Afro-Mexican Conference in Texas

A group of distinguished scholars and activists from both Mexico and from various institutions in the United States will meet at Texas A&M University (College Station), October 22 & 23, 2008, for a symposium of unprecedented importance, “The African Presence in Mexico.”
“The African Presence in Mexico” will begin Wednesday night, October 22, with the keynote address by Fr. Glyn Jemmott, a Roman Catholic priest currently serving the Parish of St. John of the Cross in El Cirelo, Pinotepa Nacional, Mexico. This address will be held in the MSC’s Stark Gallery beginning at 6:00PM
The morning and afternoon schedule for Thursday, October 23, features brief presentations by Herman L. Bennett, Juan Manuel de la Serna, Maria Elisa Velázquez and Arturo Motta on “Slavery and Freedom in Colonial Mexico” and “’Where Did the Blacks Go?’ Post-Slavery Mexico.” Respondents to these scholarly lectures will include Joan Bristol, Patrick J. Carroll, Nicole von Germeten, Frank “Trey” Proctor III, and Marisela Ramos. These two lectures will be held in Rudder Tower, Room 302 at 10:00AM and 1:00PM.
The symposium will close Thursday night, October 23, with “Contemporary Afro-Mexicans,” a group conversation, led by Ben Vinson III, in exchange with Naya Jones, Laura Lewis, Jean-Philibert Mobwa Mobwa N’Djoli, Fr. Glyn Jemmott, Bobby Vaughn, Anita Gonzalez and Maria Elisa Velázquez. The last conversation will be held in the MSC’s Stark Gallery beginning at 6:00PM.
During these two days of national and international intellectual and political exchange, “Afro-Mexican Faces from the State of Veracruz, Mexico,” an exhibition of photographs by Marcus D. Jones, will be mounted in The Flag Room of the MSC at Texas A&M University Monday through Thursday, October 20 – 23, 2008.
The symposium and exhibition are co-sponsored by Texas A&M University’s Callaloo and by the Center for Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Callaloo, the premier literary and cultural journal of the African Diaspora, is sponsored by Texas A&M University and published quarterly by Johns Hopkins University Press in Baltimore.
For additional information the symposium, see http://callaloo. tamu.edu/ events.htm