Robert Goldwater Library blog

New York African Film Festival, April 9 –15, 2008

via the Film Society of Lincoln Center site:

the fifteenth New York African Film Festival
April 9 –15, 2008

We are honored to welcome Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka and veteran film director Charles Burnett to receptions during the festival.

The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF) celebrates its 15th anniversary with a lineup of 40 films from 22 countries throughout Africa and the African Diaspora, emphasizing history and storytelling, technology and the future. In a compelling array of features, shorts and documentaries, as well as experimental film and archival footage, the festival selects from treasured stories of the past, as well as contextualizes the present and future within the framework of history. The Festival is also showcasing works by a new wave of female African cineastes. Through eye witness accounting, social activism and pure fiction, Osvalde Lewat-Hallade, Ngozi Onwurah, Katy Léna Ndiaye, Zina Saro Wiwa and other female filmmakers challenge and question the taboo traditions of the Continent and the Black community at large.

“Cinema is such an important medium for Africans, as it functions to both preserve the oral tradition and to act as a vehicle to bring Africa’s voice to the world stage,” said Mahen Bonetti, founder and executive director of the AFF. “The rapid advances in the field of media technologies is presenting the people of Africa and the African Diaspora more opportunities than ever before to dictate the terms of their destiny and to tell their stories on their own terms.” [read more]

Click here for the schedule and film descriptions.

The festival continues at FIAF,   French Institute Alliance Francaise on May 6, 13, 20 & 27, and at BAMCinématek, May 23–26.

Pictured above (l-r):
Ezra
Director: Newton I. Aduaka, Release: 2007, Runtime: 110

This is My Africa screening with Fantôme Afrique
Zina Saro-Wiwa, African continent/Nigeria/UK, 2008; Runtime: 55

The African Slave Trades:Across the Indian Ocean
Director: Diane Seligsohn & Richard Rein, Country: USA, Release: 2007, Runtime: 26

Web 2.0: Ross Day and Erika Hauser Podcast

< March 28, 2008, Ross Day and Erika Hauser (Goldwater Library) in the newly installed Oceanic wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

via Sarah Falls @ ARLIS/NA at Altitude (The official blog of the ARLIS/NA 36th annual conference in Denver, Colorado May 1-5, 2008). This podcast runs best with iTunes. It can also be streamed from Ourmedia.

Interview 1: Ross Day and Erika Hauser
Sarah Falls

On March 28, 2008, I sat down with Ross Day and Erika Hauser of the Goldwater Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We discussed their outreach efforts with web 2.0 technologies through such sites as Flickr, Wikipedia and with blogging.

To listen to the interview, click here (mp3 format)  Interview #1

Sites to visit for the Goldwater Library:

Library blog: http://goldwaterlibrary.typepad.com/

Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/people/goldwaterlibrary/

Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Goldwater_Library

Library wiki: http://goldwaterlibrary.wikidot.com/er-introduction

You can also click on the top bar of the audio player below:

Portfolio of Hopi Kachinas

another reblog from BibliOdyssey, 4/1/08:

These illustrations are presumably © the estate of Homer H Boelter.
In 1969 Boelter published an album of lithographs of Hopi Indians - 'Portfolio of Hopi Kachinas' - limited to one thousand copies. The first illustration above comes from PBA galleries. The paired image and the balance of the sixteen plates in the series - and background - can be found at Native American Links.

See the originals at the Goldwater Library!

Portfolio of Hopi kachinas by Homer H. Boelter
Hollywood, Calif. : H. H. Boelter Lithography, [1969]
RGL call number: R8E H7B66 Quarto

Shreyas and Mina Ajmera Gallery of Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific

The Shreyas and Mina Ajmera Gallery of Africa, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific, opening on April 5, 2008, will be the first permanent home for the Royal Ontario Museum's collections from these regions in over 30 years.

From ROM's site:

This gallery reflects the ROM’s vast and diverse collections that represent the artistic and cultural traditions of indigenous peoples from Africa, the American continents, the Asia-Pacific region and Oceania. This is the first permanent home for these collections in over 30 years, with many of the 1,400 artifacts on display for the first time.

Ranging from large and dramatic ceremonial masks and colourful robes to archaeological objects such as ceramics and basketry, the collections were gathered from the late 19th century to the present and represent some of the Museum’s founding collections. The artifacts reveal aspects of everyday life, clothing, commerce, ceremony and art of indigenous cultures from around the world. Divided into four geographic areas, this gallery is rich with symbols of heritage and identity that continue to have meaning today.

ROM's site also features a number of behind-the-scenes photographs of the installation.

Pictured above: Diablada dance mask (papier-mâché), Bolivia, c. 1955. [source]

TIME LINES: New Perspectives on Contemporary and Traditional African Art

Museum for African Art 2008 Lecture Series
TIME LINES: New Perspectives on Contemporary and Traditional African Art

Slicing Through Time: CT Scanning of Malian Antiquities

February 28, 2008
6pm - 8pm

Little is knows about the great 12th-15th century figurative terra cotta sculptures from the Inland Niger Delta of Mali. Belgian radiologist Marc Ghysels will demonstrate how noninvasive CT scanning can shed light on Malian antiquities as well as on other works of African art.

The presentation shows how CT scans can reveal details about materials, processes of production, and restoration. Dr. Ghysels is joined by Kristina Van Dyke, Associate Curator for Collections at the Menil Collection, Houston.

Hip Hop Africa: Global Currents, New Media
March 28, 2008
6pm - 8pm

Conceptual artist, writer and musician Paul D. Miller/DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid moderates an all-star panel discussion on African hip hop and music videos. Professors Jesse Shipley (Bard College) and Michael Ralph (New York University) join Shaheen Ariefdien of the pioneering South African rap group Prophets of da City and filmaker Ben Herson to discuss the emergence and current state of hip hop in African nations.

Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art
April 22, 2008
6pm - 8pm

Coiled basketry from Africa and the Lowcountry of South Carolina reveal links between Africa and the United States going back to the 17th Century. Henrietta Snype, renowned basket maker from South Carolina, joins Enid Schildkrout and Dale Rosengarten, co-curators of the Grass Roots exhibition in a discussion presentation of America's longest surviving African art form -- basket making. Stunning new video of contemporary basket makers, by Dana Sardet, will be debuted in this presentation.

Lectures will take place at 19 University Place, Room 102, between E. 8th & Waverly (venue change).  Note that all non-NYU guests must present photo ID at the security desk.

TIME LINES: New Perspectives on Contemporary and Traditional African Art  is co-sponsored by the Museum for African Art and Institute of African-American Affairs at New York University.

TIME LINES is supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Museum for African Art website

Authors' profiles

Ross Day (seen here in an earlier photo) is the head of the Robert Goldwater Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Joy Garnett is the library's manager and blog-meister. Check out her growing web empire at http://joygarnett.com

Erika Hauser is a Senior Library Associate who enjoys dual citizenship between the Robert Goldwater and Thomas J. Watson Libraries.