IAS Book Launch: Black Boys
02 October 2023, 6:00 pm–8:30 pm
Join author Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka for the launch of his new book 'Black Boys: The Social Aesthetics of Black Urban Film'
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All | Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê staff | Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê students
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
Institute of Advanced Studies
Location
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Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre2nd Floor, South Junction, Wilkins Building, Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊLondonWC1E 6BTUnited Kingdom
In Black Boys: The Aesthetics of British Urban Film, Clive Chijioke Nwonka offers the first dedicated analysis of Black British urban cinematic and televisual representation as a textual encounter with Blackness, masculinity and urban identity where the generic construction of images and narratives of Black urbanity is informed by the (un)knowable allure of Black urban Otherness. Foregrounding the textual Black urban identity as a historical formation, and drawing on a range of theoretical frameworks that allow for an examination of the emergence and continued social, cultural and industrial investment in the fictitious and non-fictitious images of Black urban identities and geographies, Nwonka convenes a dialogue between the disciplines of Film and Television Studies, Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Black Studies, Sociology and Criminology. Here, Nwonka advances an expansive reading of the Black British urban text as the outcome of a complex conjunctural interaction between social phenomena, cultural policy, political discourse and the continuously shifting politics of Black representation.
Rooted in historical and contemporary questions of race, racism and anti-Blackness but equally attentive to the social dynamics that render the screen as a site of Black recognition, authorship and authenticity, Black Boys presents a critical rethinking of the contextual and aesthetic factors in the visual constructions of Black urban identity.
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The event will be chaired by Professor Tariq Jazeel (Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Geography). The talk by the author Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka (Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Institute of Advanced Studies) will be followed by responses by discussants Professor Suzi Hall (LSE Department of Sociology), Dr Kesewa John (Goldsmiths, Department of History) and Professor Anamik Saha (University of Leeds, Department of Media and Communications). The talk will be followed by a drinks reception, where copies of the book will be available to purchase.
This book launch is organised in collaboration by the Institute of Advanced Studies, the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Race and Racialisation and the Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Film Studies Programme.
About the Speaker
Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka
Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka is Associate Professor in Film, Culture and Society at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê, and a Faculty Associate of the Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. Dr Nwonka’s research centres on the study of Black British and African American film, with a particular focus on the Black aesthetics, images of Black urbanity and the modes through which Black identities are shaped by representations of environments, architecture, social anxieties and the hegemony of neoliberalism within forms of Black popular culture. Nwonka is the co-editor of the book Black Film/British Cinema II and is the author of the forthcoming book Black Arsenal: Race, Cultural Memory and Black British Identity (2023)