Pedagogies of the Opaque (I): Black Schools: Learning for and by Black Futures
Pedagogies of the Opaque (I): Black Schools: Learning for and by Black Futures, discussion with Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes and Negarra A. Kudumu, moderated by Amal Alhaag and Maria Guggenbichler
Framer Framed, Amsterdam (The Netherlands), October 17, 2017
I used to wonder
About living and dying
Pedagogies of the Opaque (I) is the first gathering in a series of public research events for, with and about ex-centric cultural, communal and collective practices and thinking. However make shift or short lived these may be, ex-centric practitioners create for themselves and for their communities structures of coping & thriving – within a world in which their survival was never intended nor a priority for institutions and society.
I think the difference lies
Between tears and crying.
These pockets in space and time that ex-centric practices create for storytelling, learning, sharing and archiving are often also acts and places of resistance, waywardness, refusal and opacity – as well as sources for joy and laughter.
I used to wonder
About here and there
The gatherings facilitate an ongoing and public critical discourse, a circulation of knowledge, meaning making, cultural presence and agency, reading and representation of how culture and art are produced in our globalized societies. In which ways have ex-centric, minoritized, racialized and radical practices reframed and informed themselves with (inter-generational) collective strategies of learning, sharing and joy that contribute to the survival and well-being of their communities, experiences as well as cultural archives?
I think the distance
Is nowhere.
Pedagogies of the Opaque (I): Black Schools: Learning for and by Black Futures
– with Negarra A. Kudumu, independent essayist & curator / Manager of Public Programs at the Frye Art Museum; and artist and filmmaker Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes as guest conversationalists. Pedagogies of the Opaque is hosted by Amal Alhaag and Maria Guggenbichler.
Poem: ‘Border Line’ by Langston Hughes (1947)
Image: Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes, (Sparkles) Recollection of Wraith, 2012, image still. Image courtesy of artist.
