Presentations

I realize that I haven’t shared some wonderful news about various presentations that I’ve been able to give over the past few months and some upcoming dates. On December 2, 2020, I presented, “Banana Futures and Contemporary Latinx Art,” at the University of Warwick in England. As part of their History of Art Research Seminar, the presentation was attended by several students and many members of the faculty. I was amazed at some of the wonderful questions students and faculty posed about the artist’s work where they drove several sophisticated lines of inquiry. I was very grateful for their engagement. Indeed, I have cherished their observations which have greatly enhanced my own work.

Also, in December 2020, I’m happy to have presented as part of the NYU symposium, “The Future of Afro-Latinx Studies,” hosted by The Latinx Project. One of the benefits of online symposiums is that we were able to host over a couple hundred attendees virtually with a series of presentations and Q&A sessions. My presentation, “Visualizing Afro-Latinx Appetites: Decolonizing ‘Eating the Other’” covered works in progress that addressed banana cultures and labor, and was an excellent space to share these thoughts.

https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/f2020/the-future-of-afro-latinx-studies

I will also be presenting at CAA (College Art Association) in February 2021. Again, as a virtual conference, I have already uploaded my pre-recorded presentation, “Botanical Feminisms: From Ethnogenesis to Edible Desire.” In what I term botanical feminisms, the artists I’m presenting on have adopted eco-critical perspectives that embody the flora and fruit that are often conflated with Caribbean women’s bodies while they establish a new visual vocabulary. Theorizing botanical feminisms draws upon the history of collecting and the botanical specimen as reinterpreted by contemporary artists. It exists as a productive, decolonial counterpoint to the relationship between nation and nature through a feminist perspective and tropical renovation. This presentation considers the work of two Caribbean artists, Tiffany Smith and Joiri Minaya whose food-focused interventions are confronting colonial and patriarchal legacies.

In April 2021, I will be presenting at Kent State University in the classroom of Professor Shana Klein, a fellow food art historian. I will be presenting on works in progress for the book, Edible Extravagance: The Visual Art of Consumption in the Black Atlantic.