I hope we’ll see you there! I will be moderating the fantasy panel on Saturday morning.
Institute of African American Affairs
New York University
presents
A Is for Anansi: Literature for Children of African Descent
“Africa, the Future, and the Urban Landscape”
November 9-10th, 2012
Location for all programs: Kimmel Center-NYU,
60 Washington Square South, E&L Auditorium, 4th Floor
“A Is for Anansi: Africa, the Future, and the Urban Landscape,” the second conference hosted by the Institute of African American Affairs, aims to deepen and diversify the cannon, conversation and scholarship of the literature as told by its most influential critics, scholars, teachers and producers. The need for more in-depth analysis and for more information, critical evaluation, and publications on this topic still remains. The conference will look at these and consider other questions and issues as well.
Keynote by Dr. Michelle H. Martin
Panels include Fantasy: The Final Frontier, Urban Landscapes, Africa Imagined
Panelists include: Nancy Tolson, William Loren Katz, Meena Khorana, Varian Johnson, Christine Taylor-Butler, Georgina Falu, Kathleen Horning, Zetta Elliott, Nnedi Okorafor, Vicky Smith, Stacy Whitman, Ivan Velez, Jr., Tony Medina, Coe Booth, Terry Williams, K.C. Boyd, Rashidah Ismaili, Elana Denise Anderson, Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, Anika Selhorst, Mohammed Naseehu Ali, Katharine Capshaw Smith
Anansi Award will be presented to Ashley Bryan, Pat Cummings, William Loren Katz, and Eloise Greenfield
Please RSVP at (212) 998-IAAA (4222)
For more information please visit:
http://africanastudies.as.nyu.edu/object/IAAA-Anansi-2012.html
Schedule:
Friday, November 9th, 2012 – Opening Reception
6-6:30 pm
● Opening KEYNOTE
6:30-8:00 pm
● Perceptions and Realities: When Color Blinds and Reveals
Perceptions of how notions of whiteness/blackness, both implicit and implied, are presented and their effects. Borrowing a page from Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark, whiteness and blackness in the literary imagination.
Saturday, November 10th, 2012
Registration – 9-9:30 am
9:30 – 11:00 am
● Fantasy: The Final Frontier
The scarcity of fantasy/science-fiction books featuring children of African descent.
11:00 – 12:30 pm
● Children’s panel: “If I Ruled the World”
As a teacher / publisher / writer / reader how they see themselves in the world and how they are depicted. If they were in control and in power/what would they teach, assign to read, defending it why and why not.
Lunch – 12:30 – 1:30 pm
1:30 – 3:00 pm
● Urban Landscapes: Stories for a Global World, Realism and Dominant Images
The lure of urban life and culture, its offerings and sacrifices. What the urban landscape does to the literature and vice versa. How the black urban experience is interpreted and reimagined. How does dwindling rural development and shifts to urban landscapes fragment and reconstruct lives and cultural retentions?
3:00 – 4:30 pm
● Africa Imagined
“What is Africa to me” remains a fundamental question in all Africana studies. How African culture is identified, constructed in the literature.
4:30 – 5:00 pm
CLOSURE/ROUND UP/SURVEY
5:00 PM
AWARD RECEPTION
● Tribute to Ashley Bryan, Pat Cummings, William Loren Katz, and Eloise Greenfield
Fledgling 
Yes, this sounds great, but why can’t something like this be at BEA? (rhetorical question)
Because no one at BEA (administration) *wants* this conversation to take place there…
I will be in NYC that weekend and will try to come! Thanks, Zetta.
Martine Joelle
Hey, Martine–that’s great! Send me an email if you can’t make the conference and maybe we can still meet for tea.