Voyage
Through
Infinite
Blackness
presented by
The Schomburg Center
Teen Curators
Nonlinear Pendulums: Voyage through Infinite Blackness is a cosmic offering organized by the Schomburg Center’s Teen Curators, a Black art history and curatorial program for high school students. This year, our Teen Curators produced a digital exhibition which drew inspiration from the cultural aesthetics of both AfroFuturism and AfroSurrealism. While codified in the last thirty years, the impulses of both have always existed in the Black collective unconscious and it is our belief that where one ends, the other begins. Throughout myriad African societies, individuals have embodied voices of the past, present and future. When the children of Africa were kidnapped and transported to the Americas these embedded archetypes followed.
The parallel pathways of both cultural aesthetics can be seen from the barkcloth of the Mbuti Pygmies of the Congo to the literary works of Amiri Baraka, Toni Morrison, Henry Dumas, the cosmic expression of Sun Ra to the present day surrealism of Black life. The Teen Curators apply these aesthetics as a liberatory framework to reflect on the past, decipher the present and project a future rooted in Black liberation. Crafted with the Schomburg Center's Research Divisions as our foundation during these perilous times, Nonlinear Pendulums is deeply shaped by the reality of being a teen in the epicenter of a global pandemic and massive social unrest. There were moments of deep grief in our curatorial practice as we observed what seemed like an all-out assault on Black bodies. But this very special cohort of Teen Curators, so clever, curious and hopeful, was able to bring great vision to this work, forged in the fire of a unique historical moment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
2020 Schomburg Teen Curators
Alexus Younge | Aminah Cadesca | Avree Downing | Camren Johnson | Cerena Parkinson | Chanell Cuevas | Chyanne Ifill
Demari Watkins | Ja’Mya Lowe | Katie Tejeda | Khalid Khalfani | Maya Elizabeth Jasmine Scriven | Mordecai Kodua
Maria "Levka" Starkova | Nia Clarke | Ottavia Morfino | Pablo Blanco | Rosa Galvez | Shelby Grant | Trécii P. Cheeseboro
Xavier Paulino | Zarina Lewin | Zora Michelle Danticat
Staff
Education Coordinator: Zenzele Z. Johnson
Instructor/Artist: M. Scott Johnson
Exhibitions Coordinator/ Designer: Shante´ Cozier
Collaborators & Design Support: Shani Peters, Joseph Cullier and Brianna Lue, The Black School
Schomburg Center Director: Kevin Young
Chief of Staff: Kevin Matthews
Associate Director of Education: Brian Jones
Associate Director of Public Programs and Exhibitions: Novella Ford
Former Director of Collections and Information Services: Mary Yearwood
Art and Artifacts Division: Tammi Lawson, Bridgett Pride
Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division: Cheryl Beredo, Barrye Brown and Lauren Starks
Photographs and Prints Division: Michael Mery, Antony Toussaint
Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division: Maira Liriano, Rhonda Evans, A.J. Muhammad
Moving Image, Recorded Sound Division: Shola Lynch & Andrea Battleground
Associate Director and Curator of the Lapidus Center: Michelle D. Commander, Ph.D.
Communications Manager: Lisa Herndon
NYPL Copyright and Permissions: Kiowa Hammonds
Schomburg Facilities & Security: Queennasira Sekou, Courtney Addison
Schomburg Society and Volunteer Services: Ruchelle Perry and Carey Byrd
Schomburg Shop: Rio Cortez and Virginia Mixon
Park Boulevard Productions: Kris Bergbom and Brandon Sears
The Schomburg Teen Curators Program is generously funded by The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation.
Special Thanks
Deirde Hollman, Former Education Director and Founder of The Teen Curators Program
The Schomburg Society
Lower Manhattan Community Arts Council
Ladi’ Sasha Jones, Writer & Curator
Chef Elle Simone, America’s Test Kitchen
Chaedria La Bouvier, Curator of Basquiat’s Defacement
The New York African Burial Ground Site
Cornell University Hip Hop Collection
Chris Calhoun Agency, Estate of Amiri Baraka
Eugene Redmond, Henry Lee Dumas Estate
Amy Gironda, Central Park East High School
David Fanning, & Ms. Foster Ba, A. Philip Randolph Campus High School
Joel Lowy, New York City Museum School
Carey Ma, Frederick Douglass Academy
Michael Farmer, New Heights Academy Charter School
United Nations International School
Bob Gore
Khalilah Bates
Megan R. Williams
Dedication
The Teen Curators Program is dedicating this project to friends, family, and loved ones who have touched our hearts and changed our lives.
Jean "Nanny" Scarlata*
Uraline "Mama" Younge
Ambrose "Papa" Younge
*no longer with us
Contact
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Lenox Avenue
New York, NY 10037