Morales-Franceschi, Eric
TR 3 :55 PM
Park Hall 144
Radical Pasts / Decolonial Futures
In lieu of looking to the past as a series of unmitigated traumas and injustices, a time emptied of hope and fecundity, this course looks to it (simultaneously) as a fount of emancipatory desires, creative interventions, and disavowed possibilities. In particular, we shall explore the lively interest in the Black Panthers and Young Lords amongst today’s Black and Latinx writers, artists, and critics—let alone activists. What has stimulated this renaissance? How is that (radical) past being aesthetically commemorated? What about it has proved seductive and edifying? And what kind of futures does it avow (or foreclose)?
We start with some theoretical works that lay out the stakes of our inquiry, namely our conceptions of power, history, and aesthetics vis-à-vis that fraught (but indispensable) thing we call “revolution” as well as the exceedingly trendy word “decolonial.” We then delve into poetry, memoirs, manifestoes, graphic novels, film, music, and posters devoted to and inspired by the Panthers and Lords. As we do so, the place of tragedy will indeed loom large, but so, too, will that of love, humor, beauty, and salvation.
Tentative reading/viewing list:
H. Marcuse, “Art and Revolution”
W. Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History”
E. Traverso, Revolution: An Intellectual History (selections)
W. Mignolo & C. Walsh, On Decoloniality
Huey Newton, To Die for the People
Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story
D. Walker, The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), dir. by Shaka King
Pedro Pietri, “Puerto Rican Obituary”
The Young Lords: A Reader
Iris Morales, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women
Millie and the Lords (2015), dir. by Jennica Carmona
Takeover (2021), dir. by Emma Francis-Synder
Also: the artwork of Emory Douglass, Miguel Luciano, Sophia Dawson; photography of Hiram Maristany; and music of Rebel Diaz.