The Carr Center Bringing Artists & Scholars Together with First-Ever “Converge Detroit” Conference

A day of talks & mentorship centering on the African American experience, with speakers including Adama Delphine Fawundu, Angela Hennessy & Simone A. Browne

DETROIT, Mich. (August 19, 2019) –The Carr Center is uniting visionaries from all over the city of Detroit and beyond with its first-ever “Converge Detroit” conference. The day-long public event will bring artists, thinkers, academics and cultural workers together to consider the inaugural conference’s theme:

Beyond Space: Unbounded Theory and Practice. “Converge Detroit” will be held on October 19th at the Detroit School of Arts (123 Selden Street, Detroit, MI 48201 in the Aaliyah Recital Hall @ Detroit School of Arts) from 11:30am-6pm, followed by the opening of the “Beyond Space” exhibition and artist reception at 7pm.

“Converge Detroit” will center on the African American experience and explore both the practical and theoretical impact it has had in the creative sphere. Throughout the day, attendees will have an opportunity to hear short presentations from 14 invited artists and scholars covering a broad range of disciplines.

Among those slated to speak on their work and the theme of the day is Adama Delphine Fawundu, a visual artist with an MFA from Columbia University who combines photography, video, assemblage and other media to create an artistic language.

Visual artist, Adama Delphine Fawundu (left), and Associate Professor at California College of the Arts, Angela Hennessy (right), will both be featured during the October 19th conference.

The event will also feature Angela Hennessy, an Oakland-based artist and Associate Professor at California College of the Arts who explores “mythologies of blackness embedded in linguistic metaphors of color and cloth” through writing, performance and studio work.

Also scheduled to speak is “Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness” authorSimone A. Browne, who continues to explore themes of surveillance as a Yale University Visiting Presidential Fellow (2018-2019) and as an Associate Professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of African and African Diaspora Studies.

“We’re very excited to have these incredible speakers and more joining us for what we plan to be the first ‘Converge Detroit’ gathering,” says Oliver Ragsdale Jr., President of the Carr Center.

“Converge Detroit” will serve as an artistic laboratory as well, fostering opportunities for mentorship and peer-to-peer discussion, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of the arts and the black experience.

“The goal is for people to leave renewed and affirmed because they met someone, talked to someone, listened to someone or were listened to,” said Erin Falker, Carr Center Curator and Senior Creative Director.

Yale University Visiting Presidential Fellow and Associate Professor in the University of Texas at Austin, Simone A. Browne, will be speaking at “Converge Detroit.”

Described as an “exploration-through-exhibition,” the accompanying art exhibit, “Beyond Space” will feature the work of the Carr Center Independent Scholars, curated and led by Carrie Mae Weems, Carr Center resident artist in visual art and a 2013 MacArthur Fellow.

“I really hope that ‘Converge Detroit’ becomes a place to be heard and that a real community forms around everyone who takes the mic. I want people to use it to network and to meet like-minded people,” said Falker. “But, mostly, I want ‘Converge Detroit’ to be the place where the ideas that are going to change how people think tomorrow get heard today.”

Ticket Information

$25 admission includes entry to “Converge Detroit,” the “Beyond Space” exhibition and opening reception. Tickets including entry to “Converge Detroit,” the “Beyond Space” exhibition and the opening reception, as well as the event catalog, will cost $50.

For registration and more information on how you can participate, visit thecarrcenter.org.

About the Carr Center

Born out of the Arts League of Michigan in 2009, the Carr Center has been furthering the organization’s mission to “preserve, present, promote and develop the African and African-American cultural arts traditions within our multicultural community” for the past decade. The Carr Center has also established a network of community hubs to provide wider access to art via a constellation of venues set up throughout the city of Detroit.