13th Annual Black New England Conference:
BLACK INK: African American News from Slave Songs to Social Media,
Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester NH
October 25-26, 2019
Online Registration Closed
Please call 603-570-8469 for late registration.
Conference Schedule
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2019
9:00 – 12:00 noon
Black Heritage Trail Tour to MILFORD, NH
Trailblazer Harriet E. Wilson: From Servitude to Authorship
In early September 1859, the Boston firm of George C. Rand and Avery published Our Nig: Sketches in the Life of a Free Black, a book widely accepted as the first published novel written in English by a Black woman. Wilson was born and raised in Milford, NH. On this tour, you will hear the story of Wilson’s journey from indentured servitude to authorship and visit the sites where her courageous story unfolds.
Guides: Sankofa Tour Guide Jubilee Byfield & Milford Historian David Nelson
Tour Bus leaves from and return to Southern New Hampshire University Parking Lot #1
DINING HALL, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester—
1:00 – 2:00 PM
CHECK-IN & REGISTRATION
2:00 – 3:30 PM
PANEL #1: BLACK FOLKS SPREADING THE NEWS: FROM ENSLAVEMENT INTO THE 20th CENTURY
In honor of W.E.B. DuBois
Black newspapers and newsmakers have worked to shape African Americans’ understanding of events of the day and provide a forum for collective dialogue. Through an examination of slave songs and early Black newsmakers, this panel will explore a complex history of information sharing and storytelling, as well as the creative ways the Black press disseminated views on myriad social, political, and economic issues.
PANELISTS
Reverend Robert Thompson, Independent Scholar, Exeter NH
Slave Songs as Message Bearers
Betty Lane, Independent Scholar, Dover, NH
Pauli Murray: Writer, Activist, Lawyer, Teacher, and Priest
Jennifer Thorn, St. Anselm College, NH
Happiness and Anger: Phebe Jacobs, bell hooks, and the Gaps and Silences of History
Adelaide Solomon-Jordan, independent historian, Portland, ME, and Ross Stanton Jordan, curatorial manager, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum in Chicago
Portrait of a Black Cultural Institution: National Scene Publisher L. H. Stanton (1906-1994)
Moderator
Jerrad P. Pacatte, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
3:45 – 5:00 PM
PANEL #2: FILM DISCUSSION – THE BLACK PRESS: SOLDIERS WITHOUT SWORDS AND INTERCEPTION
This panel will discuss Stanley Nelson’s award-winning documentary The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords (1999) and Interception: Jayne Kennedy, American Sportscaster, a Safiya Songhai film on African American sportscaster Jayne Kennedy. Nelson’s film outlines the history of the US Black press from its founding in 1827, tracing its role in the Great Migration, two world wars, and describing its decline in the wake of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
Interception highlights Jayne Kennedy’s rise from beauty queen to a pioneer of female sportscasters.
Discussion will also focus on the newspaper as a voice for unity and hope, an alternative perspectives to mainstream media, and a powerful tool for promoting independent and critical thought among various African American communities.
The newspaper as a voice for unity and hope, an alternative perspectives to mainstream media, and a powerful tool for promoting independent and critical thought among various African American communities also will be discussed.
PRESENTERS
Delia Konzett, University of New Hampshire
Safiya Songhai, Film Director, Broadcast Journalist
6:30 – 9:00 PM
AWARDS DINNER & KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY APRIL RYAN
“Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines”
2019 CITIZEN OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNER: MELVIN B. MILLER
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2019
DINING HALL, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester—
8:00 – 9:00 AM
CHECK-IN & REGISTRATION
9:00 – 10:30 AM
PANEL #3: DOING IT FOR OURSELVES: CRAFTING ALTERNATIVE MEDIA PLATFORMS
In honor of Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm
Denied access to mainstream public media channels, especially newspapers, Black citizens developed a legacy of using cultural institutions, including the church and Black social organizations, as a means for collective expression and discourse. This panel will highlight some innovative platforms Black Americans used to hold discussions of race, culture, and identity, thereby creating forums for self-discovery.
PANELISTS
Daniel McClure, Buckingham, Browne and Nichols School, Cambridge, MA
The Cultural Impact of Code Switch
Bijan Bayne, public policy fellow, Institute for Politics, Policy and History, Washington, DC
Say Brother, Say Brother
Bob Greene, retired Associated Press reporter
The Invisible Reporter
Moderator
Chris Matthews, Southern New Hampshire University
10:45 – 12:00 noon
PANEL #4: FLIPPING THE SWITCH: A COUNTER NARRATIVE OF BLACK REPRESENTATION
In honor of Ida B. Wells
Established media outlets have played a major role in propagating controversial and distorted images of Black Americans and Blackness. This panel will examine the portrayal of African Americans in mainstream media and illuminate how the Black Press has flipped the script by presenting diverse and nuanced representations of Black Americans. Panelists also will discuss the power of positive representation to shape more nuanced understandings of self and promote rejection of pervasive racist tropes.
PANELISTS
Kabria Baumgartner, University of New Hampshire
Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color: Newspapers and African American Education in Antebellum America
Dorothy Clark, Editor Historic New England, MA
Mixed Media Message: Racial Uplift Ideology
Aria Halliday, University of New Hampshire, NH
Selling Modern Blackness: Black Dolls and Black Newspapers
Moderator
Keisha Venson Sheedy, Southern New Hampshire University
12:00 – 12:30 PM
LUNCH
12:30 – 1:00 PM
LUNCH TIME KEYNOTE ADDRESS SPONSORED BY UNH CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
FEATURING SPOKEN-WORD ARTIST, RAJNII EDDINS
“Their Names Are Mine: A spoken-word presentation”
1:15 – 2:30 PM
PANEL #5: THE BLACK PRESS RESPONDS
In honor of Mary Ann Shadd Cary
Black newspapers have often provided platforms for voices of identity, affirmation, and conscience. Panelists will explore Black writers’ rebukes of mainstream newspapers’ failure to serve all potential readers. They also will note acts of Black political resistance in print.
PANELISTS
Van Dora Williams, Champlain College, VT
Wayne Dawkins, Morgan State University, Baltimore
Black Press Response to “Birth of a Nation”
Kile Fraser, City University of New York, NY Graduate Center
Where You Gonna Run To? The Fugitive Press on Legal and Extralegal Violences
John Berst, University of New Hampshire
The Black Press and the Red Scare: African-Americans Accused and Defiant in Print and in Person
Moderator
Charlotte Broaden, Southern New Hampshire University
2:45 – 4:00 PM
PANEL #6: ALTERNATIVE NEWS
In honor of Emory Douglas
African Americans have used a broad range of alternative mediums to spread the word and tell the stories of the Black experience in America. This panel will focus on artistic alternatives to the printed word delivered in newspapers and magazines and highlight social media communities that are proving adept at bringing about a wide range of sociopolitical changes.
PANELISTS
Moises “Mosart” Nuñez, Black Girl in Maine Media, Portland, ME
Bloggin’ to Boogie: How POC Use the Internet to Reach Their Audiences and Challenge the Idea of Popular Art
Ramsey Harris, Independent Scholar, CA
Black Panthers as Interpreters: The Revolutionary Use of Art
Martha Cutter, University of Connecticut, CT
A Mighty Power: Print, Photography, and the Nineteenth-Century African American Subject
Mwalim (Morgan Peters), University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA
New African Company: 51 Years of Theater for the People!
Moderator
Dottie Morris, Keene State College, NH
5:30 PM
GUSTAFSON CENTER, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester—
FASHION SHOW: HOT OFF THE PRESS
HOT OFF THE PRESS is a couture runway show that explores the portrayal of African Americans in the press, with a glimpse into the future when Blacks portray themselves. Through the lens of high fashion, this show will communicate a Black aesthetic as told through words and self-expression from the eye of the journalist.
HOT OFF THE PRESS marks the second collaboration between the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire and HOUSE OF TESTAMENT. Creatively directed and produced by Terry Robinson, he hopes to transport you to his vision and deliver an event that is not only provocative but thought-provoking as well. With the artistic support of Portland-based designer Jordan Carey and beauty visionary Kettia Fenestor, this is sure to be the cultural event of the season.
Online Registration Closed
Please call 603-570-8469 for late registration.
