On Friday, October 10, The Latinx Project hosted a full-day interdisciplinary conference titled Aesthetics of Joy and Refuge in Contemporary Culture. The gathering featured presentations by a range of scholars and cultural producers, each transforming contemporary visual culture, creative industries, and scholarship.
This event was made possible with support from the Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Tisch Illumination Fund.
Event Recap
9:00am Breakfast & Registration
9:50am Welcome
10:00am-11:40am Panel: Media and New Technologies
Arcelia Gutiérrez (University of California, Irvine): The Case for Media Reparations
Harold J. Leonard Navarro (Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras): Beyond Recognition: Black Bodies, AI, and the Aesthetics of Recognition
Michael Anthony Turcios (Northwestern University): Experiments with Burning ICE: Rage as Joy and Refuge
Nathan Rossi (Northwestern University): Digital Mestizaje, the Datafication of Latinx Identity, and the Political Economy of Brownness on TikTok
Ramón Resendiz (University of Oregon): Visualizing Archival Resistance: Producing Refuge & Justice through Documentary Media across the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
Moderator: Sharon De La Cruz (New York University)
11:50am-1:30pm Panel: Perspectives on Visual Art
Armando Perla (University of Montreal): Diasporic Aesthetics of Resistance: Indigenous Mesoamerican Museologies and the Visual Politics of Memory
Deanna Ledezma (University of Illinois Chicago): Lineages of Labor: Contemporary Latinx Artists at Work
Debbie M Duarte (Pitzer College): Alien Toy Takes a Joyride: Sensing Borderless Futurities
Joanne Gil Rivera (La Calle Loíza, Inc.): Somos Cangrejos: Mapa, Arte, Foro
Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet (Howard University Gallery of Art): Africana Kairibe Malungaje: Futurist Reversed Memories
Moderator: Robert Hernandez (Fordham University)
2:30pm-4:10pm Panel: Joy and Embodiment
Andy Rafael Aguilera (Western Washington University): “It Means Good”: Resistance and Refuge in Latinx Streetwear Brands in the Age of Trump
Gabrielle Vazquez (Curator): Diasporican Queens
Jose Ferrufino (Industrial designer): Al mal tiempo, buena cara: The Making of Beauty
Odalis Garcia Gorra (University of Texas at Austin): Dancing at the Threshold: Joy, Resistance, and the Counter-Archives of Diasporican
Orquidea Morales (University of Arizona): Excess and Monstrosity: The Freedom and Pain of La Gordita
Moderator: Gabriel Magraner (The Latinx Project)
4:20pm-6:00pm Panel: Migration and Border Culture
Daniel J. Vázquez Sanabria (University of Texas at Austin): Return is/as Refuge: Crip Narratives of Migration in Contemporary Puerto Rican Cultural Productions
Jose Alaniz (University of Washington, Seattle): Out of the Chispaverse: Chispa Comics as ‘Militarized Border Visuality’
Kiri Avelar (University of Utah): Transnational Family Dance Lineages of the U.S./Mexico Bracero Program
Mikayla Hernandez Guevara (School of the Art Institute of Chicago): What a Border to Cross: Domesticana, Material, and Aesthetics of Migration in Shaping a Transcendent Chicana Identity
Taylor Seaver De La Fuente (University of Michigan): Lo Que Le Pasó al Valle
Moderator: Cristina Beltrán (New York University)
6:00pm-7:00pm Community Reception