Troubling Performance

This one-day symposium will consider representations of race in performance in connection to the work of visual artist Kara Walker, whose exhibition “Back of Hand” will be on display at the Athenaeum. Taking Walker as a departure point, invited speakers will address themes related to satire, stereotypes, social justice, and identity. The Keynote Speaker is Kirsten Pai Buick, professor of art history, University of New Mexico. Speakers include: Cheryl Finley, Inaugural Director of the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective and Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Art & Visual Culture at Spelman College; Paul Pfeiffer, visual artist; and Isaiah Wooden, assistant professor of theater, Swarthmore.

Schedule of Symposium
9:00am: Light breakfast
9:20am: Opening remarks by Katie Geha, Director and Chief Curator of the Athenaeum
9:30am: Isaiah Wooden, “Troubling Representations, Holding Histories, and The Stage”
10:30am: Paul Pfeiffer, “Red, Green, Blue” 
11:30am: Cheryl Finley, “ Kara Walker: Art as Social Justice"
 
12:30 - 2:00: Break for Lunch
 
2:30pm: Kirsten Pai Buick, “Selling the Substance to Support the Shadow: Kara Walker’s Images of Black Children”
4:00pm: Round Table led by Khalid Long, Assistant Professor Theater and Institute for African American Studies, UGA
5:00pm: Wine & cheese


This symposium is sponsored by AGAS, the Art Library, the Black Artist Alliance, The Georgia Review, the Hargrett Library, the Institute for African American Studies, the Institute for Women's Studies, the Interdisciplinary Modernisms Workshop, and the Willson Center for Humanities.