English BHMF VI Edition OSTINATO PROGRAM

CITTÀ METROPOLITANA

DI FIRENZE

BRANDBOOK

BHMF ORGANIZERS

Co-Founder and Director of Black

History Month Florence and

President of the Associazione

Culturale BHMF

_Justin Randolph Thompson

Co-Director of Black History

Month Florence and Vice

President of the Associazione

Culturale BHMF

_Janine Gaelle Dieudji

Advisor of the Associazione

Culturale BHMF

_Matias Mesquita

Administrative Assistants

_Tatjana Lightbourn

_Nara Seymour

Co-founder of Black History

Month Florence

_Andre Thomas Halyard

With the Co-Promozione

_Comune Di Firenze

PR Agency

_FleishmanHillard

Curatorial Team

_Livia Dubon Bohlig

_Serena Calaresu

_Alessandra Fredianelli

Outreach Team

_Daphne Di Cinto

_Devorah Block

_Marzia Duarte

Communications Team

_Jemma Robin Thompson

_Logan Shary

Graphic Design

_Ilaria Biccai

_Olivia Kasa

Production Team

_Thelonious Stokes

_Mekale Amare Gada

BHMBo ORGANIZERS

Co-Founder

_Justin Randolph Thompson

Co-founder, Director and

President

_Patrick Joël Tatcheda Yonkeu

Co-founder and Vice President

_Jean Blaise Nguimfack

PR and Coordination

_Ofelia Omoyele Balogun

Communications

_Lorenzo Piano

_Marjana Vanjeli

Collaborators

_ Stefania Scatigna

_Marinelis Marte

Coordintaion and Advising

_Marine Mirguet

Patrocinio BHMBo

_Comune di Bologna

_Comune di San Lazzaro di

Savena

Accademia di Belle Arti di

Bologna

Africa e Mediterraneo

African Diaspora Cinema Festival

ANPI Oltrarno

Amir

American Academy in Rome

Archive Books

Associazione Progetto

Arcobaleno Onlus

Associaçao Angolana Njinga

Mbande

Bella Presenza

Black Lives Matter Bologna

Black Lives Matter Roma

British Institute of Florence

Cantieri Meticci

Centro Studi Postcoloniali e di

Genere

Cimitero degli Inglesi

Cinema La Compagnia

Citta' Metropolitana

Con i Bambini

Decolonising The Academy

Elettra Officine Grafiche

European University Institute

Fleishman Hillard

Fondazione CR Firenze

Jacobin

laFeltrinelli Librerie

La Portineria

Le Gallerie degli Uffizi

MA*GA

MAD Murate Art District

MiBACT

Mus.E

Museo Novecento

Museo e Istituto Fiorentino di

Preistoria Paolo Graziosi

Museo Madre - Museo d’arte

contemporanea Fondazione

Donnaregina per le arti

contemporanee

Musicus Concentus

Network Sonoro

Numeroventi

NSS Magazine

NYU Florence

OCAD

October Gallery

Postcolonial Italy

Publiacqua

Razzismo Brutta Storia

Regione Toscana

Ristorante Africano Adal

SACI

Scomodo

Tamu Edizioni

Temple University Rome

The Florentine

The Student Hotel

Villa Romana

Wariboko

*The BHMF team pays homage

to Andrea Mi (1971-2020)

The ostinato idea in black improvised music is rhythmically

and functionally related to the time-line (or life-line) as found

in traditional West African music, where it acts at once as a

referential phrase to which other phrases are added and as a

vehicle for projecting the basic pulse.

Wendell Logan; The Ostinato Idea in Black Improvised Music: A

Preliminary Investigation

BHMF OSTINATO VI Edition

The sixth edition of Black History Month Florence will serve as a historical

marker, not only representative of the social impact of the Covid 19

Pandemic on all of society, but also cognizant of the ways in which digital

technologies have brought us together and made possible solidarity efforts

in virtual space. Long term goals and ongoing projects have nurtured us in

this period with our last dose of the previous reality being in a public facing

5th edition that made it through just before the lockdowns were imposed.

The memory of shared space and the knowledge of what it means to hold

space for the future has pushed us to shift into a nationwide reflection

that expands our network and reach through the new Platform Black

History Fuori le Mura. After a half a decade of programming in Florence

and Bologna this edition is organized under the thematic framework of

OSTINATO. The theme is simultaneously an invitation and a critique. The

invitation is to persist in the socio-cultural work that we increasingly need.

The criticism concerns the obstinacy of the resistance to the recognition of

the struggle of Afro-descendants regarding access to citizenship, workers'

rights and social inclusion in the definition of Italianness.

OSTINATO is a reflection upon the stubbornness needed to affirm proactive

strategies of cultural organizing over a long arch of time as a manifestation of a

grounded vision that is not indifferent to the current times and the challenges

that they present but is also not overly determined by them. In music, ostinato

is a phrase or motif that is repeated often, on top of which improvisation

takes place. BHMI is committed to the creation of the repeating rhythms that

support Afro-Descendent cultures and provide the needed consistency and

vibrancy that leaves space for each culture to

express themselves freely. We are committed to making and holding the

bass line.

THE RECOVERY PLAN

Over the past two years, BHMF has experimented with pop-up

versions of The Recovery Plan, designed to be organized within

existing institutions, promoting new perspectives and content.

After some pop-up versions at The Biagiotti Foundation in

Florence and the MA*GA Museum in Gallarate this year. We

are working on the future of the project.

The Recovery Plan is a Black cultural center that hosts a

series of ongoing research projects, temporary exhibitions, a

library and workshops for the development of BHMF projects

and promote growth of Black History Fuori le Mura in Italia

initiatives.

Whoever Drinks Black

Earns Color

BHMF and The Florentine

The past few years has produced an ever strengthening

collaboration between Black History Month Florence and

The Florentine in the development of new and profound

reflections articulated annually in editorials, reviews and the

ongoing column Whoever Drinks Black Earns Color (initiated

in Summer of 2020) that overlap and combine inviting

more opportunities for an audience to be activated through

the writings and dialogues with a focus on Afrocentric

perspectives on Florence and Italy more broadly.

For the February issue of The Florentine BHMF has engaged

in the organization of a well-rounded chorus of voices from

the BHMF network thinking about the past and present

of Florence inviting readers towards interactive projects

and providing artistic comparisons across time as stimuli

for shifted perspectives. The arch of content flows from a

meditation on coffee and the unacknowledged labor that

produces it along with the colonial underpinnings that

render it an Italian tradition. Coloniality is additionally

evoked through an emerging platform, Postcolonial Italy, a

mapping project designed to foster a different engagement

with cities across Italy in dialogue with sites and monuments

too frequently overlooked. Beyond this series of texts are

three articles that focus on perception, one reflecting upon

the construction of Blackness and labor in contemporary

Italy through the framework of the caporalato extending

from agricultural fields to our tables; a photo essay looking

at portrayals of Black African figures in the collection of

the Uffizi Galleries in dialogue with a range of modern and

contemporary images that unsettle their meaning; and finally

a spiritual reflection on the work of McArthur Binion’s

Modern Ancient Brown at Museo 900 and the feeling

of saturation evoked by the pandemic and the social

underpinnings that it has revealed.

TF Together: Online community events

The Florentine launched TF Together in 2020 as a regular online

moment to meet and share activities and interests. This program

evolved during this period to provide first-rate meetings that are

held near Florence. The series of texts in the column Whoever

Drinks Black Earns Color is expanded through 2 dialogues for

The Florentine Together that are moderated by Justin Randolph

Thompson and Janine Gaëlle Dieudji.

These are designed to dive deeper into the content of this isuue

featuring: Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfau, Theophilus Imani

Marboah.

Friday 12 February - 5pm

Razzismo Brutta Storia and teaching Anti-racism in Italy

Speaker:

_Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfau (Phd student in Social Sciences)

The scholar will talk about the educational tools and activities in

schools carried out by the association Racism Ugly History. Born

from the joint commitment of Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore,

Feltrinelli, and the communication agency Tita, the association is

committed to combating racism and discrimination.


Echoes and agreements in art history and popular culture

Speaker:

_Theophilus Imani Marboah

Born from a reflection on the negative representation of darkness

in Italy, Echoes and agreements in the history of art and popular

culture is an interesting examination of the relationship between

faces of the African diaspora and icons of European art.

These events will be held in English on social channels of

The Florentine

https://www.theflorentine.net/video/

redazione@theflorentine.net

YGBI Research Residency II

A project of BHMF

In collaboration with Numeroventi

Mentor_Arlette-Louise Ndakoze

Artistic Co-Director _SAVVY Contemporary

Artists_Adji Dieye (MI), Silvia Rosi (MO), Kelly Costigliolo (GE)

and Christian Offman (BO)

Monday 22 February - 7pm

Presentation of Residents

Saturday 27 February - 2-8 pm

Open Studios

YGBI Research Residency and training program is a collective

studio experience designed to bring together Afro-descendent

artists under 35 years of age residing in Italy to foster solidarity,

guidance and support in elaborating Afrocentric frameworks,

meditations on diaspora and strategies for engaging in

community. The residency takes the form of a 10-day gathering

in Florence with five invited artists and is curated by Black

History Month Florence. The research residency is led by

Arlette-Louise Ndakoze, co-director of SAVVY Contemporary

who mentors the artists through readings, exercises and

reflections. The gathering is the starting point for a longer arch

of support and collaboration that is carried forth across the year

of the residence, connecting the artists with scholars across

fields and developing tactical strategies for a studio practice that

is generative of collectivity. Each selected artist is supported

in the realization of a solo exhibition within a museum

structure as well as a group exhibition that brings the work of

all residents together. The process is assisted by an interface

with the previous group of residents who expand the network

and combined voice. The second volume of YGBI Research

Residency is hosted by Numeroventi which provides the lodging,

studios and gathering spaces for this group of artists and their

mentor.. While most of the project is not open to the public

and takes place behind closed doors, there are two moments

of public interface which consist of an evening of introductory

presentation to the work of the artists and open studios at the

end of the period of the residency.

https://numeroventi.it/it/

hello@numeroventi.it

Black Archive Alliance VOL. III

Curated by BHMF with Alessandra Ferrini

In collaboration with Archive Books, Museo MA*GA and Villa

Romana

Co-produced by MAD Murate Art District _Emeroteca

Researchers

_Simao Amista, Jessica Sartiani, Angelica Pesarini, Jordan

Anderson, Patrick Joel Tatcheda Yonkeu

02/03-02/28

Opening times Wednesday and Thursday 2:30-7:30 PM and by

appointment info.mad@muse.comune.fi.it

This III° Edition marks the third year of collaboration with

Murate Art District in hosting the project Black Archive Alliance

and the first year of a long term residence designed to foster

the growth and continual implementation of research in the

archives and collections of Florence and of Italy. The objective

of the project is the mapping and centering Afro Diasporic

peoples and history and the holding of space for the archive of

BHMF that is accessible in its form and content.

Launched in 2018 Black Archive Alliance is a research and

training project that aims to highlight investigations rooted

in documents that reflect the realities and histories of

African populations, and of the African diaspora and their

representation in public and private archives and collections

in the Italian context.

The first edition created a virtual map of this archival

presence in the city of Florence with a catalog that

aims to support future research and provide alternative

perspectives. The second edition was also carried out in

Florence by international students from various disciplines

and institutions, tutored by a group of local researchers and

scholars. The third edition, presented as part of BHMF 2021

in this exhibition, was born from a collaboration between five

Afro-descendant researchers working in different fields and

the artists of the first edition of YGBI Research Residency.

Working in pairs, through an experimental approach based

on dialogue and exchange, they have explored tangible and

intangible archives rooted in Italy. Providing contextualization

and a wider reflection on the art works produced by the YGBI

members, the project is intended to reflect on alternative

ways of activating and presenting archive-based research,

beyond the academic realm.

The full texts produced by the researchers will be featured

in the latest Archive Journal publication, developed in

collaboration with Archive Books and launched 24 February

at 5pm. As part of this exhibition opening, we are presenting

our collaboration with Postcolonial Italy, which introduces

their mapping project inserted within our space and

exhibition.

https://www.murateartdistrict.it/

info.mad@muse.comune.fi.it

On Being Present vol.II

recovering blackness in the uffizi

galleries

This Hypervision is part of Black History Month Florence 2021

Project conceived and curated by Justin Randolph Thompson

in collaboration with the Uffizi Galleries

Scientific and organizational coordination for the Uffizi

Galleries_Chiara Toti and Francesca Sborgi

Advisors_Paul Kaplan and Kate Lowe

Graphic Design_Jacopo Mazzoni

Saturday 20 February

https:// https://www.uffizi.it/mostre-virtuali

Contributors and works:

Paul Kaplan / Kate Lowe_Bartolomeo Passerotti_L'enigma di

Omero

Paul Kaplan_ Andrea Mantegna_Judith and Holofernes

Kate Lowe_Albrecht Dürer_Katherina

Jonathan K. Nelson_Filippino Lippi_Adorazione dei Magi

Adrienne Childs_Baldassarre Franceschini detto il Volterrano_

Allegory of America

Emanuele Lugli_Artemisia Gentileschi_David and Bathsheba

Mahnaz Yousefzadeh_Filippo Napolitano_Caccia del Persiano

(two panels)

Joneath Spicer_Jacopo Ligozzi_Moor from Barbaria with Giraffe

Stephanie Archangel_Justus Sustermans_Portrait of Francesco

di Cosimo de Medici

On Being Present Volume II, will be launched as a virtual

exhibition on the Uffizi’s site in February 2021 coinciding

with our sixth edition of Black History Month Florence.

This volume will consist of nine new entries developed

by international scholars in relation to ten works in the

collections of the Gallerie degli Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti. The

list of scholars was assembled under consultation with Paul

Kaplan and Kate Lowe who are advisors on the project. We

have been greeted with great enthusiasm by Eike Schmidt

the Director of the Gallerie degli Uffizi who is committed to

an international press push for the projects launch and we

are confident that this volume will reach an even broader

audience given the success of the first edition along with

the heightened sensitivity that has emerged in the museum

world after the protests erupting around the murder of

George Floyd. The relevance of this work is also fueled by

the move towards virtual and digital content in this era of

Covid 19 which has limited access to museums and greatly

impacted study abroad. This project is an important step

for us as we continue the long process of introspection in

assisting major institutions in regards to social justice and the

limitations, oversights and exclusions of traditional narratives

of the Renaissance period..

Coordinated by Matias Mesquita

Ass. Angolana Njinga Mbande

These events are in Italian on ZOOM

History of Africa is a series of virtual events that take place

weekly online on the BHMF Zoom platform, coordinated by

Matias Mesquita. Analyzing various fragments of the sociopolitical

history of the African continent, topics are divided

as follows:

Wednesday 3 February - 6pm

History of Africa_The National Liberation Movements

Speakers:

_Leila El Houssi (prof.ssa dell’Università La Sapienza),

Mamadou Ly (storico), Adel Jabbar (sociologo nell’ambito

degli studi interculturali), Pape Diaw (Ass.ne Oltre Africa)

Modera

_Matias Mesquita (Ass.ne Angolana Njinga Mbande)

Conoscere l’Africa

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bmVKcfCTaKBFS3U0cmdug

Thursday 4 February - 6pm

Dialogue about the figure of Antonio Ne Vunda “Negrita”,

first african ambassador in Vatican

Speakers:

_Luís Martinez Ferrer (Università Pontifícia di Santa Croce)

Chairs:

_Matias Mesquita e David Pacavira

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_

QG3YsOFWTu6JyCRiSNy0eQ


History of Africa_The independence of African countries.

Speakers:

_Leila El Houssi (prof.ssa dell’Università La Sapienza), Mamadou Ly

(storico), Adel Jabbar (sociologo nell’ambito degli studi interculturali),

Pape Diaw (Ass.ne Oltre Africa)

Chair:



t8GrnVu6Q6SwG1vM4xAF3g


History of Africa_Non-aligned country movements

Speakers:




Chair:



uLxEh8GgQ3iMdBXeWYGImA

Thursday 18 February - 8:30pm

Didá-ará therapeutic practices in intercultural dialogue

Speakers:

_Dott. Augusto Conceiçao and Dott.ssa Heliana Ignacio Sacco

Chair:

_Elena Gengaroli and Sabina Giuliodori (Ass. Awsé)

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-

T077LttQYWxFCoS_T8Chw


History of Africa_New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

Speakers:




Chair:



XgOfFoCiSdu4K0Xkf3Ts9A


Presentation of the book "Negretta baci razzisti" by Marilena Delli

Umuhoza

Speakers:

Marilena Delli Umuhoza (author of the book) and David Pacavira

Chair:

Matias Mesquita (Ass.ne Angolana Njinga Mbande)

Conoscere l’Africa

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/

WN_637z54MfSm210iauekUWEw

Sunday 28 February - 5pm

#diversitymanagement

Speakers:

_Kwanza Musi Dos Santos (Italian Afrobrazilian activist in Diversity

Management)

Chair:

_Matias Mesquita, Ass.ne Angolana Njinga Mbande and David

Pacavira


ncLD4aafTPqgTvYKyCFk4g

Thursday 4 March - 6pm

Dialogue on Rainha Njinga Mbande

Speakers:

_Mariana Bracks (Professor at the Universidade Federal de Minas

Gerais), Patricio Batsikama (Professor and Director of CEICA - Instituto

Superior Politecnico Tocoista)

Chair:

_Matias Mesquita and David Pacavira.


qAumpATDTau7GMBrmrBf4g

https://www.facebook.com/njingambande

njingambande@gmail.com

BHMF

In collaboration Musicus Concentus with Villa Romana

with the support of Publiacqua

E Il Clamore è Divenuto Voce

Musicus Concentus has been a part of Black History Month Florence’s

program since its inception. This year marks a growth and strengthening

of the collective effort in the form of a concert series that has been coorganized

for the occasion of the sixth edition of the initiative under the

thematic frame OSTINATO. BHMF has consistently drawn from musical

language and as such it is particularly fitting that this collaboration is

solidified in a moment of precarity and uncertainty in the cultural sector

with concerts being almost non-existent due to the ongoing pandemic.

E il Clamore E’ Divenuto Voce is an acoustic concert series designed to

celebrate Black voices in the Italian musical panorama. Drawing its title

from a 1962 speech delivered from Palazzo Vecchio by the then president

of Senegal Leopold Sedar Senghor, it is designed to bring forth much of

what this moment has produced a lack of;- shared intimacy, strength and

the spirit that only music knows how to invoke.

This concert series featuring the floating voice of David Blank, the

soothing vibes and depth of Dre Love and the narrative rhythms and

rhymes of Tommy Kuti, is structured to bring

audiences into a realm of storytelling and sonic healing so that the clamor

and unrest of this moment may be in focus in and given voice.

These events were made possible thanks to the generous support of

Publiacqua.

E Il Clamore è Divenuto Voce

Friday 12 February - 9.15PM

Dre Love "Live concert" feat. Drumz & Guido Masi

Andre Halyard a.k.a Dre Love, born in Queens, New York. Dre lives and

works in Italy where he had the opportunity to collaborate on numerous

projects including: Radical Stuff, Neffa e i Messaggeri della Dopa, DJ Enzo,

Gopher D, Reggae National Tickets, Irene Grandi, Almamegretta e Alex

Britti, just to name a few. His scratching voice and easy going attitude

led him to have an immediately recognizable, sunny and refined style.

Conscious rhymes, acid-rap improvisations, funky grooves, soul and

intimate voices coexist in his music, made up of tributes to the African-

American tradition and European electronic experiments.


David Blank

David Aiyeniwon, known as David Blank, is a natural talent: he sings in

the gospel choir of the church of his native country (in the Marches) and

is noted for the strength of his voice. With the singles "Standing in Line"

and "Foreplay", released in 2020, David starts his new artistic project

in collaboration with FLUIDOSTUDIO, an EP of four tracks that tell the

experiences that have marked his artistic and personal evolution. The

new musical research soon brings new collaborations and campaigns

with the most famous brands (Calvin Klein, Gucci, Tommy Hilfigher), until

the participation in the Disney film "Soul", released on December 25,

2020, where David plays the song "True Love".


Tommy Kuti

Born in Nigeria in 1989, Tommy Kuti - real name Tolulope Olabode Kuti

- arrived in Italy with his parents when he was two. Raised in Castiglione

delle Stiviere, a small town in the province of Mantua, after graduating in

languages Tommy moved to Cambridge, England for three years where

he graduated in communication sciences. Passionate about rap ("not

only Italian, but also American and French", he says), he began writing his

first songs, recorded at home and totally self-produced, around the age of

16: "After graduating, in 2014, I left Castiglione delle Stiviere and I moved

to Brescia. I started doing things seriously, setting up an independent

label and collective, Mancamelanina, and recording demos in a more

professional way."

http://www.musicusconcentus.com/

musicusconcentus@gmail.com

Coordinated by Daphné Budasz

BHMF has initiated a collaboration with Postcolonial Italy that

is intended to support and advance their research through

workshops, exhibitions, publication and outreach.

Postcolonial Italy: Mapping Colonial Heritage

Postcolonial Italy

Cradle of the Renaissance, Florence’s heritage is primarily

tied to Italian art history and the colonial past of the city

remains barely noticeable. However, numerous material

traces – street names, monuments, buildings etc. – that are

related to the history of Italian colonial enterprise in Eritrea,

Libya or the Dodecanese can be found in Florence as well

as in other Italian cities. The online collaborative project

Postcolonial Italy: Mapping Italian Colonialism, which was

launched in 2018 in Florence by researchers Daphné Budasz

and Markus Wurzer, captures and documents these traces

in the public space in order to stimulate a public debate on

Italy's silenced colonial history.

By marking physical locations on a digital map available

online, the project intends to recall the manifold connections

between inconspicuous places of the city and the colonial

history of Italy, which often remains absent from collective

memory. It also aims at making historical knowledge

accessible to a large audience and to encourage critical

reflection on the past and present. Italian colonialism being

undeniably marked by the notion of race, acknowledging

this difficult past is a crucial aspect of the fight against longlasting

racial prejudices.

INFO

Visit the website and discover traces of colonial history in

Italian cities www.postcolonialitaly.com

On the occasion of BHMF 2021, Postcolonial Italy launches

a digital self-guided tour “Uncovering Italian Colonial Pasts:

Florence” Download the app IZI travel to take the free tour

For the sixth edition of Black History Month Florence, The

European Institute is a part of the program with two events

dedicated to decolonizing higher education and examining

race in relation to Italian cultural heritage.

This series of events are organised by prof. Lucy Riall (EUI-

HEC) and Daphné Budasz (EUI- HEC).

BHMF and EUI

EVENT POSTPONED

Decolonising the Metropolitan University

Speaker:

_Priyamvada Gopal (University of Cambridge)

Chair:

_Gabriele Proglio (University of Gastronomic Sciences,

Pollenzo)

Since 2015 when South African students demanded the

removal of the statue of colonist Cecile Rhodes standing

in Cape Town University campus, the movement for the

decolonisation of universities has spread internationally.

Denouncing institutional racism and long-lasting inequalities

within higher education, the debate recently started to shake

universities all over Europe. Priyamvada Gopal, professor of

literature at the University of Cambridge and a key player in

the debate in the United Kingdom, is invited to discuss the

notion of decolonisation of the university and its implications

for institutional change.

This event will be held in English on ZOOM. Please register:

https://eui-eu.zoom.us/meeting/register/

tJYvfuurrj4vH9YDja1SAkG9rDDTdSb5rvaw

Monday 22 February - 5:00-6:30pm

Race in Italian Culture and Heritage

Speakers:

_Shelleen Greene (UCLA), Lucia Piccioni (EUI - Marie

Sklodowska-Curie Fellow), Angelica Pesarini (NYU - Florence)

Moderator:

_Daphné Budasz (EUI)

This event will examine representations of race in Italian

culture from the colonial era to today. It will address the

changing paradigms of racist heritage in Italy and its political

meanings. Speakers will initiate the discussion by presenting

their research that questions the way non-White bodies have

been portrayed in Italian culture, notably in cinema but also

in anthropological work.

This event will be held in English on ZOOM. Please register :

https://eui-eu.zoom.us/meeting/register/

tJclduytqzIrEtVkWKnajInuTajQTzXAikR7

https://www.eui.eu/

Coordinated by Justin Randolph Thompson and Angelica Pesarini

for NYU Florencei, NYU continues its ongoing collaboration with

BHMF by promoting a series of conferences designed to facilitate

the dialogue and exchange with students, staff and teachers

reflecting on a series of stories related to Afro-descended

peoples and cultures.

NYU Florence Series

Tuesday 9 February - 6pm

Curating, Blackness and History

Speaker:

_Dr. Zoe Whitley (curator and director of the Chisenhale Gallery),

Justin Randolph Thompson (co-fundator and e director of BHMF)

Involving a series of projects including the award-winning Soul

of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power and Elijah Pierce’s

America, the conversation will address curatorialship beyond

and with in geographical boundaries.

Booking required: RSVP to lapietra.events@nyu.edu

Monday 15 February - 6pm

The Black Mediterranean

Speakers:

_Angelica Pesarini, Camilla Hawthorne, Ida Danewid, Gabriele

Proglio, Timothy Raeymaekers, Giulia Grechi, Vivian Gerrand, P.

Khalil Saucier, Giuseppe Grimaldi

Moderator:

_Larry Wolff

This panel will feature the launch of The Black Mediterranean

a volume edited by a group of scholars who founded The

Black Mediterranean Collective. The volume seeks to rethink

the contemporary European migrant crisis in the Central

Mediterranean by foregrounding questions of race and

Blackness. Inspired by Robert Farris Thompson (1984) and

Paul Gilroy’s (1993) theorizations of the Black Atlantic, the

Black Mediterranean captures the long history of racial

subordination and resistance in the Mediterranean region,

and points to overlooked histories of racial violence. The

Black Mediterranean approaches the Mediterranean Sea as a

space of multiple mobilities, traversed by various frontiers and

border technologies, and spanning both colonial legacies and

postcolonial conditions.


Tuesday 16 February - 6PM

William Demby’s Work Across Postwar Rome’s Culture Industries

Speakers:

_Melanie Masterton Sherazi

Black American writer William Demby forged a dynamic career

across Rome's culture industries as a novelist, journalist, and

screenwriter, translator, and actor in the Italian cinema in the

1950s and 1960s. Drawing on Sherazi archival research into

the author's papers from this period, the talk will explore how

Demby channels these experiences into his genre-blurring,

semi-autobiographical novel The Catacombs (1965).

This event is realized in collaboration with The American

Academy in Rome where Sherazi is a Terra Foundation

Affiliated Fellow.


NYU Florence Series

Monday 22 February - 6:30pm

Aida Sesquicentennial: Race, Africa, And Opera.

Speakers:

_Larry Wolff (NYU Florence), Gaia Varon (NYU Florence e

Radio3), Francesco Izzo (Parma Verdi Festival e Università di

Southampton), Justin Randolph Thompson (NYU Florence e

BHMF)

Verdi's Aida was first performed in Cairo in 1871, now 150 years

ago, and, during Black History Month 2021 NYU Florence will

host a discussion of the relevant issues of the performance and

musicalization of race on the operatic stage and the significance

of the opera for considering Italian-African cultural and historical

relations.


http://www.nyu.edu/florence.html

Amir - hospitality, museums, inclusion and human

reconnection - is an ongoing project started in September of

2018 (the name in Arabic means 'young prince') by a network

of local museums which aimed at proposing heritage

interpretation activities conducted by foreign citizens.

For the sixth edition of Black History Month Florence, Amir

is starting a collaboration rooted in their mission which is

to expand the understanding of heritage interpretation and

narratives within a museum’s collection.

AMIR and BHMF


A story about story-telling

Dudu Kuoate and Justin Randolph Thompson discuss

narrative and archive. There is a great need for all the

collections to be constantly reborn in the spirit of the griot.

The diversity of cultural perspectives widens the range

of entry points for the viewer and disrupts the sense of

immutability of written history. This dialogue will be framed

through an exchange of information with representatives of

AMIR and the BHMF awareness-raising team.

This event will be held in Italian on social channel of Amir

project: https://www.facebook.com/amirmuseums/

https://www.amirproject.com/

amirmuseums@gmail.com

BHMF Art

Foto credit : The Isle of Venus, courtesy of Kiluanji Kia Henda and Galleria

Fonti, Naples.

02/03-02/28

The Isle of Venus: Kiluanji Kia Henda

Curated by BHMF

Co-produced by MAD Murate Art District



MAD Murate Art District; Sala Anna Banti

The island mentality refers to the idea that isolation and lack

of consideration for all that is beyond its borders produces a

sense of superiority that is insular in its desensitization. This

notion is not reserved for those who are geographically cut

off from others, but is poured upon those societies so habitually

committed to establishing the terms, norms, canons,

boundaries and values on which they thrive, who rarely notice

the fiction intensely built by the work or the meticulously

preserved facade.

The Isle of Venus is a meditation on the socio-psychological

and self-imposed myopia produced by the transformation of

cities into thematic museum sites, anchored to the romanticism

of the Renaissance or the gritty charm of the medieval. An

integral part of this patina is the removal of all things that are

not aligned or that effectively evoke the social bases of this

coherent barrier.



BHMF Art

02/03-02/28

Gettare il sasso e nascondere la mano_collective exhibition of Binta

Diaw, Victor Fotso Nyie, Francis Offman, Raziel Perin, Emmanuel Yoro

Curated by BHMF a


With the support of_ The Student Hotel



MAD Murate Art District; Celle 1st floor

Gettare il sasso e nascondere la mano (throwing a stone and hiding

the hand) is a collective exhibition dedicated to the artists of the first

edition of the YGBI Research Residency developed in collaboration with

OCAD and The Student Hotel in February 2020 under the mentorship

of Andrea Fatona and Leaf Jerlefia. The residence reflected on spaces

of non- performativity, collectivity and the notion of diaspora. Bringing

together five Afro-descendant artists under 35 and residing in Italy,

the resulting exhibition designed for the cells of Murate Art District

embraces a series of narratives that link spirituality to education and

colonial history and its materiality to historical activism. The exhibition is

rooted in an experimental approach to the collective sharing of space.

The phrase gettare il sasso e nascondere la mano (throwing a stone

and hiding the hand) was voiced by Cécile Kyenge as a description of

a futile attempt at not being held accountable for the enactment of

blatant and intentional violence. Her’s was a response to the hands

hidden in plain sight responsible for social damage and the sustenance

of fractured values. This exhibition engages the socio-spiritual obstinacy

that recognizes the obvious yet is cognizant of each of us as keepers of

under- acknowledged agency. The works form an invitation towards

a collective capacity for developing strategies of resistance but also

a critique in relation to the shortsightedness of self-aggrandizing

individualism. The project comes in the wake of a series of solo

exhibitions that were held at the MA*GA Museum within the research

project The Recovery Plan that was put on pause by the second phase

of lockdowns in Fall of 2020 which is accompanied by five monographic

online volumes each on dedicated to one of the artists involved.

Thursday 4 February - 2-6 pm (Soft opening)

A Piantare un Chiodo_Alexis Peskine

Curated by BHMF In collaboration with BHMBo, Comune di Firenze,

Associazione Mus.E and MAD Murate Art District e Numeroventi,

October Gallery and Villa Romana


04/02-2/03

Villa Romana_ Glass Pavilion

BHMF Art

The action of hammering a nail into something has linguistically been tied

to notions of closure from the sealing of a casket to the finishing of a task.

The labor that the gesture invokes is key in deciphering and appreciating

the significance of resolution in regards to the collective histories and the

intricate diasporic affinities of Afrodescendents. In this context closure

is akin to the propagandist fiction of progress designed with a sense of

irreversibility aimed at quelling the sparks of revolutionary thought and

forms of social awakening that a lack of closure produce. A Piantare un

Chiodo is the fruit of Alexis Peskine’s signature works- emboldening

portraits of Afrodescendent peoples with nails as provocations,

restitutions and propositions. The works are riddled with violence and a

spiritual embodiment of a meticulously ritual application of nails and gold

leaf to the soaked and saturated surfaces of wood. Drawing upon locally

sourced earth from Florence and pigments used for frescos that adorn

the city's walls, the pieces bring together Florentine portraits of people of

Afrodescent to reflect upon diaspora and transnational healing. Piantare

un chiodo is an Italian saying that means to settle a debt.

In a moment of a heightened awareness of socio-spiritual unrest, these

works place front and center the planting of nails as seeds that establish

the weight of inheritance, that mark the individual while extending into

a collective consciousness whose obstinacy is the price and product of

Eurocentric attempts towards debt evasion. This project is the result

of a residence organized in collaboration with Comune di Firenze,

Associazione Mus.E and MAD Murate Art District and Numeroventi

which takes place from 04/01-05/02.

https://www.villaromana.org/front_content.php

office@villaromana.org


Confini Identitari_Ako Atikossie

Curated by BHMF and Matteo Innocenti

In collaboration with La Portineria

05/02-05/03 La Portineria

Through the obsessive repetition of hatching, namely the

minus sign of the electron, the artist elaborates a series

of works to investigate the human condition. They create

tangled "social fabrics" within the works and space of La

Portineria, seen as a border place. It is precisely this frontier

situation that encourages the creation of new identities

and stories. The entrance will be contingent and upon

reservation.

https://laportineria.art/

laportineriapac@gmail.com

Friday 19 February

Who am I?_Mimì Jasmine Salley

Curated by Michelle Davis and The Student Hotel

19/02-19/03 - The Student Hotel_Breakout Room

Mimí Jasmine Salley was born in Detroit on January 23, 1990, to an Anglo-

Elban mother and an African-American/Native American father. Mimí is

therefore an expression and representative of the new social complexity

of Third Culture Child that began in the great metropolises. His art focuses

particularly on the nude as an expression of intimacy, his shots investigate

the sublimated communication of eroticism, brush and lens are the means

that allows Mimí to explore the sensual universe of gestures. Strongly

influenced by his origins and travels, his photography is difficult to define

with a single style and impossible to describe with a single term, but rather

it appears as a mezcla of arcane and urban meanings. The exhibition "Who

Am I?" stages a journey of introspection in which the protagonist observes

himself and asks "who am I?" and "why am I seen as different?" to get to

understand the true essence of life.

https://www.thestudenthotel.com/it/firenze-lavagnini/

florence@thestudenthotel.com

Ako Atikossie, Confini Identitari

Saturday 20 February - 5pm

Italian Fashion

Chair: Angelica Pesarini

Speakers: Stella Jean (Founder Stella Jean), Edward Buchanan

(Creative Director Sansovino 6) e Michelle Francine Ngonmo (CEO

Afro Fashion Association)

BHMF Art

This round table will discuss the issues of representation and diversity

in the context of Italian fashion and concrete attempts to promote

greater inclusion in the creative and decision-making processes of

the sector.

This event will be held in English on ZOOM.

Please register:


euzmJoxcT1yD8ulVwSF8Ag


I've Known Rivers

Speakers_Jems Kokobi and Dia Papa Demba

Moderator_ Janine Gaelle Dieudji

Co-produced by_ MAD Murate Art District

I’ve Known Rivers draws its title from a line in a 1920 poem by

Langston Hughes that speaks of diaspora and lineage through the

metaphor of rivers. This project looks to the artist Jems Kokobi

reworking traditions and connecting his artistic practice to the

sustainability of the natural environment through the material of

wood and a response to deforestation’s impact on rivers, natural

processes that have since been industrialized and a reflection on

the reclaiming of the spiritual dimensions of this work. The artist,

engaged in Afrocentric meditations on history and the bridging of

the contemporary art world to activist tactics, is placed in dialogue

with a local representative of the trade unions around tanneries

connected to the Arno river and engaged in sustainability through

technological processes and the rights of workers. The conversation is

an interdisciplinary one placing practice and poetry side by side.

This event will be held in English on ZOOM. Please register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_S2CzzRh3SdmNo_

dO6_ulJg

https://www.murateartdistrict.it/progetto-riva/


Modern Ancient Brown McArthur Binion

Extended until Sunday 21 February

Museo Novecento

BHMF Art

BHMF is pleased to announce the exhibition: Modern Ancient Brown, the

first solo exhibition in a European institution by the renowned African-

American artist Mcarthur Binion, curated by Lorenzo Bruni and organized

at the Museo Novecento in collaboration with the Galleria Massimo De

Carlo Milan/London/Hong Kong (24 October 2020 - 21 February 2021).

Modern Ancient Brown is not only the title of this exhibition but also

the name of a foundation established by Binion in 2019 in Detroit,

whose purpose is to promote the work of black artists dedicated to both

visual arts and literature and whose work has been under- represented.

McArthur Binion – who initially started his career as a poet – engaged in

an intense dialogue with the spaces of Museo Novecento, as an essential

response to this year’s pandemic, Black Lives Matter’s movements and

general rethinking by museums of their role of preserving and proposing

cultural offer in a global world that is still in its long post-colonial phase.

Since the 1970s, McArthur Binion has sought an alternative to minimalist

art, through his personal philosophy of the pictorial grids fused with

his archival belongings, such as the pages of his phone books or found

photographs of racial lynching. The project, presented at Museo

Novecento as a result of two years of investigation, began with the

conception of a large abstract work on board, which will be placed in the

pre-existing frame above the altar of the Renaissance chapel, one of the

three rooms dedicated to the Duel exhibition cycle.

http://www.museonovecento.it/

info@muse.comune.fi.it

The Kibaka Florence Festival di Cinema Africano was founded in 2010

as an event to present to the public an alternative type of cinema, far

from stereotypes and clichés related to Africa. Films, made by African

authors and not only, succeed in bringing out aspects little known and

unpublished of the multifaceted African societies today. This edition,

dedicated to the world of education is funded by Bella Presenza, an

organization committed to prevent school drop- outs, providing new

tools to teachers and, above all, helping parents to familiarize with

new learning methodologies.

BHMF Film

Monday 15 February

Kibaka Florence Festival di Cinema Africano and 1th Edition of the Kibaka

Florence Festival for Young

Screenings and talks in streaming on the platform Più Compagnia

In collaboration with Cinema La Compagnia

11am The new generations of Afro-descendent filmmakers in

comparison

Speakers: Maria de Sousa, Marilena Delli Umuhoza, Amin Nour, Nadia

Kiabout, Fred Kworno, Gaston Biwole, Yassin Kassin and Daphne Di Cinto

Moderators: Matias Mesquita (Kibaka Film Festival)

6pm In streaming on Più Compagnia ( films will be subtitled in Italian)

AYA GOES TO THE BEACH BY MARYAM TOUZANI, MAROCCO,

2015, 17’

Aya is only 10 years old but already works as a maid in an apartment in

Casablanca. Segregated in the house, her only distractions are the TV and

the neighbor in a wheelchair with whom she chats from the balcony. The

feast of Eid is approaching and Aya dreams of realizing his dream: going

out to the sea. Awards: CINIT and Special Mention at the FCAAAL 2016

(Milan), Nominated for Best Short Film at the Dubai International Film

Festival 2015 (United Arab Emirates).

A PLACE FOR MYSELF BY MARIE CLÉMENTINE DUSABEJAMBO,

RUANDA, 2016, 21’

Elikia is on the first day of school. Albina, and for this reason abandoned

by her father, is immediately marginalized by her companions. It will be

maternal love that accompanies her in her schooling, between adult

hostility and discrimination. Awards: Ismu Award at FCAAAL 2017 (Milan),

Tanit de bronze for Best Short Film at Journées Cinématographiques de

Carthage 2016 (Tunisia).

BHMF Film

YASMINA DI CLAIRE CAHEN, ALI ESMILI, FRANCIA, 2018, 20'

The 15-year-old Yasmina is the young promise of a football team. Good

and full of grit, she is determined to establish herself in the world of sports.

When they arrest the clandestine father, Yasmina must decide whether

to hide or play the most important game for his future. Awards: Cinit at

FESCAAAL 2019, Jury Prize (Festival du Film de Tanger 2019).

7:15pm In streaming on Più Compagnia (films will be subtitled in Italian)

LA PETITE VENDEUSE DE SOLEIL - THE LITTLE SUN SALESMAN BY

DJIBRIL DIOP MAMBÉTY, SENEGAL, 1999, 45’

Sisi, a girl with disabilities, lives on the sidewalks of Dakar begging for

alms. At the umpteenth violence suffered by the small screamers who

sell newspapers, Sisi decides to become a newspaper seller, despite the

crutches with which she is forced to walk. With the help of a friend she

achieves her goal and emancipates herself. From this moment a new life

begins for her. Awards: CUMSE Prize at the African Film Festival 2000

(Milan); Best Short Film at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival 2000

(USA); Jury Prize and Best Southern Actress Award at Lissa Balera at the

Namur International Festival 1999 (Belgium).

CINEMA AFROEUROPEO PER RAGAZZI

8pm Presentation of the first edition of Afro-European cinema for

young people

Speakers: Tiziana Chiappelli (Ass. Project Arcobaleno/ Project Bella

Presenza), Justin R. Thompson (BHMF), Matias Mesquita (KFFCA).

Screening of the film Yomeddine by Abu Bakr Shawky, Egypt, 2018, 97'

Beshay never left the leper colony in the Egyptian desert where his

family abandoned him as a child. After the disappearance of his wife,

he decides for the first time to go in search of his origins. He takes an

orphan under his protection and together they go looking for a family.

An initiatory journey, a road movie in deep Egypt, which in a light tone

speaks to us of misery, religious taboos and exclusion. Awards: Official

Selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2018, Selected to represent Egypt at

the 2019 Academy Awards in the category Best Foreign Language Film,

ISMU Student Lecturer Jury Award - Big Zebra at Miwy 2019, François

Chalais Award at the Cannes Film Festival 2018, Tanit d'Argento at the

Cartagine Film Days 2018, Student Jury Award at the Philadelphia Film

Festival 2018, Audience Award at the Valladolid International Film

Festival 2018.

https://www.mymovies.it/live/piucompagnia/

info@cinemalacompagnia.it


Murate Art District

Ofelia Omoyele Balogun Performance

BHMF Dance/Theatre

For the sixth edition of Black History Month Florence we propose a

theatrical dance performance by the choreographer Ofelia Omoyele

Balogun in the context of the OSTINATO theme. The I-M-MIGRANT

project is a reflection in movement that reflects on the history and

relationship of the African-descended population with the status of

"displaced humans": displaced individuals, scattered between their

land of origin and the land of arrival. It focuses on their connection

to dance and culture. The production is created by dancer and

Movement-Artist, Ofelia Omoyele Balogun in 2019 during her

BA(Hons), with the support of the Roehampton University of London

and Irie! Dance Theatre . The performance is born from a game of

words of how, by spacing the syllables, a statement is made. The

statement itself opens a debate on the narrative on the so-called

“bodies of culture”, on the phenomenon that Balogun defines as

"social labeling" and how the latter represents a possible limit to

the search for the definition of Afro- descendants 'identity'. Ofelia

Omoyele Balogun is Italo-Nigeriana,native of Bologna.



BHMF Kids


Jazz Age Josephine by Jonah Winter

British Institute of Florence

Rising from a poor, segregated upbringing, Josephine was able to break

through racial barriers with her own astonishing dance abilities.

She became a great singer and dancer, and lived her life by her own

rules. Join us for a special storytime this year celebrating the inspiring life

of Josephine Baker for the sixth edition of BHMF.

https://www.britishinstitute.it/it/

Sunday 14 February - 10am

ANPI Oltrarno COMMEMORATION - 77th Anniversary of the killing com.

Partisan Alessandro Sinigaglia “Vittorio” Silver Medal for Military Valor

Speakers: Alessandro Pini ((ANPI Oltrarno), Antonella Bundu (municipal

councillor), Justin Randolph Thompson (BHMF)


British Institute Florence

Alessandro Sinigaglia and Florentine Resistance

Speaker_ Antonella Bundu

BHMF Local History

The importance in this historical moment in which we live, in a city that

was a gold medal for resistance, to know the history and recognize the

fundamental role played by the partisan Alessandro Sinigalia, responsible

for the formation of the Partisan Action Groups in Florence and in other

cities in the region. Florence celebrates its liberation from Nazi-Fascism

on 11 August every year, since, on that date in 1944, the Alessandro

Sinigaglia Brigade is the first to enter Florence to free the city from

Nazi-Fascism. However, many do not know that the Sinigaglia Brigade

was named in honor of the black partisan Vittorio Sinigaglia, killed in an

ambush by the fascists in February 1944.

https://www.britishinstitute.it/it/

Tuesday 2 March - 8pm

Cimitero degli Inglesi

The Color of Stone

Speakers_Julia Bolton Holloway e Catherine Adoyo

Moderator_Justin Randolph Thompson

For the sixth edition of Black History Month Florence this roundtable

conversation is presented as a continuation of the ongoing collaboration

with Julia Bolton Holloway on the Cimitero degli Inglesi as a site of

Florentine Abolitionist history. The capacity of historical narratives to

emerge from literary fiction and the layerings of figures and moments in

time will be addressed. Drawing its title from a book of the same name

that places Hiram Powers (buried at the cemetery) and his Greek Slave in

dialogue with the work of Edmonia Lewis.

This event will be held in English on ZOOM, for registration please

contact juliananchoress@gmail.com

http://www.florin.ms/SlaveryTombsapp.html

Razzismo Brutta Storia

in collaboration with BHMF and BHMBo

Razzismo Brutta Storia is an association committed to combating racism

and discrimination. Born as a campaign in 2008 in response to the brutal

murder of 19-year-old Abdul William Guibre known as Abba, Razzismo

Brutta Storia becomes a cultural association in 2011 as the result of

the joint effort of Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, laFeltrinelli, and the

communications agency Tita. Today, Razzismo Brutta Storia carries out

its activities around awareness, information and advocacy on the issues

of anti-racism through the creation of educational tools, interventions

in schools, cultural events and publications, and participating in national

and international anti-racist networks.

On the occasion of the Black History Month, for the entire duration

of February the Feltrinelli Bookstores will celebrate Black Histories by

dedicating a shelf to an on-topic bibliography. The texts, selected by

experts of Razzismo Brutta Storia, will tell stories of the Black diaspora

world on both sides of the ocean.


Black Art Black Part

Speakers_ Alesa Herero, Bianta Diaw, Theophilus Marboah and Jermay

Michale Gabriel

Moderators_ Adama Sanneh (CEO of Moleskine Foundation) and Mackda

Ghebremariam Tesfau' (Razzismo Brutta Storia)

Four Afro-descendants Italian artists discuss their works and their

experience from personal emancipation to collective resistance.

This event will be held in Italian on the social channels of Razzismo Brutta

Storia

https://it-it.facebook.com/razzismobs


I love my hair Didactic Kit

I love my hair is a School Pack designed by experts from Razzismo Brutta

Storia to support the fight against afrophobia and is sponsored by Enar

- European Network Against Racism. Inspired by the beautiful children’s

book I love my hair, written by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley and illustrated

by Earl Bradley Lewis, the educational kit is introduced for the first time

in schools on the occasion of Black History Month. The results of the

pedagogical experience are then shared with the public on February 28

through Razzismo Brutta Storia social media channels, in a live session

where you can intervene and make questions to the creators of the kit.

This event will be held in Italian on the social channels of Razzismo Brutta

Storia


http://www.razzismobruttastoria.net/

info@razzismobruttastoria.net

Black History Month Bologna

II Edition OSTINATO

01.02-28.02.2021

Following the topic chosen by BHMF, the second edition of Black

History Month Bologna will also be developed around the theme

OSTINATO. With the first edition reduced due to pandemic restrictions,

this program demonstrates the obstinacy and the desire to move

forward, facing the cultural challenges of an increasingly necessary

job. The program takes place in the municipalities of Bologna and San

Lazzaro di Savena and with a collaboration outside the walls in Turin

with the Center for African Studies.

Sunday 7 February - 3:30pm

Conversation with Charity Dago, Warikobo and the need for

representation

Curated by Moremipath and Bhmbo

Speaker_Charity Dago

Moderator_Ofelia Omoyele Balogun

Wariboko is an agency scouting, representing and promoting Italian

artists of Afro-descent whose goal is to make capillary the presence of

these talents in the world of entertainment, cinema, fashion, art and

web presence. The cultural background of artists is a distinctive feature

that places the agency in a specific segment of the entertainment scene.

Wariboko, thanks to the strong vocation of valorisation and respect for

personal identity, wants to be apoint of reference for future generations

of creatives.

This event will be held in Italian on ZOOM:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9WddC48TI6esYGR5O6qvw

info.bhmb@gmail.com

Wednesday 10 February - 6:30pm

GEOPOLITICS OF THE BODy: Presentation of the book Marx nei margini.

Dal marxismo nero al femminismo postcoloniale

Speakers: Miguel Mellino (Author of the book), Andrea Ruben Pomella

(Author of the book), Anthony Chima Okorokwo, Mackda Ghebremariam

Tesfau (Phd student in Social Sciences)

Curated by Decolonising The Academy, Black Lives Matter Bologna and

BHMBo

BHMBo Conferences

Colonialism, imperialism and racism have been at the heart of Marxist

reflection since the beginning. Nevertheless, traditional Marxism is a

genealogically Western and Eurocentric theoretical-political constellation,

whose whiteness is not so much in the colour of the skin of its thinkers

but in the tendency to absolutize historical circumstances/Western

geographies of the development of capitalism, neglecting the cultural

and economic materiality of colonialism and racism, read as particular

and not constitutive types of exploitation. The aim is to decolonize

Marxism» by reinterpreting classical analysis according to the different

global contingencies and the eruption of unexpected historical subjects

compared to the traditional working class. To eliminate the white folds of

Marxism, the authors look to the contribution of scholars who, without

denying it, place themselves in the margins and push him to deal with

some rigidities starting from its limits regarding the racial and gender

question. The subject of the essays collected are non-Western thinkers

such as Aimé Césaire, Gayatri Spivak, C.L.R. James, Huey P. Newton and the

Black Panther Party, Claudia Jones, Amílcar Cabral, José Carlos Mariátegui,

or Europeans like Raymond Williams and Louis Althusser never before

addressed in their contributions to an anti-colonial détente of Marxism.

A meeting between non-Western anticolonial thought and classical

European Marxism that frees all its theoretical emancipative potential.

This event will be held in Italian on social channels of Decolonising

The Academy:

https://www.facebook.com/decolonisingtheacademy


LA GEOPOLITICA DEI CORPI: Il corpo nero femminile. Sfruttamento,

rappresentanza e resistenza

Introduced by_Patrick Joel Tatcheda Yonkeu

Speakers_Angelica Pesarini, Ofelia Omoyele Balogun, Delphine Diallo

BHMBo Conferences

Moderator_Daphné Budasz

This event questions the interconnections between race, gender

and sexuality in relation to the black female body. Historically, black

women have experienced on their bodies the processes of racial and

sexualization through colonial contexts of exploitation, violence and

domination. At the same time, black women have also demonstrated

their representation by resisting colonial and patriarchal norms.

In this webinar the speakers will introduce their works and their

conceptualizations about the black body from different perspectives such

as dance, photography and sociological research.

This event will be held in English on ZOOM:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gia8JxB SFypHYm146hxvQ

info.bhmb@gmail.com

Friday 12 February - 6:30pm

LA GEOPOLITICA DEI CORPI: "Underground Europe"- Lungo le rotte dei

migranti

Curated by Decolonising The Academy, Black Lives Matter Bologna and

BHMBo

Speakers_Federico Rahola (Author), Anthony Chima Okorokoo,

Antonella Bundu

Moderator_Decolonising The Academy

Is it possible to tell the current migrant routes inside, around and against

the European borders through the historical lens of the Underground

Railroad, the essentially black experience of escaping and subtracting

from the chains of slavery and the plantation regime of the Southern

United States before the Civil War? Perhaps so, provided you recognize

in two events temporally distant, and in many ways incomparable, a

common matrix: the tension towards a place perceived as free and the

creation of alternative routes and spaces, which in this book continue

to be referred to as "Europe". In an ethnographic journey

through a series of border situations, temporary places and spaces

reappropriated (Calais, Ventimiglia, Ceuta and Melilla, Athens, Paris,

Patras, Pozzallo) ends up running into as many stations of a hypothetical

and updated underground railway, Underground Europe, the only

possible escape from the claustrophobic and racialized geography of

Europe today.

This event will be held in Italian on social channels of Decolonising

The Academy:

https://www.facebook.com/decolonisingtheacademy

Credits_Aida Muluneh

Wednesday 24 February - 4-6pm

To Blanch an Aethiop, presentation of No. 92-93 of Africa e Mediterraneo

Speakers_Francesca Romana Paci (Professor emerita of English Literature

and Post-colonial Literatures at the University of Eastern Piedmont

"Amedeo Avogadro"), Edvige Pucciarelli (Professor of English Language

and Literature at the Università Cattolica Sacro Cuore in Milan, at the

Università del Piemonte orientale and at the Università di Bergamo),

Sante Maurizi (journalist), Erminia Dell'Oro (writer), Kaha Mohamed

Aden (writer), Gabriella Ghermandi (writer and musician)

Moderators_Sandra Federici (Director of Africa and Mediterranean)

and Stefano Manservisi (Professor at Sciences Po - Paris School for

International Affairs and at the European College of Parma, co-curator of

the dossier)

Many historical and literary sources testify to a knowledge of the Horn

of Africa in the West, composed of both legendary and historically

founded elements, which can be traced back to several centuries before

Christ (there are several sources: Greek, Latin and biblical, for example).

) Of great importance is the biblical-literary topos of "bleaching an

Ethiopian", already present in the fables of Aesop, and the historicalcultural

reception of the thematic- semantic port of female beauty

linked to white skin in contemporary times, which reveals the ancient

origins of the chemical whitening of the skin in African populations or of

African origin. Looking to the past, ancient and recent, is fundamental

to deconstructing the semantic memory of colonization, that feeling of

superiority of one having as its counterpart the feeling of shame of the

other, the racism that goes hand in hand with the fixation of the gaze, at

times fascinated but almost always distorted, of the West.

This event will be held in Italian on social channels of Africa e

Mediterraneo

https://www.facebook.com/rivista.africaemediterraneo

redazione@africaemediterraneo.it


Persistence of Sound: Musical Crossroads around water

Curated by _Centro Piemontese Studi Africani and BHMBo

BHMBo Music

Guests_Luca Morino and Bienvenu Nsongan

Come l'Acqua is a piece of the African musical tradition specially written

and performed by African and Italian musicians with interventions at a

distance from the two continents.

This event will be held on social channels of Centro Piemontese di Studi

Africani

https://www.facebook.com/centro.africani

segreteria@csapiemonte.it

BHMBo literature


Presentation of the book Il riscatto di Claudia

Speaker_Emmanuel Edson

Moderator_Matias Mesquita

An orphan moved from one family home to another until she is

entrusted to an old widow without children. But it is too late. Constant

travel has not given stability to the young woman who will not have the

opportunity to get an education. But she has a gift of nature in dowry: its

beauty. The only instrument to which she can cling to get out of her own

misery. Her hope is to marry a rich man. However, she soon realizes that

only her body pleases men. Then, after the umpteenth disappointment,

she decides to take advantage, using men in turn in order to become the

most important person in the city.

info.bhmb@gmail.com

BHMBo Dance/Theatre

Saturday 27 February - 7pm

Scrivere con i piedi

With the support of_Cantieri Meticci

Curated by_Razzismo Brutta Storia, Moremipath, Cantieri Meticci and

BHMBo

Online

Guests_Wissal Houbabi and Ofelia Omoyele Balogun

Scrivere con i piedi means to weave a relationship with your oral history,

made up of stories, stories and legends that are handed down in your

family and in your community. They are the stories that are made sitting

in their own living room but that speak of and/or migrations. Write with

your feet tracing the verses of a story that you do at the exact moment

you cross it, remembering that not all of us have the ability to carry

("with critical gaze") our stories in written words. "Scrivere con i piedi is

an obsession that I had as a child, my parents did not speak Italian well,

they do not know how to read and write, and I had done a hotel school

that made me think that I could not write with my hands" (Houbabi. W).

The video will be released on the social channels of Razzismo Brutta Storia


RISCRIVERE INSIEME - LABORATORIO DI

NARRAZIONE COLLETTIVA

10/02-20/02

Curated by Cantieri Meticci and BHMBo

BHMBo Workshops

Starting from pieces of novels, poems and essays, the goal is to deepen

in each meeting a different theme: the anti-racist struggle, the rights of

citizenship and taking care not to feel out of place. To do this, the artists

of Cantieri Meticci guide the participants in a path of three appointments

to know themselves, take care of their lives and also confront each other

through dialogue and creative writing. In doing so, we will rediscover

common experiences that can be transformed not only into selfawareness

but also into ideas for collective actions.

https://it-it.facebook.com/cantierimeticci/

formazione@cantierimeticci.it


Corpi di versi po’ etici - Laboratory for an anti-racist na(rra)tive


fOsti-nato Italiano - Laboratory of creative writing citizenship


Corpevoli. Corpi messi in sguardi - Poetic self-defense course

Credits_Tariq Zaidi

I Sapeurs, tra storia, identita' e stile

19/01-19/03

Curated by_Elisabetta Zanelli, Marine Mirguet and BHMBo

Place_Aula Teatro dell'Accademia delle Belle Arti di Bologna e Online

BHMBo Workshops

Guests_Defustel Ndjoko, Julieta Manassas, Elisabetta Zanelli, Patrick Joel

Tatcheda Yonkeu, Marine Mirguet, Jamaaladeen Tacuma

The workshop is part of the cultural project A Black Narrative, promoted

by Prof.ssa Elisabetta Zanelli for the biennial of Fashion Design of the

Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, in collaboration with the Black History

Month Bologna curated by Patrick Tatcheda Yonkeu.

Tuesday 12 January - 2pm

(online)

Presentation of the Workshop, Speech by Patrick Tatcheda

Thursday 14 January - 2-4pm

(online)

Introduction and explanation of the SAPE movement

Tuesday 19 January - 2-4pm

(online)

Criticisms, limitations, aims and consequences of the SAPE movement

Tuesday 26 January - 11am-1pm/2:30-4:30pm

(in attendance, theater room)

Seminar-workshop/Afrosartorialism with Defustel Ndjoko

Tuesday 2 February - 2-6pm

(in presence, theatre room)

Seminar-workshop



Intervention by Julieta Manassas



Seminar-workshop with Julieta Manassas

BHMBo Workshops

Thursday 18 February - 2-5pm

(online)

Individual meeting session 1


(online)

Individual meeting session 2

Tuesday 2 March - 2-6pm

(in presence, theater room)

Final presentation of the projects, evaluation and award ceremony of

the jury

Tuesday 9 March - 4.30pm

Final Conference with Jamaaladeen Tacuma, musician and Fashion

Designer

Black History Fuori le Mura (BHFM)

After 5 editions of Black History Month Florence with over 200 events

and 5 ongoing research projects in dialogue with over 70 partners, we

accepted the request to expand beyond the city walls and territorial

limits to connect with a wider network of institutions and individuals

engaged in cultural activities. With this willingness we decided to form

Black History Fuori le Mura that would aim to be an opportunity to

share content and events that reflect the values of BHMF.

For the first time BHMF engages in a series of events organized in the

capital. This series of events is the result of the collaboration between

BLM Roma, Jacobin, Scomodo and Temple University Roma.

Friday 19 February - 6-7:30 pm

Educare alla trasgressione

La storia come strumento di critica e formazione

Speakers_Daniele Gennaioli (Editorial Scomodo), Daphne Di Cinto

(Director of Il Moro, Black Lives Matter Rome) and Simao Amista

(Anthropologist and collaborator of the project Il Moro)

Bringing to light the value of accurate historical narratives, through visual

media, contributes to an education to the present. Reviewing the roots

of this country - distorted, hidden or intentionally belittled - is in fact a

choice to oppose the rule and to make Italian multicultural identities

accepted. The story of Alessandro de' Medici, duke, master of Florence

and son of an African woman.

Friday 26 February - 6-7:30 pm

Educare alla trasgressione

La musica come strumento di educazione

Speakers_Wissal Houbabi (Collaborator Jacobin Italia), Marie Moïse

(Jacobin Editorial Staff), Yonas (Black Lives Matter Rome), Daniele

Diamante (Rapper)

bhfm roma

Through time Music does not stop being an instrument of freedom and

expression of racialized Afrodescendents, that through experiences

of youth counterculture create new ways of reading the relationship

between education and transgression. The experience of the Flaminio

district, in the Rome of the 90s.

These events will be held in Italian on social channels of Black Lives

Matter Roma

https://www.facebook.com/BlackLivesMatterRomaOfficial/

romablacklivesmatter@gmail.com

BHM at Temple University Rome

Temple University Rome as a study abroad campus is committed to

create proactively a more inclusive and diverse community. These

efforts include connecting students to local Roman activists, professors,

associations of African descents.

For the second year, Temple Rome is hosting a series of events for Black

History Month in order to build cross cultural understanding regarding

issues of social justice, identity, and global blackness through University

Sponsored events. Check Temple Rome Facebook Page and Website for

the links to the event.

bhfm roma

Monday 1 February - 8-9 pm

Race in Italy discussion part of the Culture and Identity Envoy Program:

“Black Lives Matter in Italy”

Speakers_Daphne Di Cinto and Tommaso Vitali (Black Lives Matter Roma)

Monday 8 February - 8-9pm

Anti-racism work in Italy

Speakers_“Razzismo Brutta Storia” Associated Experts, Angelica

Pesarini and Marie Moïse

Tuesday 9 february - 8-9pm

Imagery as Activism: Blacks in Italy and the Art of Taking Space A

Curated Exhibition featuring Art and Stories of Modern Fairy Tales Set

in Italy by Dr. Tamara Pizzoli

Wednesday 10 February - 8-9pm

Live performance by Charles Burchell


Evening with artist Boris Akeem Aka talking about the African Diaspora

in Italy and its connection to and differences from the Black American

Experience.

These event will be held on social channels of Temple University Rome

https://it-it.facebook.com/templeuniversityrome/

temple.rome@temple.edu

Tuesday 23 February - 2:30pm

Presentation of the book Undercommons. Pianificazione fuggitiva e studio

nero (Tamu-Archive Books 2021) by Fred Moten and Stefano Harney

In collaboration with_ il Centro Studi Postcoloniali e di Genere (CSPG) -

Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”

Speakers_Emanuela Maltese (translator), Angelica Pesarini (professor

of black studies), Vasco Forconi (independent curator), Justin Randolph

Thompson (artist and curator)

Fugitive as the desire to escape from the ordinary, as fugitive were the

Maroons from the colonial plantations. Fugitive as blackness, which in the

sense presented by the authors, is the continuous refusal of standards

imposed elsewhere, by black and queer minorities who face the recent

changes in the mechanisms of control of global capital. This is the fugitive

world of the Undercommons, the call to general antagonism launched

by Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, that is now finally available in the

Italian translation by Emanuela Maltese published by Tamu and Archive

Books. In this series of essays, Harney and Moten draw on the theory and

practice of the black radical tradition as it supports, inspires, and extends

contemporary social and political thought and aesthetic critique.

http://www.unior.it/ateneo/234/1/centro-studi-postcoloniali-e-di-genere.html

cspg.unior@gmail.com

Bhfm napoli

Photo credit: Temitayo Ogunbiyi, You will play in the

everyday, running 2020. Courtesy of the artist. Foto

© Amedeo Benestante 25 febbraio


Multiple histories of art and technology

Curated by_Museo Madre - Museo d’arte contemporanea Fondazione

Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee

Speakers_Temitayo Ogunbiyi and Ibrahim Mahama

How can contemporary art help understand history and responses

to social questions that emerged in specific historical contexts?

How can technology’s utopian histories in different geographical

situations be re-enlivened through contemporary artistic practices

that engage with the physical conditions of their surrounding

environment? In his landmark book What Do Science, Technology and

Innovation Mean from Africa?, Zimbabwean MIT scholar Clapperton

Chakanetsa Mavhunga suggests that technology’s meaning is not

universal but rather assigned by societies that strategically deploy

it to address needs and desires in relation to a set of values.

Similarly, it can be argued that art histories need to be understood

in relation to different constellations of aesthetic heritages and

located understandings of art’s meaning and agency. Artists Temitayo

Ogunbiyi (Nigeria/US/Jamaica) and Ibrahim Mahama (Ghana) will

open up these questions in relation to their practice and to works

recently produced at the museo Madre with the support of the

Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee. Mahama's

project in Naples, curated by Kathryn Weir and Gianluca Riccio,

is carried out as part of ‘Art-Ethics’, a platform for research and

innovative artistic production born in 2019 through a collaboration

between the Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee /

Museo Madre - chaired by Laura Valente - and the Osservatorio Ethos

/ Luiss Business School - directed by Sebastiano Maffettone. Tayo

Ogunbiyi and Ibrahim Mahama will be in discussion with Kathryn

Weir, artistic director of the Madre.

This event will be in English on Museo Madre website

https://www.madrenapoli.it/

ufficiostampa@madrenapoli.it

English BHMF VI Edition OSTINATO PROGRAM

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?