Author of “Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid” to Keynote Activist Scholarship Conference

Event: Abriendo Brecha Activist Scholarship Conference IX Keynote by Frank B. Wilderson III

When: Friday, Feb. 17, Noon

Where: John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, ISESE Gallery, Jester Hall A230, The University of Texas at Austin

Background: Frank B. Wilderson III, the award-winning author of “Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid,” will present the keynote for the ninth annual Abriendo Brecha Activist Scholarship Conference at The University of Texas at Austin. Wilderson is one of two Americans to hold elected office in the African National Congress and is a former insurgent in the ANC’s armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. His memoir received the American Book Award, the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award, the Eisner Prize for Creative Achievement of the Highest Order and the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship. He is the author of a recent monograph on cinema, politics and race called “Red, White and Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms” (Duke, 2010).

After a 30-minute break, the conference will continue at 2 p.m. with a research panel that includes

• Tiara Naputi, Department of Anthropology, Guahan Coalition of Peace and Justice
• Sade Anderson and Haile Eshe Cole, Department of Anthropology, Mamas of Color Rising (Austin)
• Cory LaFevers, Ethnomusicology, Projeto Yabas
• Luciane Rocha, Department of Anthropology, Violence, Black Women and Activism in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Jorge Antonio Renaud, School of Social Work, Red Salmon Arts/Save our Youth

The Abriendo Brecha Conference keynote is sponsored by the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement and the John Warfield Center for African and African American Studies.