The Archival Impulse: From the Deep with Ayana Jackson

Monday, October 28 | 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM ET | In-Person Event 

Mortara Center for International Studies, Georgetown University Main Campus

Presented by Communication, Culture and Technology and African Studies Programs

Co-sponsored: Georgetown’s Humanities Initiative, English Dept., Art and Art History Dept., Engaged and Public Humanities Program, Gender⁺ Justice Initiative, Black Studies Dept., Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies, Racial Justice Institute, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, and Culture and Politics Program

Ayana V. Jackson employs archival impulses to challenge the impacts of colonialism and the racialization and sexualization of Black bodies. Her solo exhibition From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya, which is currently on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, extends the impulse through the production of collaborative and multimedia artworks that reframe the memory and legacy of trans-Atlantic slavery. The exhibition weaves a rich tapestry that invokes ecological concerns, Afrofuturism, the histories of techno music, the transfer of technology and artistic traditions, and the cosmology of African water spirits. In this talk, Jackson will discuss how her “impulse” engages historical archives in order to suggest alternative and more just futures.