Presenters: Faye M. Anderson, Arielle J. Brown, Sherman Fleming, Denise Valentine
Organized by Faye M. Anderson, All That Philly Jazz
Selected via Open Call
The first enslaved Africans arrived in colonial North America in 1619. As the nation commemorates 400 years of African American history, we are mindful the African American story cannot be told without Philadelphia. The current development boom lays bare a tale of two cities: a glistening Center City and a few gentrifying neighborhoods. Gentrification has a disparate impact because racial segregation and redlining confined African Americans to certain areas. As gentrifiers move in, longtime residents are pushed out and African Americans’ presence is erased from public spaces. The panel of socially engaged artists will focus on how art can be used as a platform for social change. The conversation will revolve around issues of displacement, identity, representation, public memorialization, community empowerment and spatial justice. There will be an open dialogue on how artists amplify voices of the disempowered, envision the resistance, and reimagine a more just society.
Read the Session Notes here.