Talk

Black Radical Imagination

Sunday 19 May 2019 from 12pm to 6pm

Free entry

Free admission

Black Radical Imagination, Festival Kaleidoscope Manifesto, Lafayette Anticipations
Suné Woods, A Feeling like Chaos, 2016 © Black Radical Imagination

Videoclub

Black Radical Imagination is an international touring program of experimental short films emphasizing new stories from within the African diaspora. The series builds on afrofuturist, afrosurrealist, and magical realist aesthetics to interrogate identity in the context of cinema. This program was co-founded by Erin Christovale and Amir George in 2013 and has screened in MoMA PS1, MCA Chicago, Black Star Film Festival, and the art center articule in Montreal and was recently featured at Transmission Gallery, Glasgow.

The notion of the Black Radical Imagination stemmed from a series of discussions around the boundaries and limitations that are historically placed upon people of color. Specifically, in the film industry these restrictions are often maintained to propel a vicious cycle of negative identification. Black Radical Imagination invokes a futurist aesthetic where artists identify themselves and reclaim their own unique stories. The visual pieces delve into the worlds of video art, experimental film, and narrative shorts. They also focus on access to new media such as animation and graphic design to highlight how these processes enhance our storytelling and the visual artistic practices underway in our communities. Each artist contributes their own vision of a free changing world in a post-modern society through focused observations that explore the state of black culture.

Sunday, May 19, continual screenings from 2pm to 8pm

Program:
Under Bone, 2017, 5 min, by Dana Washington
Fluid Frontiers, 2017, 23 min, by Ephraim Asili
All That is Left Unsaid, 2015, 4 min, by Michele Pearson Clarke
The Golden Chain, 2016, 13 min, by Buki Bodunrin and Ezra Claytan Daniels
Crow Requiem, 2015, 12 min, by Cauleen Smith
Vow of Silence, 2015, 30 min, by Be Steadwell
Moonrising, 2014, 6 min, by Terence Nance and Sanford Biggers
Mae’s Journal, 2013, 12 min, by Amir George
Quinnasance Adumbrate, 2013, 8 min, by Anansi Knowbody
Florida Water, 2014, 6 min, by Numa Perrier
Medical Gaze, 2015, 14 min, by Jamilah Sabur
Savage Vs The Void, 2015, 15 min, by Darren Wallace
Memory Palace, 2015, 3 min, by Martine Syms and Kahlil Joseph
The Baptist, 2014, 8 min, by Lewis Vaughn
Get the Bones from 88 Jones, 2009, 8 min, by Lauren Kelley
Field Notes, 2013, 14 min, by Vashti Harrison
Burlap Interiors, 2009, 2 min, by Lauren Kelley
FrouFrou Conclusions, 2009, 3 min, by Lauren Kelley
Just A Place, 2014, 2 min, by Amir George
Forged Ways, 2014, 15 min, by Ephraim Asili
Black Magic in The White House, 2009, 4 min, by Jeannette Ehlers
Swimming in Your Skin Again, 2015, 17 min, by Terence Nance
Kindah, 2016, 12 min, by Ephraim Asili
Feeling like Chaos, 2016, 4 min, directed by Suné Woods
Shades of Shadows, 2015, 6 min, by Amir George
Black Radical Imagination, Kaleidoscope Manifesto Festival, Lafayette Anticipations
Dana Washington, Under Bone, 2017 © Black Radical Imagination
Black Radical Imagination, Kaleidoscope Manifesto Festival, Lafayette Anticipations
Ephraim Asili, Fluid Frontiers, 2017 © Black Radical Imagination
Black Radical Imagination was co-founded by Erin Christovale and Amir George in 2013 and is an international touring program of experimental short films emphasizing new stories from within the African diaspora. The series builds on afrofuturist, afrosurrealist and magical realist aesthetics to interrogate identity in the context of cinema.
Black Radical Imagination is curated by Amir George and is composed of the artists Ephraim Asili, Dana Washington and Sudé Woods. The notion of the Black Radical Imagination stemmed from a series of discussions around the boundaries and limitations that are historically placed upon people of color : "Without new visions, we donʼt know what to build, only what to knock down. We not only end up confused, rudderless, and cynical, but we forget that making a revolution is not a series of clever maneuvers and tactics, but a process that can and must transform us”, Robin D.G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams : The Black Radical Imagination.