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December 12, 2003|Volume 32, Number 14|Five-Week Issue



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Symposium to explore
issues of 'space and race'

In an effort to promote understanding of, spark debate about and inspire further action regarding the issue of race and the built environment, the School of Architecture will hold a symposium titled "BLACK BOXES: Enigmas of Space and Race" Friday-Saturday, Jan. 16-17.

"From slavery-era plantations and the Jim Crow, separate-but-unequal South, to present-day ghettoes and street corners, America is a land formed, bounded and delineated by policies predisposed by racial beliefs," says Jennifer Newsom, the student at the School of Architecture who organized the symposium.

"'BLACK BOXES' will bring together practitioners, educators and activists in impassioned discussion about the inextricable link between the way people have existed in this country and 'racialized' space," she adds.

Newsom cites scholar and educator Cornel West, who argues that it is necessary to examine architecture as an embodiment of such fundamental institutions as freedom, domination, capitalism and democracy. West has said: "The less we consider architecture as an embodiment of these structures, the more these structures begin to control our discourse."

"BLACK BOXES" will investigate how architecture can reinforce or serve to deny these existing power structures -- establishments in which black architects are not powerless subjects, but active participants in a framework with its own specific lineage and traditions, says Newsom.

"If ever there was a time to examine these complicated issues, the time is now," she adds, noting that in recent years young designers and scholars have widened the understanding of race and how it influences what structures are built and why.

Among the specific topics the symposium will explore are African-American architectural history, from post-Diaspora vernacular influences to contemporary currents in design; the social implications of the black built environment; the intersection of cultural theory and architectural practice; and the unique ways in which black identity might find formal expression.

"BLACK BOXES" will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 16 with a keynote address by Lesley Naa Norle Lokko, editor of "White Papers, Black Marks" and principal of Lokko Associates in Accra, Ghana. The address will be followed by a reception.

Saturday's sessions begin at 10 a.m. The featured speakers will include Michael Henry Adams, the historian and author of "Harlem: Lost and Found"; Thelma Golden, deputy director of exhibitions and programs at The Studio Museum in Harlem; Darell Fields, associate professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Design; and Mabel Wilson, associate professor at the California College of the Arts, among others.

All events will take place in Hastings Hall, located in the Art and Architecture Building, 180 York St.

The event is free and open to the public; however, seating is limited, and those who wish to attend must pre-register by Jan. 1. To register, contact Jennifer Castellon at (203) 432-2889 or at jennifer.castellon@yale.edu.

For more information about the event, visit the website at www.architecture.yale.edu/blackboxes.


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Symposium to explore issues of 'space and race'

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