Preview: Projections of Panafrica

This event, organized as part of the Pan-Africa research project at the Neubauer Collegium, inaugurates a citywide constellation of exhibitions and events that explore Pan-Africanism in association with the Art Institute of Chicago exhibition Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica. Opening in December 2024, this major exhibition is the first to survey modern and contemporary cultural activity through an expressly Pan-Africanist lens.

Pan-Africanism generally evokes political action: calls for equality, self-determination, and solidarity among Black peoples worldwide. Art and culture have often been given a secondary role. Yet since its articulation in the early 20th century, Pan-Africanism has always involved rich practices of aesthetic experimentation and cultural representation. These practices continue to shape Pan-African political projects in the present.

The event will begin with a screening of Monangambééé (1968), the début film by Sarah Maldoror (1929–2020), introduced by members of the Project a Black Planet curatorial team. A listening session with DJ Rae Chardonnay will explore local connections to the film — which includes music by the Art Ensemble of Chicago — and show how Pan-Africanist cultural production has emerged from Chicago and continues to circulate in this city. A discussion and reception will follow.

Presented by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and Arts + Public Life.

ABOUT THE FILM

Monangambééé (1968, Sarah Maldoror, 18 mins.)

Filmed in Algeria, conceived by a French filmmaker with roots in Guadeloupe and training from the Soviet Union, and centered on Portuguese torture tactics in Angola, Monangambééé epitomizes the imagination of a Black Planet forged by scrambling colonialist geographies. The title (“White Death!”) was a warning from the days of enslavement repurposed by Angolan activists as a rallying cry. This is the first film by Maldoror, a Parisian theater director turned cinema auteur, who took her art name from the proto-Surrealist classic The Songs of Maldoror, and used free-jazz experiments by the Art Ensemble of Chicago as the soundtrack to this short-form paean to revolutionary action. As Maldoror sharply proclaimed, “I feel at home wherever I am. I am from everywhere and from nowhere.”

ABOUT RAE CHARDONNAY

Rae Chardonnay is a DJ, interdisciplinary artist and cultural programs producer from the West Side of Chicago. She is the founder of Black Eutopia, a series of segmented programming intended to cultivate space for marginalized communities; and co-founder of the award-winning Party Noire, where joy for Black queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people is centered. As a spacemaker, Rae is committed to engaging communities that exist and intersect in margins to dream of and build the liberated worlds we want to live in. Using sound as the primary creative tool of expression and reimagination, Rae has worked extensively as a leader and participant in several solo and collaborative curatorial activations with University of Chicago’s CSRPC, South Side Home Movie Project, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Arts Alliance of Illinois, Threewalls, the Chicago House Music Festival, Apple, and more. She has opened for legendary talents such as Janelle Monae, Megan Thee Stallion, DJ Mike Dunn, Ron Carroll, DJ Spinna, Just Blaze, Cece Peniston, DJ Heather, and more. She is the recipient of several artistic residencies and grants and has been featured across a variety of publications. Rae received a BA in arts management from Columbia College and is currently working as the Education and Community Partnerships Manager at Steppenwolf Theatre.

IMAGE: © René Vautier, Courtesy of Annouchka de Andrade