Black & Indigenous Histories to the Now - Black & Indigenous Futures Convening on Wed 20 Sept 2023
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2023-09-21

ArtsEmerson, HowlRound, and participants in the Black and Indigenous Futures Convening on Wednesday 20 September from 11:15 a.m. - 12:00pm EDT (Boston, UTC -4) came together for a discussion that explores foundations of Black and Indigenous co-leadership solidarity, shared understanding, and movement building. This conversation is moderated by Ronee Penoi and features feature Scott Alves Barton, Elizabeth James-Perry, and Kyle T. Mays.

This event is part of the Black and Indigenous Futures Convening, which brings together artists, scholars, educators, and practitioners to unearth history, examine fault lines, and imagine new and different futures. This gathering, produced by ArtsEmerson in partnership with HowlRound Theatre Commons, is one piece of a larger ArtsEmerson initiative that seeks to activate a liberated future in Boston through the shared experience of art and public dialogue. This convening is supported by the Barr Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Panelists
Scott Alves Barton (he/him/his) is a cultural anthropologist of African diaspora foodways at University of Notre Dame, and he previously was an executive chef for over twenty-five years. Scott’s research focuses on diasporic women’s work and knowledge, intergenerational teaching/learning, cultural heritage, and political resistance in northeastern Brazil. Scott is a public scholar at Lynden Sculpture Garden. He serves as co-chair of the African Diaspora Religions Unit in the American Academy of Religion, a trustee of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, a board member of the Association for the Study of Food and Society and the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, and an advisory board member to Indigo Arts Alliance. His forthcoming manuscript, Reckoning with Violence and Black Death follows his exhibition on anti-Black violence, funerary foods, and ancestrality, Buried in the Heart.

Elizabeth James-Perry (she/her) practices wampum jewelry design and restorative gardening in her Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal homelands in Massachusetts. She teaches art and responsible land stewardship to stay grounded and to benefit the next seven generations.

Kyle T. Mays (he/him) is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) scholar of urban studies, Afro-Indigenous studies, and contemporary popular culture. He is the author of three books, including City of Dispossessions: Indigenous Peoples, African Americans, and the Creation of Modern Detroit (2022) and An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States (2021).

About the Moderator
Ronee Penoi (she/her/hers) (Laguna Pueblo/Cherokee) is director of artistic programming at ArtsEmerson, Boston’s leading presenter of contemporary world theatre. Previously, she was a producer with Octopus Theatricals, where she advanced the work of Cherokee artist DeLanna Studi (And So We Walked), Phantom Limb Company (Falling Out), Ripe Time (Sleep), Homer’s Coat (An Iliad by Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson), Theatre for One, and more. Ronee has received the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Individual Artist Fellowship twice, a Sundance Institute Interdisciplinary Program Grant, and commissions from Baltimore Center Stage and Pittsburgh Public Theater for her musical composing work with collaborator Annalisa Dias. Previously, Ronee was the National New Play Network Producer in Residence at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and senior producing fellow and directing fellow at Arena Stage, and she toured nationally with Anna Deavere Smith’s Let Me Down Easy. Her current anti-racism practice builds upon a decolonization framework and embraces systems change as a key component of that work. She graduated with honors from Princeton University with a degree in Music and certificates in Vocal Performance and Theatre and Dance. She has been invited to guest lecture on producing at Princeton University, CalArts, and Howard University, as well as American University’s graduate program in arts administration.

https://howlround.com/happenings/black-and-indigenous-histories-now-how-we-carry-our-past-present