BNG lectures focus on African-American arts

The cultural fusion of arts, music and literature which sparked the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s provides the background for two upcoming talks in the Bermuda National Gallery's (BNG) 'Lunchtime Lecture Series'.

Tomorrow Bermudian musician, composer, writer and jazz aficionado Ron Lightbourne will focus on music in the African-American artistic journey under the topic: 'African American music — a collage in words and music', with particular emphasis on the jazz age of the 1920s and '30s.

On November 21, Angela Barry, author and Bermuda College senior lecturer in English, will discuss literature in relation to the visual arts, and the Harlem Renaissance. Her topic is 'Literature and the Visual Arts'.

Both lectures begin at 12:30 p.m. Admission is free for BNG members and $5 for others.

The Harlem Renaissance was an African-American cultural movement of the 1920s and early '30s centred in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City. It arose from the great migration of African-Americans to the northern cities at the end of the Civil War (1865) which, for the first time, created an African-American middle class. The Harlem Renaissance marked the first time that mainstream publishers and critics had taken African-American literature seriously, and that African-American literature and arts attracted significant attention from the nation at large. Although it was primarily a literary movement, it was closely related to developments in African-American music, theatre, art, and politics.

The current BNG exhibition, 'Living with Art: Modern & Contemporary African American Art from the Collection of Alitash Kebede', features several artists from the period, including Norman Lewis, Charles Alston, Palmer Hayden and Lois Mailou Jones. The exhibition continues at the BNG until January 3. Admission is free.

Romare Bearden lecture

The life and work of Romare Bearden, one of the most influential African-American artists of the last century, will be subject of the PartnerRe Art Lecture at the Bermuda National Gallery on November 15.

Entitled 'Romare Bearden: His Life In Art', the lecture will be delivered by Grace C. Stanislaus, executive director of the Romare Bearden Foundation. She will examine Bearden's extraordinary life through the lens of his art, and of his intellectual, political, social engagement and activism, collaborations in music, dance, and literature and continuing influence on generations of artists.

Bearden's work is featured in the current exhibition at the Bermuda National Gallery, 'Living with Art: Modern & Contemporary African-American Art from the Collection of Alitash Kebede'.

As executive director of the Romare Bearden Foundation, Ms Stanislaus oversees all aspects of the programmatic, financial and operational development of the New York-based, non-profit organisation which preserves, perpetuates and makes publicly accessible the legacy of the artist through its programmes.

With more than 20 years experience as an arts administrator working with non-profit organisations, she was also the former executive director of the Museum for African Art, New York; director of the Bronx Museum of the Arts; curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem; and senior vice-president at the African-American Cultural Centre.

Ms Stanislaus has lectured nationally and internationally on Africa, and African-American art and issues, and holds a Bachelor's and Master's degrees in art history from Forham and Columbia universities respectively. She is on the board of the Harlem School of the Arts in New York; is an advisory board member of the Center (corr) for Jazz Studies at Columbia University, and a member of the Association of Black Foundation Executives.

• For further information on Romare Bearden and the Romare Bearden Foundation, visit website www.beardenfoundation.org