African-American Popular Culture 2007 Panel Sessions

2007 MPCA/MACA Meeting
Crowne Plaza Hotel Kansas City Downtown
1301 Wyandotte St.
Kansas City, MO 64105
Hotel Front Desk: 816-474-6664 
Hotel Fax: 816-474-0424

Friday, October 12, 2007
2:30-4:00pm
1101. Salon A1. African American Quiltmaking, Music, and Truth-Telling. Area: African-American Popular Culture

• Screening and Discussion: Killer Wails: Parts 1 & 2
• African-American quilts are art forms that attempt to redress skewed social imbalance by reminding us of the unique individual in the object. Just as its form is adept in presenting different and distinct patterns that emphasize unique identity over the bland object, its form may also be useful in showcasing the textured, social identities that are products of our contemporary, intertwined, multicultural and scientifically patterned world. Killer Wails: Part 1, Truth in a Different Tune is an artful, multicultural and multimedia examination of our penchant for individuality and violence in a world replete with reductive, scientific discourses and unbecoming desires to find individuality in violence and war. Killer Wails: Part 2, The Dreams of the Leviathan is a conceptual, polemical, dramatic work that uses the examples of African American music and quilts as paradigms for the importance of truth-telling in popular culture. From the blues to rap and hip-hop, African American music has a long, established tradition of testifying bluntly to “ugly” truths or to the misfortunes of human beings. This form of truth telling has achieved a kind of universal acceptance across every cultural boundary encountered, which suggests the possibility of a universal, cross-cultural character, despite our different physical adaptations such as skin color.
• Chair/Presenter: Reginald Gant, Independent Filmmaker and Scholar
• Chair/Discussant: Maude Southwell Wahlman, University of Missouri - Kansas City
  

Friday, October 12, 2007
4:15-5:45pm
1201. Salon A1. Influences of African American Quiltmaking on American Culture and Popular Culture. Area: African-American Popular Culture

• “History of African American Quiltmaking,” Maude Southwell Wahlman, University of Missouri - Kansas City
• “Textiles by Sun Smith-Foret,” Sun Smith-Foret, Textile Artist, St. Louis, MO
• “Curating an Exhibition of Sun Smith-Foret’s Textiles,” Christina F. Wahlman, University of Missouri - Kansas City
• Chair: Cynthia Bartels, Missouri Western State University
  

Saturday, October 13, 2007
8:30-10:00am
2104. Salon C1. Undergraduate Student Panel: Race, Gender, and the Media. Area: African-American Popular Culture

• “Darker Than a Brown Paper Bag,” Brandy Holmes, Truman State University
• “Shifted: Reality across the Butler Spectrum,” Gemmicka Piper, Truman State University
• Chair: G. Victoria Landrum, Truman State University
  

Saturday, October 13, 2007
10:15-11:45am
2201. Salon A1. Race and Urban Contexts. Area: African-American Popular Culture

• “The Psychopath’s Encore: Problematic Redeployments of Mailer’s ‘White Negro’ in Critical and Popular Discussions of Eminem,” Ryan J. Weaver, University of Kansas
• “The Epistemology of Cool: Race and Recognition in the Urban Milieu,” Joseph D. Lewandowski, University of Central Missouri
• “Frontier Crossroads: African Americans and the Making of Kansas City and the Urban West,” Delia C. Gillis, University of Central Missouri
• Chair: Delia C. Gillis
  

Saturday, October 13, 2007
3:30-5:00pm
2301. Salon A. Black Heroes and Tricksters. Area: African-American Popular Culture

• “Mario Bauzá: Swing Era Novelty and Afro-Cuban Authenticity,” Nathan B. Miller, University of Missouri – Columbia
• “The New Trickster Tradition among Black Athletes,” Anand Prahlad, University of Missouri – Columbia
• Chair: Anand Prahlad