The Ritual Aesthetic as a Caribbean Paradigm: Revisiting Katherine Dunham, Maya Deren and Modernism in the Americas
In her talk, "The Ritual Aesthetic as a Caribbean Paradigm: Revisiting Katherine Dunham, Maya Deren and Modernism in the Americas," Professor Platón will examine the ways in which Caribbean rituals helped form new currents in the performing and visual arts of the United States starting in the 1940's. It highlights the way the Caribbean-inspired dance creations of dancer and choreographer, Katherine Dunham, and filmmaker, Maya Deren's own incorporation of Caribbean dance in experimental film, enacted strategies to enhance the politics of performances of identity that consider history, embodied experience, strategies for liberation, survival, and memory. It proposes a discussion that refers to alternative subjectivities for Black dancing bodies within the existing paradigms of the American public, from the perspective of the Caribbean.
Professor Platón is an independent professor, curator, writer, performer, cultural producer, and promoter, currently teaching at UPR, Rio Piedras in the English Department of the College of General Studies. She is part of the work group of Taller Comunidad la Goyco, a community collective, developing cultural projects for peaceful cohabitation in the Machuchal neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
She received an Andy Warhol Curatorial Research Fellowship (2019) for her project "Novenario" (MAC Museum, SJ, PR), a reflection on the arts and mourning practices in contemporary art of Puerto Rico, stemming from the Hurricane María experience. She hosted a curatorial platform at Taller Comunidad la Goyco, called: "Nos conocimos en los 90" with the Puerto Rico Arts Initiative, a project funded by the Mellon Foundation; University of Texas, Austin; and Northwestern University. She is currently hosting a curatorial platform called "¿A cuánto está el cambio?, using the cabaret format to showcase older women artists in our changing community.
A reception with light refreshments will follow the talk.
