducted workshops at leading colleges, universities and high schools in the United States. Furthermore, Major Aarons has appeared on important musical recordings, such as
Drums of Defiance: Maroon Music from the Earliest Free Black Communities of Jamaica (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings CD, 1992).
Other members of the group have appeared at the United Nations Headquarters and the Schomburg Center for Research in Blacks Culture in New York City, among other prestigious venues.
The US tour, which will begin in Atlanta in August 2016, will feature live performances, including songs from their forthcoming album
Granny Nanny Come Oh (produced by Dr. Harcourt Fuller), recorded live in Trench Town, Jamaica, and which features a range of traditional Maroon musical genres, oral histories, stories, and Maroon language. There will also be screenings of the 2015 documentary-film
Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess (produced by Dr. Harcourt Fuller and Roy T. Anderson), in which members of the Granny Nanny Cultural Group appear as performers and actors. In addition to being part of the United Nations Remember Slavery Program film series,
Queen Nanny was nominated for an Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) honor at the 2016 Pan African Film Festival. The tour will also feature a photo exhibition on the Maroons, traditional Maroon arts & crafts, as well as intellectual symposia with scholarly publications, poetry, literature readings and talks on topics of historical, contemporary, political, cultural, spiritual, and environmental relevance to the Maroons.
We invite the ASWAD community to be a part of this historic tour by bringing the Jamaican Maroon Cultural Tour to your campuses and organizations. We especially encourage groups of institutions in particular cities to collaborate by pooling their resources to invite the group to present. Please email Dr. Harcourt Fuller, Assistant Professor of History at Georgia State University, at
[email protected] for further details, and visit
www.grannynannymaroons.com for more information about the Jamaican Maroons, the Granny Nanny Cultural Group, and their tour schedule.
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1st Call for Sessions
Afroeuropeans: Black Cultures and Identities in Europe
Sixth Biennial Network Conference
University of Tampere, Finland
6 - 8 July 2017
African European Studies and Black European Studies explore social spaces and cultural practices that are characterised by a series of contemporary and historical overlaps between Africa, the African diasporas, and Europe. The sixth biennial network conference, organised by the University of Tampere and the international Afroeuropeans - Black Cultures and Identities in Europe research network, aims to contribute to the existing scholarship in Europe with a view to establish it more firmly in its several disciplinary locations. For more information, please see the
conference website
.
The general theme of the Afroeuropeans 2017 conference is African diaspora and European cultural heritage. Among the confirmed keynote speakers is Professor Paul Gilroy from King's College London. We encourage submissions exploring the topics suggested below.
- African diaspora and European cultural heritage;
- Policing blackness; African/Black European politics;
- Shifting political landscapes and European post-colonial discontents;
- Afroeuropean mediascapes; Diaspora communities online; Diasporic experience and digital media;
- Social justice and human rights in AfroEurope;
- Performing Africanness/blackness in Europe;
- Writing and translating new African diaspora and black identities in Europe;
- Afroeuropean music cultures; Afroeuropean dance scenes;
- Blackness in visual arts in Europe
- Children of the African diaspora in Europe; Afroeuropean youth cultures;
- AfroQueer Europe; Afroeuropean feminisms;
- Global racisms and AfroEurope;
- Refugees from Africa in Europe.
Session proposals that do not directly deal with the above-mentioned topics will also be considered. Proposals for sessions on both established and emerging research areas of a trans- and multidisciplinary nature are welcome.
Proposals for sessions (max. 300 words) should be submitted by no later than 15 September 2016 through our online form
. Instructions for session organisers and the link to the submission form can be found on the conference website (
Call for Sessions
).
In addition to academics, we welcome artists, activists, authors, journalists, and independent scholars with a specific interest in the field. The cultural programme of the conference is organised in collaboration with Fest Afrika festival and Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions.
On behalf of the local organizing committee and the international Afroeuropeans - Black Cultures and Identities in Europe research network,
Anna Rastas
Chair of the local organizing committee, University of Tampere
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Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program
Applications are now being accepted through July 5, 2016 for the spring 2016 competition of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP).
- Accredited universities in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Uganda can submit a project request online to host a scholar.
- Scholars born in Africa, who live in the United States or Canada and work in an accredited college or university in either of those two countries, can apply online to be placed on a roster of available candidates for a fellowship. Scholars must hold a terminal degree in their field and may hold any academic rank.
Selection decisions will be made in October 2016; project visits can begin as early as December 2016.
Activities: African host institutions can request that the scholar participate projects in curriculum co-development, research collaboration and/or graduate student mentoring and training. The CADFP Advisory Council seeks applications for innovative projects and specifically encourages projects that involve collaboration among multiple institutions or from groups of faculty addressing related topics. The Council also plans to award some fellowships to faculty members who are alumni from the first two years of the program.
Process: Prospective African host institutions and fellows (scholars) can cooperate in designing a project that the institution submits. An institution may, but is not required to, name a proposed scholar in a project request. Both the proposed scholar and the project request are subject to evaluation by a review committee and approval by the program Advisory Council.
Scholars submit their information online for the roster. The Institute of International Education (IIE) maintains and searches the roster for a possible match, according to the discipline specializations, expertise, activities and objectives described in a project request.
Fellowship: Projects can be conducted in the African host country for 14-90 days. For the fellowship, the African Diaspora Fellow will receive:
- $200/day stipend
- visa costs
- limited health insurance coverage
- round-trip international air travel and ground transportation costs to and from home and the U.S./Canadian airport.
IIE manages the fellowships and payments to fellows. Host institutions are encouraged to provide cost-share for the fellow's meals, lodging and in-country transportation.
Please contact:
Jeremy Coats
Program Officer
Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP)
Scholar Exchanges Division
Institute of International Education (IIE)
Email:
[email protected]
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