DIGITAL DIALOGUES

Wednesday 8 November 2023

10.00am GMT - Carol Leeming

11:15am GMT - Kevin J Brazant

12:30pm GMT - Vidal Montgomery

Serendipity invited Black researchers, academics and creatives to present new thinking, with digital technology at its core. Presentations will take place throughout the day, followed by a Q&A. Recordings of the presentations will be made available to view at the end of the day. Futher speakers to be announce.

Disrupting the Discourse: Exploring Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a catalyst for creativity and Problem-solving through digital content creation.

Kevin J Brazant

Kevin J Brazant is a University Teaching Fellow and Certified Leading Practitioner in Learning Development. He is a senior fellow with the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Association for Learning Developers for Higher Education. “Disrupt the Discourse” explores the interdisciplinary approaches adopted to tackling issues of race and racism using digital technology and co-creation as part of teaching and learning in higher education.

Afro-Futurism Pan African Futurism Black Futurism

Carol Leeming

Carol Leeming is a multi-award winning, multi-disciplinary artist in literature, performing arts and digital media, a singer-songwriter, musician, composer, actor, director, curator, visual artist, and publisher. Using Black Futurism as a starting point, she explores the concept of an intersectional framework required for imagining a Black Futurism that is Pan African, inclusive of a range culturally diverse groups, which is not patriarchal and heteronormative.

“Metadata as Blaxonomy” A Study of How Black People might use Web 2.0 For Critical Creation, Conversation, Curation, and Classification

Vidal Montgomery

Vidal Montgomery recently completed the MA Global Black Studies, Decolonisation and Social Justice at University of West London. He is editor for the Jazzreloaded Project, the first Digital Afropean Jazz Blog in the UK. Vidal helped establish Code Untapped, a digital skills accelerator for marginalised and minoritised people, and Udome a Black Start-up geared towards remittances for self-employed people. His presentation is concerned with the historic and potential use of “web 2.0” internet protocols and technologies and methods of articulating and contextualising the imperative of Black people and a method of taxonomy for Black digital artefacts on the internet.

CHANGING THE LENS, CHANGING THE GAZE

Thursday 9 November 2023

10:00am GMT - Films available to view from this time

2:00pm GMT - Q&A with Thomas Talawa Prestø

Interpretations – Siren Calls to an Illusive Journey

Language

English

Country United Kingdom

Genre Documentary

Creative Producer

Choreographers

Composer

Pawlet Brookes

Thomas Prestø and Monique Jonas

Philip Herbert

Commissioner Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage

Time 34 minutes

Commissioned by Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage, Siren Calls: To an Illusive Journey was a performance piece, commissioned to honour the Windrush generation and crystallise their experiences.

Composed by Philip Herbert with two independent choreographic interpretations by Monique Jonas and Thomas Talawa Prestø, both encapsulate the strength, tenacity and spirit of adventure into a new world, whilst the fluidity of the music for string quartet considers echoes of the past, hopes of the future and the density of the middle passage.

Inside I Will Dance

Language

English

Country Sweden

Genre

Choreographer

Cinematography

Dance FIlm

Freddy Houndekindo

Thomas Zamolo

Music Camille Prieux

Commissioner Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage

Time 3 minutes

A response to the question “can dance change the world?” Freddy Houndekindo reflects on the purpose dance has played in his own life, from challenging taboos to embracing the complexity of identity.

“Dance is the practice that taught me to welcome the foreign within me. Dance hosts the plurality under my own skin.”

DIGITAL ACCESS TICKET: £25

Access And Accessibility

Friday 10 November 2023

10:00am GMT - Films available to view from this time

The Silent Beat: A Haptic Conversation

Country United Kingdom

Creative producer

Choreographer and dancer

Composer

Digital Programmer

Pawlet Brookes

Antoine Hunter

Soweto Kinch

Tonderai Ratisai

Commissioner Serendipity institute for Black Arts and Heritage

Time 6 minutes

The Silent Beat: A Haptic Conversation celebrates technology as it embraces dance exploring how haptics can be used as a creative tool.

Pawlet Brookes, creative producer, brings together Antoine Hunter and Soweto Kinch in collaboration with Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage and De Montfort University and programmer Tonderai Ratisai, to present an experimental work investigating the ways in which haptic technology can be used to relay music in new ways and the practical applications this might have for Deaf dancers and choreographers.

Originally performed live for Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2023.

Antoine Hunter - Uncovering the Dance Within: Origins and Authenticity

Country

Presenter

United Kingdom

Antoine Hunter

Time 3 minutes 6 seconds

Through his conference talk for LDIF23, Antoine shares his exploration and celebration of the intersectionality of identity. Providing an insight into what it means to be Black, indigenous, Deaf, disabled, two spirit and a human being.