Contemporary Art

Laylah Ali's Enigmatic Narratives

Essay, the work of visual artist Layla Ali.

Carol Duncan: Art Historian as Progressive, Social-politicist & Feminist Critic

Review, "The Aesthetics of Power: Essays in Critical Art History" by Carol Duncan.

"Review: Art on My Mind"

Review, cultural critic bell hooks' 1994 book.

African Continuities and Material Culture

Ancestry, Evolution & Memory: Central African Funerary Art and Practice and its Evolution in the United States and Cuba

This paper advances a concept of "harmonic dualism" as an integral facet of African identity in regards to funerary art and practice of the Kongo people of Central Africa and its legacy in the United States and Cuba. It examines Kongo art and tradition, how it was effected by colonial interests and the Atlantic slave trade, and how the intersection of African and European culture and religion contributed to its evolution in the Americas. It explores how Kongo culture and ideographic language find expression in Afro-colonial funerary traditions and asks what evolution of these traditions and practices do we find as part of a continuum in Diasporic art and culture in the American present?

Object as Storyteller: Investigations into Evidence of African Traditions in African American Material Culture

This paper investigates African cultural continuity and practices within African American culture by tracing the history and uses of a simple, 18th century pewter spoon. This artifact was recovered in a riverbank deposit from an archeological site and is part of the collection of the South Seaport Museum in New York.

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