COALITIONS FACING WHITE INNOCENCE: COLLECTIVE BOOK LAUNCH
Be.Bop 2018. BLACK EUROPE BODY POLITICS
06.06.2018 18:00
SAVVY Contemporary Plantagenstraße 31 13347 Berlin
books to be launched
BDG Network [Publisher]. Black Diaspora and Germany.
Lesley-Ann Brown. Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son.
Walter D. Mignolo, Catherine E. Walsh. On Decoloniality: Concepts, Analytics, Praxis.
Wiebke Beushausen, Miriam Brandel, Joseph T. Farquharson, Marius Littschwager, Annika McPherson, Julia Roth (eds.). Practices of Resistance in the Caribbean - Narratives, Aesthetics and Politics.
Tanja Ostojić (ed). Lexicon of Tanjas Ostojić.
Olivia U. Rutazibwa, and Robbie Shilliam (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Politics.
Gloria Wekker. White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race
It is our pleasure to host the collective book launch which takes place within the framework of the 5th edition of BE.BOP.
The fifth edition of BE.BOP 2018. BLACK EUROPE BODY POLITICS. COALITIONS FACING WHITE INNOCENCE tackles once again central questions on Black European citizenship within global affairs. By incorporating a variety of disciplines and approaches – art, science, film, performance, activism – BE.BOP directly confronts colonial legacies and continuities with artistic strategies that enable the retelling of such violent histories. Grounded in the contributions of Decolonial Aesthetics, this year’s edition takes up the concept of “White Innocence”, coined by influential Caribbean Diaspora thinker Gloria Wekker in order to make visible the continuing inequalities caused by colonial modernity. Coloniality means that these unequal power relations continue to have immense effects on current epistemologies and white supremacist notions on humanity and citizenship.
During the performances and panel discussions, different initiatives from Europe, the African continent and its diasporas, as well as from the Pacific region present options to delinking from coloniality. As BE.BOP founder Alanna Lockward states in her introduction to this year’s catalog: “If there is one word that takes a while to refer to in a negative way, it is ‘modern’.” BE.BOP’s 2018 program reflects that terms, like “modernity”, “modernization”, or “civilization” and “development” must be acknowledged as an epistemic trap of White Innocence. For centuries, these concepts have accumulated undeserved legitimacy at the expense of the colonial and imperial wounds they have inflicted.
BE.BOP 2018 chooses to take the ancestor’s valiant and restless drive to re-exist in joyful celebration. BE.BOP aims at contributing to possible alliances and coalitions between so called ‘minorities’ while simultaneously promoting the critical self-reflection of educators, public institutions and cultural agents.
BE.BOP 2018 takes place in two cities, Berlin and London. Berlin’s Maxim Gorki theatre and ifa-Gallery will host performances, lectures and panels from June 4-7.
In London BE.BOP will be hosted by ABP Autograph and Tate Britain from June 11-13.
For more information on dates, venues and programming, please visit the following website: https://bebop2018coalitionsfacingwhiteinnocence.wordpress.com/