'After the Dance: Conversations on Michael Jackson's Black America' Takes Place at the Schomberg Center, 6/4-6/5

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and dj lynnee denise of WildSeed Music NYC would like to invite you to take part in a historic discussion, After the Dance: Conversations on Michael Jackson's Black America, presented as part of the Schomburg's Centennial Year Celebration and Black Music Month.

After the Dance is a two-day forum for artists, academics, educators, and Michael fans to engage in shared dialogue, debate and deconstruction about the many faces and facets of Michael Jackson, and the mirror his four-decade public presence holds to the Black experience.

Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest on June 25, 2009. After a year of media-sanctioned` mourning through concert tributes, film specials, video marathons and an extravagance of merchandising, who will bear the questions of music industry exploitation, self-hate, sexuality, addiction and apparent madness that Michael's life and death urge us to ask? Michael's story echoes the ongoing crises of experience and identity faced not only by Black America, but the Black Diaspora as a whole. These conversations demand space beyond the video tribute.

Friday June 4, 2010
6-7 opening reception (WildSeed Music MJ Sound System)
7:00 opening plenary
Nelson George and Toure discuss the cultural impact of MJ and Nelson's upcoming bookThriller: The Musical life of Michael Jackson
Suggested $10 donation at the door

Saturday June 5, 2010 (Free events)
11am-12noon Can you Feel it?: A multi-media collage of the decades-long Jackson family musical career.

Panel discussions:
12:00-1:30
To be White, Gifted and Black: Managing acceptable representations of blackness as the "King of Pop"
moderator: Esther Armah
Arthur Jaffa, Dream Hampton, DJ Qool Marv, lynnee denise

Keep it in the Closet: The historic speculation around MJ's gender bending persona
2:00-3:30
Moderator: Steven Fullwood
Mark Anthony Neale, dj selly, Asadullah Muhammad, DJ Reborn

Black ain't Green: Honoring Michael's environmental consciousness and philanthropic endeavors.
4:00-5:00pm
Featured speaker: Walker Sands

5:00 Closing Jackson Rhythms

"So all MJs jigsaw pieces suit him fine now because they sure don't fit on anybody else. Cat did his thang did it long did it well, did it despite trauma and depression, and then he was Out. Just another dead Black genius M.I.A. who took a huge chunk of us with him. What could be more Black American than that?" Greg Tate.

Produced by:
dj lynnee denise-WildSeed Music NYC
Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf- Schomburg Center
Ashley Bowden- Schomburg Center
Idrissa Simmonds (language architect)- WildSeed Cultural Group