Collection of the International Center of
Photography

When Okwui Enwezor left Nigeria to attend Jersey College in Newark, New Jersey he brought more than his school books and a passport. He brought a vision of the world that places cosmopolitan Africa at its center, intellectually moving the continent from the fringes of global discussions of modernity to the central thematic point. Socially, politically and culturally Enwezor has painted wide swaths of Red, Black and Green in places typically devoid of color.

Return to a few of the mammoth curatorial efforts Enwezor has now made dom rigueur over the last decade and some change and you will get the gist of what I am saying.

Look back at The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945- 1994, where Enwezor placed decolonization in its rightful position as one of the most significant historical events of the 20th century,

And

Documenta 11, where Enwezor, Documenta’s first nonwhite and non-European artistic director, used his global stage to pointedly comment on the social and political confusion that has ensued since the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of globalization,

And

In/sight: African Photographers, 1940- Present, where Enwezor staged the first exhibition beyond the borders of Africa that celebrated the work of photographers that came to prominence during the years in which African states were claiming independence.

Take a look at all of that and you will see that Enwezor’s curatorial efforts have been so focused that they now extend beyond even the political and social themes he has so famously infused into his work. They are vehicles to spread the word and give voice to generations of voices that were once ignored but now have been channeled into the expressions of a chosen lot and framed in the form of installations.

That is a lot to handle. A burden few would be able to withstand. But luckily Enwezor tucked more than some books in that bag when he came to the US some 25 years ago. Luckily he brought a vision with him.

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New era of museums

Statistics indicate that China currently has more than 2,000 museums, with more than 20 million items in their collections and more than 8,000 exhibitions being staged every year.

To add to that number, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, which is in charge of museums nationwide, is planning the construction of 1,000 new museums by the year 2015. By that time, every mid-size or larger city in China is expected to have at least one museum.

This "museum fever" in cosmopolitan cities such as Beijing and Shanghai has recently stimulated lively discussion in China and overseas.

Beijing is reportedly planning to build 20 more museums and have at least 130 museums by the time it hosts the 2008 Olympics. Among the major projects are the 1.8 billion yuan (US$217 million) expansion of the National Museum of China and construction of a new wing for the China National Art Museum. "Not to be outdone, Shanghai says it plans to build 100 new museums for the 2010 World Expo," according to an article published in the latest issue of "Art in America" magazine.

While many people are thrilled by the prospect of the burgeoning of museums in the country, some experts have questioned the "imbalance between the hardware and software" -- that is, too many museums and not enough trained personnel.

In their view, as the country becomes more financially developed, people are eager to build more museums. But who is going to do the work in all these modern facilities that will be seen as symbols of the national as well as local cultural heritage and an important element in shaping the country's international image?

"The quality of a museum's displays rests largely in the hands of its curatorial staff, regardless of the quality of its collection. Unfortunately, many of the staff members in our museums are not qualified to run a modern public museum," remarked Feng Yuan, the new director of the National Art Museum of China, who previously served as director of the arts department of the Chinese Ministry of Culture.

He said that the staff at the museum lags behind those of leading art museums abroad in terms of professional knowledge, familiarity with the arts and commitment to public service.

Museum training programs and courses in China are not up to the standards seen in places like Europe or the United States, where training programs in museum curatorial work and museum administration have been in place for a much longer time.

Only a handful of universities in China Peking, Nankai, and Fudan, to name a few, have museum studies programs. Archaeology or history programs in most Chinese universities and art schools are research-oriented, with little consideration being given to museum curator training.

Programs in curatorial studies, arts administration, and museum education are next to non-existent in the country. The internship system, which is widely used in Western museums and of great help in training museum professionals, has yet to be introduced in most Chinese museums.

With an eye focused on improving domestic training programs, many Chinese museum professionals are turning their eyes to international resources and experience. "We can't expect our senior staff to change much," Feng said. "We do hope to send our young staff members to receive training in foreign museums or institutions, and we are recruiting more graduates with Master's or higher degrees. We want more well-trained young professionals who love their jobs."

International training

The good news is that some exciting foreign museum training programs are already being planned or under way to help China build up a staff of qualified museum personnel.

Bruce Altshuler, director of the Museum Studies Program at New York University (NYU), is one of the international experts who are enthusiastically working on such projects.

Since 2002, Altshuler, an authority in museum studies research and training in the United States, has made field trips to China and other countries in Asia and Europe to prepare for a summer institute at NYU. The project will bring together young museum professionals from Asia, Europe and the United States for three weeks of intensive training and exchange.

During his visit to China, Altshuler met many museum administrators, curators, and scholars in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. He investigated three general areas of museum practice that he believes are "the main areas that need more professionalism:" fund-raising and marketing; educational programming; collections and exhibitions.

"I was very impressed by how proud people from Chinese museums are of what they have, how serious they are in studies and research, and how aware they are of international developments," Altshuler said. "They seem to be more confident in research, but not so confident in putting on exhibits for the public and communicating with the public.

"We hope the summer institute will open in 2006. Each summer, we would like to bring together 25 to 30 people," he said. He added that activities designed for the training programs would include presentations by American museum professionals, working in teams to solve problems, visiting local museums in the New York area, and planning trips to cities like Washington DC and Philadelphia, which also have great museums.

"I think that with its scope, the program will bring people together and give them a chance to exchange ideas," remarked Sarah Bradley, associate director of the New York-based Asian Cultural Council (ACC) an affiliate of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which sponsored Altshuler's field trip to China.

"The amount of training people can receive in a summer institute is very small, but these people are to come from different museums which operate in very different ways. It doesn't make any sense to learn only the American model. People should sit together and talk about how they solve similar problems, and they can take the ideas they get back to their different institutions," she added.

Collaborative endeavors

Beyond the Museum Studies Program at NYU, which also offers a Master's degree, many other universities and institutions in the United States also have plans to work with China in training professionals in almost all museum-related disciplines.

Harvard University, for instance, has established the Courtney Sale Ross Arts in Education Scholarship to support Chinese professionals in graduate studies, aiming at fostering communication among cultural institutions (specifically museums) in the United States and China. Similarly, the Teachers College of Columbia University has increased collaboration with the Beijing-based Central Academy of Fine Arts in the fields of art museum education and arts administration.

Last year, the Central Academy of Fine Arts of China and the National Academy of Cultural Heritage of France opened a joint program in Beijing to train senior administrators in Chinese museums. Last December, veteran scholars and professionals from both sides presented a series of seminars that were highly welcomed, according to Fan Di'an, professor and vice-president of the Central Academy.

Leading cultural institutions such as the Asia Society Museum in New York, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC and the British Museum in London are also interested in expanding co-operation with China.

"What we are witnessing today in China is the exponential growth of the museum sector, particularly in relation to contemporary art," remarked Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society Museum. She cited as examples the Shanghai Museum, the Shanghai Art Museum, the Guangdong Museum of Art, and the Millennium Museum in Beijing.

"The Asia Society Museum has a long history of working with Chinese institutions, especially for our traditional art exhibitions. We look forward to collaborating more with Chinese museums in the future to present the art of China, past and present," Chiu said.

The British Museum and the National Museum of China have reached an agreement to exchange professionals for short-term visits, according to Zhu Fenghan, executive director of the National Museum of China.

Like the ACC, which has been supporting US-China exchanges in the arts and museum sectors for decades, international foundations such as the Henry Luce Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Starr Foundation and the Paul Getty Trust all support exchanges and training in the museum sector.

When dreams come true

Zhu Fenghan, executive director of the National Museum of China, said the professionalism of staff in Chinese museums has improved remarkably in the past five or six years as a result of increased international exchanges and the excellent example set by local institutions such as the Shanghai Museum.

"Professionals at the National Museum of China now have more chances to communicate with their counterparts from the rest of the world. Most of them have travelled abroad. Their vision has been broadened while working with foreign museums."

Zhu added: "We want to offer the best exhibitions we can think of and afford to the public, and we are constantly learning from the world's leading museums. We do welcome the ideas of foreign institutions or foundations in staff training. And we welcome foreign professors and experts to come to train our staff in China."

Writer, vocalist and Harlem denizen, Latasha N. Nevada Diggs is one of those forces of nature that makes juggling art forms, ideas and word play seem like child’s play. A fellow of the Cave Canem Workshop for African American Poets, LaTasha has completed residencies at Caldera Arts Space and Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center as well as received a Zora Neale Hurston scholarship from Naropa Institute and New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship. In addition, she is the lead electronic vocalist for two bands, the Yohimbe Brothers, fronted by Vernon Reid and DJ Logic and The Beat Kids, fronted by Guillermo E. Brown. (whew, getting tired just writing this)

At the Yari Yari Pamberi Conference Latasha gave a presentation that broke down sound through macaronic verse, language and electronic vocal processing. What she had to say was so brilliant that we had to present it in the cyber pages of Nat Creole.

Macaronics and Globalization

Track #1 (Duke Ellington, Afro Eurasian Eclipse, 1971)

At the very beginning of this album, Mr. Ellington speaks of how the entire world is becoming oriental. Quoting Marshall McLuhan, he mentions that this “universal compulsion of rhythm”, is occurring worldwide and that the mixing of cultural influences is profound. Mr. Ellington, through his travels, accepts this as portrayed in this piece and by definition my favorite album, The Far East Suite. Thus, if we are to look at what Mr. Ellington saw in McLuhan’s definition of orientalism, we should look at another term often used to illustrate the damages of multi/corporate expansion, free trade, war, and globalization. I use this term loosely to examine what I do within sound text. More important, I think, is the method through which I have chosen to explore globalization through — the literary form called macaronics.

Macaronic verse, a form developed in the 15th century Italy and later popularized in Germany, was constructed in four simple ways. One, the writer used two or more languages with one language used for conjunctions. Second, the language was not restricted to “pure” dialect but open to the language of law, newspapers, the vernacular, etc. Thirdly, words may contain an ending from another language. For example if I were to combine Japanese and Spanish, words would sound like this: Cohi(a), wakarimas(amos), toke(ska). Lastly, the form was often used as satire, as a means of critiquing the political atmosphere for that time. No line limitations. No meter involved. Just word play.

Aside from their literal definitions, I focus on the sound quality of various dialects with a means to generate a discourse with the senses. Within the framework of performance, each word is “performed” rather than delivered. This notion of performing the text falls within a switching of codes that deals with physical mannerisms and how we talk to one another through daily performance. Thus, translation is unnecessary because it is rather the inflection in the voice conveying the message. “Hon-to” has the same meaning as “Word” when poised as a question. “Fuck” the same as “Chi-ku-shoo” as “Dang” as “Aye Dio!”

Tangible examples of non-pure macaronics are those individuals who mesh two languages in conversation. Particularly in the Latino community, it is common to hear “Oye” begin a statement and “you know” end it.  Even better, in the growing culture of hip-hop, it is the norm for a male mc to kick a line in Spanglish for his butter pecan mamasita. Thus, language proliferates the notion of code switching and how it is ingrained in many cultures. If we are the children of a Northern migration, a trans-Atlantic migration past and present, a Pacific migration, or even one that moves within class, code switching is a natural occurrence in one’s identity. Macaronics should be seen as a literary offspring of this.

Language is erected on sound and sound is the bearer of emotion. The sounding of phrases is performance — and this performance is often presented by the human voice, our seventh sense. All three provide an ample supply of sounds otherwise wordless, a textual puzzle to solve. Dependant only on the voice, the listener must transcribe what appears unsolvable through the fluency and mis/annunciations of the text. It is this process, the invention of a language that “uses the sinews” other languages that I am driven toward. This Babelish jargon — “the first day after divine chastisement, the language of primeval confusion,” according to biblical text — is where I conjure my muse.

Track #12 (Abbey Lincoln’s People in Me 1973)

What this song resonates is the same message the language, Papiamento, native to Curacao does. Both are what my work (within the tradition of satire, disobedient poetics, and cultural discourse) expresses. They introduce my personal ideology, my desire to include everything my ears takes interest to. They disregard American societal rules that more than often deny its history as one of hybrid. If the entire world is oriental according to Sir Duke, then all of me is Pan-Hyphen. Said better, the batidos de leche representing the subsidiaries of my generation.

Culture, Technology & the Human/Feminine Voice

Track #9 (Eric B. & Rakim “Paid in Full”, Seven Minutes of Madness Cold Cut remix, 1987)

Now of course, there may be better examples to select from. However, it’s my mix tape…so there. What made this a classic for me was one item…the Ofra Haza sample. It was familiar enough in its feminine quality but foreign enough in its vocalization to cause a buzz. Now of course, no one knew what she was saying, as is the constant problem that arises from sampling lyrics in another language. The recent tune by Truth Hurts, “Addictive” (produced by DJ Quik), contains a Hindi sample that literally describes “wedding flowers that are beautiful but bittersweet." This is a shy different than Miss Hurts and Rakim’s lyrics dealing with returning pages, rough sex, love, high fashion brands, and a half a gram. However, aside from copyright issues, American/European chauvinism, what both tracks did was merge cultures in a creative manner. Sonically both the Sephardic vocals of the late Ofra, the lyricism of Rakim were a seamless mash-up. Be a politically correct hater but admit it…you liked it.

When listening to “Paid in Full,” you may not read into the textual quality of the lyrics because meshed together, they contradict each other on paper. However, in the context of sound poetry, the determinate negation of its performance, like “Addictive”, holds up to finding an equity that defines emotion through sound. I present this only to generate a tonal transition from language to the use of the affected/unaffected voice in popular music.

Latasha Diggs is the author of three chap-books, Ichi-Ban: from the files of negríta muñeca linda and Ni-ban: Villa Misería (MOH Press), and Manuel is destroying in bathroom (Belladona Press) as well as the producer and writer for the conceptual audio project, Televisíon. She enjoys writing, yodeling, tinkering with delay pedals, digital effects boxes, drum pads, cooking salmon cakes and watching TV.

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I returned to Jamaica this past summer unexpectedly. My great aunt, Gladys, passed away at the age of 87 and my mother and my aunt invited me to go with them to the funeral. At the time, I had taken time off from working to travel and I learned of Aunt G’s death while I was passing through my home town, New York, between destinations. Coincidentally, the purpose of my summer hiatus was to “find myself,” recent graduate twixter that I am, and this trip to Jamaica met my agenda precisely. The opportunity presented itself with uncannily perfect timing, and I obediently took it.

It was a trip back to my roots. My mother’s family is from Jamaica. My mother, the oldest of nine, was the first to immigrate to the United States and I am the first family member to be born here. I had been to Jamaica on numerous occasions previously but the last time I spent quality time with relatives there was when I was four years old. I knew that on this trip, I would see some family members that I had not seen since then and others that I had never even met before. (Aunt G, for example, I had never had the pleasure.) I was eager to fill in the blanks in my mental family tree. I became the proverbial sponge for knowledge.

We were in Jamaica for a total of three nights. For two of those nights, we stayed at a hotel in Kingston. On the night of the funeral, we stayed in Luna, a country town about an hour outside of the capital, where my mother grew up. Neither my mother nor my aunt wanted to stay in Luna long. Our family’s house has no running hot water for baths, no electricity in the new bathroom, and lots of mosquitoes that love people who visit from the States. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that they didn’t want to drive back at night along those narrow winding mountainous roads that simulate the experience of a real-life rollercoaster, we would have gone back on the same day.

Nevertheless, we arrived in Luna on the Sunday of the funeral. The first thing I noticed when I got there was how much smaller everything was than I remembered. The shop across from my family’s house where my cousin, Tye, and I used to buy penny candy, was not way on the other side of a wide street as in my memory, but only a few strides away, across the road of this one horse town. The church that I used to feel so grown walking to with Tye and that marked the farthest point in Luna that I could possibly conceive of, was only about four houses down the road. My perception of Luna as a four-year-old was like Alice in Wonderland’s perception of her world after she drank from the “drink me” bottle. Everything around me had seemed so big because I had been so small.

Once there, my mother, my aunt and I spent most of our time chilling around the house. Out of this downtime came one of the most touching experiences that I had had there. My mother had called me over to sit with her by her father’s grave. My grandfather, as is common in Luna, was buried in his house’s backyard. As I sat by the grave with her, she pointed out to me all the different trees growing there. The mango tree, the cocoa tree, the breadfruit tree, all hardly distinguishable to me. She told me about how she used to sell fruit sometimes for pocket money when she was younger. “I was an entrepreneur from birth” says this woman, who now owns her own successful business in Brooklyn. It was a memorable moment because my mother was opening up to me, a rarity in our relationship. At one point, I felt a pang in my heart. I knew that this moment was special and it was almost too much for me to feel all at one time.

Ironically, the funeral, although nice, was not the highlight of the trip for me. The ceremony was standard. We went to the church, some key family members gave speeches and the congregation sang songs. After the ceremony, the congregation relocated to the back of the mountain where Aunt G was buried. The burial, in its modesty, was actually very beautiful. A team of three or four men laid Aunt G to rest next to her previously deceased husband. She was buried above ground and the shape of her plot was like the mouth to a cave, carved out of the mountain. The men slid her casket into the opening and worked quickly to close the entryway with cinder blocks and cement. The process was all done by hand. The onlookers sang hymns as if to provide musical encouragement to the workers and to lull her soul. The scenery was raw, lush and green and you could smell the dirt beneath you. I think it even rained. It was so perfect in its imperfection that it was cliché and even movie-like. As customary, there was a delicious curry goat dinner afterwards. The reception took a slightly more upbeat tone. Aunt G had lived to a ripe old age and the guests there focused on celebrating her life rather than mourning her death.

Not all immigrant children have the opportunity to go back to their parents’ countries. I took special note of everything that I saw because I wanted to have enough information to pass on to my future children when I bring them there. I amassed the knowledge out of the anxiety-ridden truth that my connection to this land is not direct but linked through my cousin, my aunt and others who were born there. What would happen if I didn’t have those people in the future? Would my connection be lost? What if my aunt moves and people in Luna don’t remember me? What stories would I tell my children?

In the end, the trip did bring me a more rooted sense of self but I don’t quite understand why. I mean, I don’t and then I do. I went back to where my mother is from. Revisiting Luna with her gave me a better sense of who she was and where she came from. I understand how that helps my relationship with her but not how it helps my personal growth. On the other hand, while I don’t see the direct correlation, I do recognize that there is something intangible but undeniable about knowing where your elders are from that gives you a sense of pride. I can’t put my finger on it, but I do know it’s real.

I enjoy going back to Jamaica because something new opens up for me each time. I went back to Jamaica again this holiday season with my mother and 11 other family members from the States. This time, I met my mother’s high school teacher, her college sparring partner who told me stories of when they used to go partying, and my grandmother’s long lost sister and her family. And again I felt so lucky, especially as a black person, to be able to retrace my ancestry.

I don’t believe in God but I do think that all things happen for a reason. I was meant to return to Jamaica during this period of self-discovery in order to ground myself. As a child, I was connected by Jamaican culture but was not cognizant of it. Navigating my way through private schooling, those ties became frayed along the way. Returning to Jamaica as an adult, I reinforced those bonds and then some. They say you have to know where you come from to know where you’re going. The trip, in many ways, gave me the direction I was searching for.