20 CONVERSATIONS @ THE BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS FESTIVAL 2020

Our inaugural conversation for the 2021 Festival will focus on the gift of African Spiritual traditions. Join the participants of this conversation as they discuss the variety of African spiritual practices, the impact of these traditions, their own individual experiences and the challenges and opportunities - the gift - presented for reconnecting and defining self within these traditions.  Participants: Janique Dennis(T&T), John Hunte (Barbados), Sean Samad (T&T), Erica Ashton (L - T&T)

A conversation exploring the unique history of Brazil, the nation with the most people of African descent outside of the African continent, and how the movement for reparations and healing is a continual struggle and challenge. -The conversation will be led by Alabê Nunjara Silva, born in Rio de Janeiro and currently lives in Bahia. Alabê plays the harp and clarinet, sang in operas and choirs, was an athlete, played capoeira, fought, and played the drums in samba schools. He served in the Army and the Navy, studied Mathematics at the Federal University Fluminense (UFF), and has a Master's degree in Political Science from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO). He also has a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and also started studying for his Masters' in International Relations at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). He has done research on  Africa, Defense, and Foreign Policy. He did a study exchange in the Caribbean, interned at the UN and the French Embassy, ​​organized a movement for action toward racial affirmations and quotas at UFRJ, and was the coordinator in a national movement for student assistance and housing. He is currently part of the Foundation's Talent Bridge programme Lemann / Opportunity USA to pursue graduate studies in the United States of America and is a diplomacy award fellow from the Affirmative Action Programme of the Rio Branco Institute in Brazil. Eustáquio Lawa or Eustáquio José Rodrigues, was born in Ponte Nova, Minas Gerais, Brazil. An electrical engineer (UFMG, 1970) and Psychologist (UERJ, 1980), he worked, from 1971 to 1991in large electric power companies in Brazil and abroad. From 1995, after a Masters’ degree in Public Administration from Fundação Getúlio Vargas - FGV, he joined the Public service, where he retired. He has been an activist in the Black Movement since 1977 where he was a member of the Black Cultures Research Institute - IPCN and of the Negrícia poetry group. He chaired the Antiapartheid Committee of Brazil and currently, he is a consultant for the National Institute of the Peoples - INP in the fight for Reparations for descendants of enslaved African peoples. Marize Conceição de Jesus is a History Teacher at Elementary and High School in the public school system in the state of Rio de Janeiro and the municipality of Nova Iguaçu/Rio de Janeiro. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Social History at the PPGHS-FFP programme at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. She holds a Master in Education from the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro and did her research in Education and Ethnic-Racial Diversity and specialised in the History of Brazil. She is an Institutional Coordinator and one of the founders of - GESTAR, a Racial Study and Action Group, created in Nova Iguaçu in 2005; she was a Counselor of Comdedine-NI (Municipal Council for the Defense of the Rights of the Negro de Nova Iguaçu) between (2005-2017); was a member of the Executive Commission of the Permanent Forum on Ethnic Racial Education and Diversity of the State of Rio de Janeiro (2009-2016); was a pedagogical advisor in the areas of CEPAENI History and Geography. She works with and for the implementation of the 10.639/03 and 11.645/08 Laws (laws mandating the teaching of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous history and culture nationally) and with Education for Ethnic Racial Relations at Schools. She interacts with the Carioca Network of Black Ethnoeducators.

A conversation exploring the basics of what reparations means for descendants of Africans enslaved, the historical and contemporary issues behind the justifications. Elazar Barkan, Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, Director of SIPA's Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy Concentration, and Director of Columbia's Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Professor Barkan is also founding Director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR) in The Hague. His research interests focus on human rights and on the role of history in contemporary society and politics and the response to gross historical crimes and injustices. He is the author of The Guilt Of Nations: Restitution And Negotiating Historical Injustices and Reparation: A Moral And Political Dilemma. Also in this conversation, we talk with Jessica Ann Mitchell Aiwuyor, a cultural communications expert, author, and publisher based in the Washington, DC area. Aiwuyor is the founder of the National Black Cultural Information Trust. In addition to her work with national organizations and firms, J.A.M. Aiwuyor serves as the Communications Chair for the Pan African Congress, North American Delegation. As an author and cultural storyteller, her writings about African American cultural heritage and ethnicity have been published and cited across a wide range of publications including Huffington Post, the Business Insider, MSNBC, LA Progressive, and TV One’s “News One Now.” She publishes books celebrating Black life and culture with her publishing company, Our Legaci Press. Omari Ashby is a Rapso artist and music producer with over 29 years of experience as a performer. As one half of the duo Kindred, Omari stormed on the scene with the hit single “Dis Trini Could Flow” in 1992. In the years that followed Kindred racked up several hits and Omari then took his talent to music production arena. The past decade has seen Omari establish an elementary programme for training and development of young talent and musical enthusiasts from primary through to the professional level. His programme covers a number of areas inclusive of composition and lyrical development as well as melodic approaches and rhythm patterns. Additionally, Mr. Ashby was instrumental in the design and authoring of a digital sound engineering course for beginners. The course was initiated through his Studio 161 and Jaliman entertainment limited and adapted by YTEPP for their academic agenda. Omari Ashby holds a BA Frist Class Honours in Carnival Studies, an MA in Creative Design Entrepreneurship, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies at the UWI. Omari Ashby is also one of the foundation members and tutors of the Breaking New Ground training course promoted by the Network Community Organisation and NALIS for young artists and practitioners of the oral tradition. Currently, Omari is an adjunct lecturer at the Department of Creative and Festival Arts, UWI in the Carnival Studies Unit. See more of the festival at https://theblackconsciousnessfestival.com/reparations-2021

A conversation about the events that preceded the colonial project, the complex and diverse historical context for the Transatlantic slave trade and reparations being paid to descendants of Africans enslaved in the Americas. Dr. Sylviane Diouf, an award-winning social historian of the African Diaspora. She is a Visiting Scholar at Brown University's Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. She has curated twelve exhibitions and authored and edited thirteen books.  A social historian, Dr. Diouf focuses on uncovering essential stories and topics that were overlooked or negated, but which offer new insights into the African Diaspora. She has a special interest in the experience of the Africans deported, through the international slave trades, to the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds, including the particular experience of African Muslims. Diouf is the author of the acclaimed Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. She won several prizes for Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America; and is the author, more recently, of Slavery’s Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons.  A recipient of the Rosa Parks Award, the Dr. Betty Shabazz Achievement Award, and the Pen and Brush Achievement Award, Diouf has appeared in several documentaries and gave a keynote speech to the UN General Assembly on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. She was the inaugural director of the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library.