Awam Amkpa

Last updated

Awam Amkpa is a professor of drama, film and social and cultural analysis at New York University in New York and Abu Dhabi. Actor, playwright, director of stage plays, films and curator of visual arts, Awam Amkpa is a Nigerian-American.

Contents

Background

Currently a professor of Drama and Cultural Theory at the departments of Drama, Tisch School of the Arts and Social and Cultural Analysis, Faculty of Arts and Sciences at New York University. He received his B.A. in Dramatic Arts from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria where he studied under the tutelage of Wole Soyinka, his M.A. in Drama from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, and his Ph.D. from University of Bristol, Bristol, England.

Career

Dr. Amkpa is currently a professor of Drama at New York University and in Social and Cultural Analysis/Africana studies at New York University. [1] He has also taught at Mount Holyoke College. [2] He is a theatre scholar and practitioner-director, playwright and actor, film maker and curator of visual and performing arts.

Books

ReSignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana Readings. Edited catalogue published by Postcart, Rome, Italy. 2016 Africa: See You, See Me. Edited catalogue, Africa.Cont, Lisboa. 2013

Filmography

Director/Editor, ‘Accra: A Pan-African Rupture’ 75 mins

Director/Editor, ‘A Very Very Short Story of Nollywood’ 15 mins Produced by Manthia Diawara. 2008

Director, ‘Women of Agbogloshi’ 12 mins- short documentary on Muslim women in Accra. 2007

Director, ‘Voices Against Aids’ 5 mins ‘Hip-Life’ music video shot and broadcast in Ghana for the West African Aids Federation. 2007

Assistant Director, Conakry Kas, directed by Manthia Diawara 2006

Assistant Director, Bamako Sigi-Kan, directed by Manthia Diawara. 2005

Director, Editor, Wazobia! Feature film written and produced by Tess Onwueme. 2005

Curatorial Practices

'Africa: Significaciones' at Centro Provincial de artes Plasticas y Diseño, Havana, Cuba. 2017 'ReSignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana Readings.' at Museo Bardini, Villa La Pietra and Galleria Biagiotti, Florence, Italy. 2015 'Africa: See You, See Me' in Beijing and Macau China; Rome and Florence, Italy, Dakar, Senegal and Lagos, Nigeria. 2011-2013 Annual Highlife Music Festival, Accra, Ghana. 2006-2009 Kofi Ghanaba Audi-Visual Archives, Medie-Accra, Ghana 2007-2010

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of Africa</span> History and present of cinema in Africa

Cinema of Africa covers both the history and present of the making or screening of films on the African continent, and also refers to the persons involved in this form of audiovisual culture. It dates back to the early 20th century, when film reels were the primary cinematic technology in use. During the colonial era, African life was shown only by the work of white, colonial, Western filmmakers, who depicted Africans in a negative fashion, as exotic "others". As there are more than 50 countries with audiovisual traditions, there is no one single 'African cinema'. Both historically and culturally, there are major regional differences between North African and sub-Saharan cinemas, and between the cinemas of different countries.

The Prince Claus Fund was established in 1996, named in honor of Prince Claus of the Netherlands. It receives an annual subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Malick Sidibé was a Malian photographer noted for his black-and-white studies of popular culture in the 1960s in Bamako. Sidibé had a long and fruitful career as a photographer in Bamako, Mali, and was a well-known figure in his community. In 1994 he had his first exhibition outside of Mali and received much critical praise for his carefully composed portraits. Sidibé's work has since become well known and renowned on a global scale. His work was the subject of a number of publications and exhibited throughout Europe and the United States. In 2007, he received a Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale, becoming both the first photographer and the first African so recognized. Other awards he has received include a Hasselblad Award for photography, an International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a World Press Photo award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tukufu Zuberi</span> American sociologist (born 1959)

Tukufu Zuberi is an American sociologist, filmmaker, social critic, educator, and writer. Zuberi has appeared in several documentaries on Africa and the African diaspora, including Liberia: America's Stepchild (2002), and 500 Years Later (2005). He is one of the hosts of the long-running PBS program History Detectives. As founder of his own production company, he produced the film African Independence, which premiered at the San Diego Black Film Festival in January 2013. He is the Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, professor and chair of the sociology department, and professor of Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Efua Sutherland</span> Ghanaian writer, publisher, educationalist and cultural activist (1924–1996)

Efua Theodora Sutherland was a Ghanaian playwright, director, dramatist, children's author, poet, educationalist, researcher, child advocate, and cultural activist. Her works include the plays Foriwa (1962), Edufa (1967), and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975). She founded the Ghana Drama Studio, the Ghana Society of Writers, the Ghana Experimental Theatre, and a community project called the Kodzidan. As Ghana's earliest playwright-director, she was an influential figure in the development of modern Ghanaian theatre, and helped to introduce the study of African performance traditions at university level. She was also a pioneering African publisher, establishing the company Afram Publications in Accra in the 1970s.

Christopher Uchefuna Okeke, also known as Uche Okeke, was an illustrator, painter, sculptor, and teacher. He was an art and aesthetic theorist, seminal to Nigerian modernism.

Ella Shohat, is an American professor of cultural studies at New York University, where she teaches in the departments of Art & Public Policy and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies. She has written and lectured on the topics of Eurocentrism, Orientalism, Postcolonialism, Transnationalism, and Diasporic cultures.

John Douglas Crimp was an American art historian, critic, curator, and AIDS activist. He was known for his scholarly contributions to the fields of postmodern theories and art, institutional critique, dance, film, queer theory, and feminist theory. His writings are marked by a conviction to merge the often disjunctive worlds of politics, art, and academia. From 1977 to 1990, he was the managing editor of the journal October. Before his death, Crimp was Fanny Knapp Allen Professor of Art History and professor of Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester.

Manthia Diawara is a Malian writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar, and art historian. He holds the title of University Professor at New York University (NYU), where he is Director of the Institute of Afro-American Affairs.

Mahama Johnson Traoré (1942–2010) was a Senegalese film director, writer, and co-founder of the Ouagadougou-based Pan-African Cinema Festival (FESPACO).

Contemporary African art is commonly understood to be art made by artists in Africa and the African diaspora in the post-independence era. However, there are about as many understandings of contemporary African art as there are curators, scholars and artists working in that field. All three terms of this "wide-reaching non-category [sic]" are problematic in themselves: What exactly is "contemporary", what makes art "African", and when are we talking about art and not any other kind of creative expression?

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lekan Balogun</span> Nigerian dramatist and theatre director

Lekan Balogun is a Nigerian dramatist and theatre director. His plays include Moremi Ajaasoro, performed as the Western zone's entry for the Festival of Nigerian Plays ; Olofin Ajaye and The Mote in the Eye, NANTAP International Theatre Day, 2008 and 2009/20th Anniversary Play projects; The Rejected Stone, an African retelling of the popular fable Cinderella, Alaafin Kanran, Farewell and Dirty Circle for Royal Court Theatre, London, excerpt performed at the Sloane Square, Jerwood Theatre, London, in 2009 with sponsorship from the British Council, Nigeria & GENESIS Foundation, UK; The Ghost Catcher; Goodbye Yesterday; Our Tomorrow Today; Ijebu 1832; For Heroes and Scoundrels, among others. He wrote and directed a play about Zulu folklore (Izibongo) and history in 2008 with the title Shaka, the Zulu legend.

The Boy Kumasenu is a 1952 feature film made in Ghana by a British film crew. It was produced and directed by Sean Graham from a script by Graham and John Wyllie. The score was by Elisabeth Lutyens. The movie became popular and had an impact on the social live of the people. It displayed signs of future potentials which made it become associated with anti colonialism and social change in the newly emerging independence Ghana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of Ghana</span> Filmmaking in Ghana

Cinema of Ghana also known as the Ghana Film Industry nicknamed Ghallywood, began when early film making was first introduced to the British colony of Gold Coast in 1923. At the time only affluent people could see the films, especially the colonial master of Gold Coast. In the 1950s, film making in Ghana began to increase. Cinemas were the primary venue for watching films until home video became more popular. The movie industry has no official name as yet since consultations and engagements with stakeholders has been ongoing when a petition was sent to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture which suspended the use of the name Black Star Films.

Lina Iris Viktor is a British-Liberian visual artist based in New York. The New York Times described her paintings as "queenly self-portraits with a futuristic edge". The artist is represented by Pilar Corrias, London.

Cheryl Finley is an art historian, author, curator and critic. She is a professor at Cornell University and Director of the AUC Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective. She won Bard Graduate Center's Horowitz Book Prize for her book, Committed to Memory: the Art of the Slave Ship Icon in 2019.

Sam Greatorex Aryeetey is a Ghanaian film producer, film director and writer. He is often credited as the director of the first Ghanaian feature film, No Tears for Ananse.

Ivor Agyeman-Duah is a Ghanaian academic, economist, writer, editor and film director. He has worked in Ghana's diplomatic service and has served as an advisor on development policy.

Ekwa Msangi is a Tanzanian-American filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter. She teaches Production and Cultural Studies at New York University.

Gbemisola Adeoti is a Nigerian Academic and poet. He is a professor of literature in the English Department at Obafemi Awolowo University. He is the author of Naked Soles which was at a time recommended by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board. Between 2011 and 2015, he served as the Director of the Institute of Cultural Studies, and he was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 2015 to 2019 at OAU.

References

  1. "Data". as.nyu.edu. Archived from the original on 2006-09-02.
  2. "Data". mtholyoke.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-07-22. Retrieved 2018-03-14.