Discipline
Client
Watson Foundation
By Us for Us?: Globalizing Black American Culture
My project examined the personal, communal, and societal aspects of culture sharing at the intersection of creativity and (anti)Blackness. I explored how Black American culture has been globalized through fashion, music, and other artistic mediums to make room for people at varying geographic and cultural distances from Black America. Countries visited: United Kingdom, Spain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Kenya, Japan
Over the course of my travels, I developed three main points of entry for my project: music, the Ballroom Scene, and nature.
Why do nonBlack Americans feel comfortable engaging with and adopting in Black American culture? Why do nonBlack people feel agency over Black culture? What does it mean that Black (American) people have little to no authority over their cultural products once they are exposed to community outsiders? This project has left me with more questions than answers, which was to be expected. Nevertheless, the answers that I did find shifted my perspective on why and how global cultural exchange is and can be used as a means to a freer present and future. There are frameworks, such as Black feminism and Afropessimism, that speak to the fungibility of Blackness and the interactive dynamics between Black and nonBlack people. Beyond such theories lay an abundance of answers as to why Black people and in turn Black culture is treated in particular ways. These answers become more complex when we shift the parameters to home in on intraracial Black diasporic relations. Digging into these nuances, rather than broadening the scope to glaze over them, is a necessary starting point for pursuing global cooperation.
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