ReSignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana Readings

ReSignifications interprets the "Blackamoor" trope in Western culture. This tradition of decorative art emerged at the intersection of cross-cultural encounters shaped by centuries of migration, exchange, conquest, servitude, and exile. ReSignifications links classical and popular representations of African bodies in European art, culture, and history. It moderates and subverts artistic conventions by using the works of contemporary artists from Africa, Europe, North and South America, and the Caribbean to engage in dialogue with the broad historical array of ornamental representations of African bodies.
Ellyn Toscano is Executive Director of New York University, Florence. She is the founder and director of La Pietra Dialogues and the producer of The Season, a summer festival which assembles artists, writers, musicians, and public intellectuals to produce new works or reinterpretations of classics.
Awam Amkpa is a dramatist, documentary filmmaker, and scholar of theatre and film. He is Associate Professor of Drama at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and Associate Professor in Africana Studies Social and Cultural Analysis in NYU's College of Arts and Sciences and a scholar of theater and film.