Illinois Global Institute

View Full Calendar

Welcome to the calendar of the Illinois Global Institute. We are home to 10 longstanding international area studies centers and thematic programs. Bringing the units together as part of the IGI will improve organizational support, raise visibility, and foster additional cross-campus collaboration on essential international programs

Global Africa Community Forum t shirt design, 2023. Design by Joseph Obanubi

Global Africa Community Forum: Reckoning, Restitution, and Repair

Event Type
Other
Sponsor
The Center for African Studies through the US Department of Education’s Title VI NRC Program, Krannert Art Museum, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, The School of Art & Design, Program in Art History, Department of History, Department of Anthropology, Women and Gender in Global Perspectives, The Office of Minority Student Affairs, the iSchool, the Bruce B. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, and the Humanities Research Institute Supplemental Event Fund, Dixon Graphics & Weiskamp Printing.
Location
Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, KAM 62
Date
Oct 11, 2023 - Oct 14, 2023   All Day
Speaker
eresa Barnes, Fatou Jobe, Byron Juma, Toyosi Morgan, Julia Nucci Kelly, Joseph Obanubi, Allyson Purpura, Rachel Storm, and Hermann von Hesse.
Contact
Terri Barnes
E-Mail
tbarnes2@illinois.edu
Views
19
Originating Calendar
African studies - Outreach Calendar
Reception
Oct 11, 2023 - 12–1 pm
Oct 12, 2023 - 5:30–7:30 pm
Oct 13, 2023 - 11 am–12:30 pm
Oct 14, 2023 - 12–3 pm
In Person and Virtual (locations vary)


The goal of this multi-day participatory program is to center African perspectives in critical conversations about the fraught colonial histories of museums and the global politics of collecting, restitution, and return. We hope this initiative will spark new thinking about the place of art in (re)building communities at home and abroad, about the life histories of objects, and about the ethics of museum practice as we reckon with the dislocation, interpretation, and collective care of African objects.

Wednesday, October 11, 12pm-1pm, Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center
Food for the Soul: Reckoning, Restitution and Repair: African Art and the Politics of Return
The forum begins with a lecture by Senior Curator and Curator of Global African Art Allyson Purpura exploring key themes over lunch as part of Food for the Soul and the Lunch on Us series, a weekly noontime discussion focused on topics relevant to the many communities globally within the African Diaspora and allies. 

Thursday, October 12, 5:30-7:30 PM KAM 62 and hybrid via Zoom
“If Objects Could Speak”: A Screening and Panel Discussion on African Art, Museum Reckoning, and the Politics of Restitution
The keynote for the KAM-CAS Global African Community Forum offers a screening of the short film, If Objects Could Speak, co-directed by Kenyan filmmaker Saitabao Kaiyare, followed by a zoom conversation with Kaiyare and scholar/activists Njoki Ngumi (in Nairobi) and La Tanya S. Autry (in New York). 

Using the film as a point of departure, the speakers will engage the audience in a critical conversation about colonial-era removals and thefts of African objects, restitution, and what it’s like being on the receiving end of long lost objects returning to Africa. 

Connecting these three provocative thinkers in conversation across the Atlantic presents an excellent opportunity to reckon with these issues with African voices at the lead. 

This hybrid event includes automated captioning and can be accessed in over languages 27 languages through Zoom. 

Friday, Oct. 13th 11 AM-12:30 PM, Krannert Art Museum Encounters: Arts of African Gallery
Reckoning, Restitution, Repair: A Community Conversation
On the following day, a participatory panel discussion imagining what decolonizing a museum can look like, using objects from KAM’s Encounters: The Arts of Africa gallery as points of departure, will be facilitated by Fatou Jobe (grad student, sociology), Toyosi Morgan (grad student, theatre), Hermann von Hesse (assistant professor art history), and moderated by Terri Barnes (director of the Center for African Studies.) 

Saturday, Oct 14th: 12-3 PM, Krannert Art Museum
Global Africa Community Forum Festival
We will round up our events with an all-ages Forum Festival featuring live music, food trucks, museum tours, and arts activities including Make Your Own DIY Soccer Ball African-style!, an African Pottery Workshop, and a community soccer game in the playing field behind KAM. Featuring live music by Jean Rene Balekita y Bomoyi and a live drumming circle.



link for robots only