The Vera List Center Forum 2019 brings the prize recipient, Chimurenga, and the finalists of the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice to New York for a short-term residency as Jane Lombard Fellows, culminating in the Vera List Center Forum, October 22–26. The residency aims to connect the finalists with each other, as well as to strengthen their network of practitioners operating in between the fields of art and politics. This residency and distinction as Jane Lombard Fellows reflect the Vera List Center’s commitment to supporting artists whose ambitious work improves the lives of people in their communities.

From October 23–25, 2019, Chimurenga installs its Pan African Space Station (PASS) at Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, New York City.

The three-day broadcast explores the participation of African American artists, activists, and intellectuals in the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, FESTAC ’77, held in Lagos, Nigeria, in January-February 1977. The nearly 700-strong US delegation at FESTAC ’77 was “the largest single group of African Americans ever to return to Africa in one body” (Ebony Magazine), and featured luminaries such Sun Ra, Stevie Wonder, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Jayne Cortez, Barkley Hendricks, Betye Saar, Louis Farrakhan, Faith Ringgold and many, many more. The poet Kalamu ya Salaam described the event as “the culmination of the Black Art Movement oriented artistic conferences, festivals, and gatherings.”

The Pan African Space Station in NYC features many of the participants in the 1977 event and closes on October 25 with a rare performance of composer and trombonist Craig Harris‘ suite titled FESTAC ’77 at the John L. Tishman Auditorium—Harris traveled to Lagos as a member of Sun Ra’s Arkestra.

This PASS landing also serves as a presentation of Chimurenga’s new book on FESTAC ’77, the first publication to consider FESTAC in all its cultural-historic complexity, addressing the planetary scale of the event alongside the personal and artistic encounters it made possible.

On October 26, the Jane Lombard Fellows Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research, Liz Johnson Artur, Tiffany Chung, Naine Terena de Jesus, and Jasmeen Patheja participate in Global Voices: Conversations with Jane Lombard Fellows, with their nominators Maria Thereza Alves, Kaelen Wilson Goldie, Bala Starr; artist David Hartt, curator Thomas J. Lax, The New School faculty and founder and editor of Africa is a Country, Sean Jacobs, and other writers and curators. Ann Laura Stoler, Willy Brandt Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology and Historical Studies, The New School, delivers a keynote lecture on art as political practice.