VOL. 0.1: Who Owns Black Art? Reparations: Reckoning Return and Reclamation
"This is not just about the return of African art, When someone's stolen your soul, it is very difficult to survive as a people." Prince Kum'a Ndumbe III of the Duala people in Cameroon on the restitution of African Artifacts from Europe. From the story of Yaa Asantewaa and the Golden Stool nearly stolen from the Ashanti People to the fraught relationship of Western museums housing Black art, this roundtable discussion explores and defines the many ways African and Black Art, artifacts, sacred objects and human remains are collected, displayed and used historically and in the present day. How are reparations policy wins connected to wins in cultural restitution, such as the return of looted Benin Bronzes? This expert panel of international leaders in the arts and racial justice will address these questions.
REPARATIONS: RECKONING, RETURN AND RECLAMATION - Panel Conversation
Allen Kwabena Frimpong and Anshantia Oso produced this conversation as a follow up to our work during Miami Art Basel 2019 when we launched Who Owns Black Art? as not only an art exhibition but an organizing space for Black creatives the challenge the rules of the art market in ways that transform it so that Black creatives own and steward the means of our cultural production. We returned to Little Haiti Miami in 2022 after the height of the pandemic to move forward our movement on this issue.