{"id":63,"date":"2020-05-11T18:28:52","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T22:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/africana-studies-3020-spring-2020\/?page_id=63"},"modified":"2020-05-16T18:59:11","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T22:59:11","slug":"art-and-knowledge-production","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/africana-studies-3020-spring-2020\/art-and-knowledge-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Art and Knowledge Production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through their art, Black artists show their individuality and uniqueness, which expands our ideas of blackness. From the music of Blood Orange and Nina Simone to Julie Dash\u2019s movie Daughters of the Dust <\/em>(1991) to Lorraine Hansberry\u2019s play A Raisin in the Sun <\/em>(1959), artwork produces knowledge that informs us about the existence of blackness apart from limited ideas of black people. Kevin Quashie argues \u201cthe representation of black subjectivity as resistant has become a convenient simplification of what is surely more complicated\u2026\u201d (Quashie 2012, 133). Blackness reflected in art reflects the reality of black people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nina Simone was an artist that Imani Perry says \u201c\u2026blended classical, jazz, pop, and blues tunes and cultivated a distinct genre- and gender-bending back-of-throat vocal sound\u201d (Perry 2018, 131). Her music was a way of breaking the stereotypes and expectations society had of black female artists.\u00a0In Daughters of the Dust, <\/em>Julie Dash shows the intergenerational tensions as one family, coming together for a reunion, struggles with the influences of the past on familial ties in the present, in the context of early 20th-century\u00a0migration. While in A Raisin in the Sun<\/em>, Hansberry teaches us about the realities of mid 20th<\/sup> century Chicago life, for three-generations in a working-class.<\/p>\n

Along with these posts, our class curated a playlist of songs by black artists that explore other themes we have discussed in this course.<\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/p>\n

Guava Island\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Donald Glover\u2019s short film \u201cGuava Island,\u201d released in April 2019, grounds analysis of capitalism, violence, and power in African diasporic artistic practices. Filmed in Cuba and featuring beautiful shots of sparkling, crashing waves, and glittering sand, the movie juxtaposes the calm radiance of the island with the sterile mechanics of factories. Described as a former magical paradise created by ancient gods, the film focuses on the currently industrialized Guava Island and its people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Glover\u2019s character, Deni Maroon, works in the factory while also creating music in his free time. His inspiration comes from his girlfriend Kefi, a seamstress in the factory, played by music and beauty icon Rihanna. Deni\u2019s music ranges from an angry beratement of the working class\u2019 exploitation to love songs on the beach to a melancholy reflection on the impacts of unnecessary and fast-paced development on our natural resources. Most importantly, however, Deni\u2019s music serves as a way to unify and celebrate the working class that toils away in the factories while the owner, Red, turns a profit. When Red attempts to stop Deni from playing music, Deni defies the orders and throws a festival for the people. Without giving away the end of the film, Deni\u2019s music serves to inspire a revolution against unfair working conditions and power structures that destroy his hopes and ambitions. Art functions as both a labor of love and practice, one that sustains Deni and Kefi while fueling rebellion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The social and political symbolism of Guava Island operates through multiple processes that draw on our class\u2019 conversations concerning surrender and resistance. Glover\u2019s conception of class struggle draws on the connection between bodies – bodies of water, human bodies, and the social body. In the clip featured below<\/span>, Deni expresses his love for Kefi while dancing by the Caribbean waves, linking the lovers\u2019 intimacy with the land and the ocean. His carefree movements, set to the live drumming, showcases not just the loveliness of Guava Island but his complete surrender to the immediacy of the moment. And it is precisely because of the intensity of his love, not just for Kefi but for the land and his people, that Deni ultimately chooses to pursue an act of resistance on the streets. Through <\/span>Guava Island, <\/span><\/i>surrender and resistance emerge as themes that both define and support one another.<\/span><\/p>\n