The Complexity Of Black Cultural Landscapes Is The Topic Of A Symposium At U.Va.'s School of Architecture
March 3, 1999 -- "Sites of Memory: Landscapes of Race and Ideology," a multidisciplinary symposium that explores the effects of race on the built environment, will be hosted by the University of Virginia's School of Architecture in Campbell Hall, March 25-27.
Architects, landscape architects, planners, historians, and scholars of African-American studies will gather to discuss "the historic and contemporary effects of race upon the development of the built environment, examining the realities and myths of America's racial landscapes," said Craig Barton, the symposium's organizer and assistant professor at U.Va.'s School of Architecture. This is a unique opportunity to look at and begin to understand the dual racial landscapes that exist in America and what that means to us as a nation in terms of culture and environment.
Randall Kenan, author of "Walking on Water: Black Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century," will be the keynote speaker. He has taught writing at Vassar College, Duke University, Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College and his alma mater, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently, Kenan is a visiting professor of creative writing at the University of Memphis. The symposium will look at the urban fabric that has resulted from the weaving of the politics of slavery, custom and law. Participants will discuss the "separate but equal" Supreme Court ruling and the "Jim Crow" laws and explore the influence they had on the churches, schools, homes, parks and streets in creating a black landscape that relied on oral traditions. Conference participants include:
Araya Asgedom, Department of Architecture, Hampton University
Nathaniel Q. Belcher, School of Architecture, Florida International University
Kofi M. Boone, landscape architect, JJR Incorporated, Ann Arbor, MI
David P. Brown, School of Architecture, Rice University
Reginald Butler, Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies, University of Virginia
Maurice D. Cox, School of Architecture, University of Virginia
Felecia Davis, School of Architecture, Cornell University
Scot French, Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies, University of Virginia
Kenrick Ian Grandison, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan
Bradford Grant, Department of Architecture, Hampton University
Lesley Naa Norle Lokko, Department of Architecture, University of Illinois at Chicago
Shawn L. Rickenbacker, Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University¥ William Wesley Taylor, College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning, University of Cincinnati
Amy Weisser, American Museum of Natural History
LaBarbara J. Wigfall, Department of Landscape Architecture, Kansas State University
William Williams, School of Architecture, Rice University
Mabel O. Wilson, School of Architectural Studies, California College of Arts and Crafts
Craig Barton, School of Architecture, University of Virginia
"History, Memory, Race, and Place in the Jim Crow South, 1900-1925," an exhibit documenting the lives and cultural landscapes of African-Americans in Central Virginia will be on view at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies, Minor Hall. The exhibit features more than 100 images from the Rufus W. Holsinger Studio Photography Collection at the University of Virginia Library. The exhibition is funded by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
Funding for the symposium is provided by grants from the Graham Foundation for Advance Studies in the Fine Arts, the George Gund Foundation, the Dean's Forum of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, and the Institute for Sustainable Design. The project is supported by the School of Architecture and the Carter G. Woodson Institute.
The symposium is free and open to the public. Advance registration is recommended. To register call (804) 924-6467. Visit the conference website at http://www.arch.virginia.edu/site-mem ###
For additional information please contact Craig Barton at (804) 924-6467 or ceb8x@virginia.edu.
Contact: Jane Ford, (804) 924-4298.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: please contact the Office of University Relations at (804) 924-7116. Television reporters should contact the TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.
SOURCE: U.Va. News Services
Top news site edited by Jane Ford (jford@virginia.edu); maintained by Karen Asher (kac@virginia.edu); releases posted by Suzanne Raileanu (sr3r@virginia.edu).
Last Modified: Wednesday, 02-Jun-1999 11:57:57 EDT
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