Racial Capitalism: Who Benefits from Cultural Appropriation?

Racial Capitalism:
Who Benefits from Cultural Appropriation?

Co-presented by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation
and Asian American Arts Alliance

Thursday, December 10, 2020
6 to 7:30pm EST

This event was held on Zoom

Clockwise: Hrag Vartanian, Jeff Chang, Wendy Red Star and DJ Rekha. [Image Description: A composite image of four headshots.]

In today’s globalized world, parts of our individual, sociocultural identities are often shaped by cultures other than our own. How do we make sense of this phenomenon in our own creative practices, and what is the difference between appropriation and influence? Who owns what culture? Who has the right to tell the story of a culture? And who has the right to profit from cultural references? This program featured moderator Hrag Vartanian with panelists Jeff Chang, Wendy Red Star, and DJ Rekha and examined the power dynamics and value structures inherent in capitalism. Cultural appropriation without proper understanding and respect for its original significance often exoticizes cultural elements and creates a dominant impression of specific ethnic groups, depicting particular identification as “other.” This program was the second of a three part series co-presented by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation and the Asian American Arts Alliance.

Access Information: This event included live ASL interpretation and captioning.

Click here to read the event transcript

Bios

Jeff Chang is the Vice President for Narrative, Arts and Culture at Race Forward. His books include Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop, and Who We Be: A Cultural History of Race in Post Civil Rights America. His latest, We Gon' Be Alright: Notes On Race and Resegregation, was published in September 2016. It was named the Northern California Nonfiction Book of the Year, and Washington Post declared it “the smartest book of the year.” In May 2019, he and director Bao Nguyen created a four-episode digital series adaptation of the book for PBS Indie Lens Storycast. He is featured in the PBS documentary series Asian Americans. Recently, he helped write the Cultural New Deal alongside a number of artists and culture bearers. A national leader in narrative and cultural strategy, Chang co-founded CultureStr/ke and ColorLines. He was named by The Utne Reader as one of "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" and by KQED as an Asian Pacific American Local Hero. He has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and the winner of the Asian American Literary Award. He was recently named to the Frederick Douglass 200. 

Raised on the Apsáalooke (Crow) reservation in Montana, Wendy Red Star’s work is informed both by her cultural heritage and her engagement with many forms of creative expression, including photography, sculpture, video, fiber arts, and performance. An avid researcher of archives and historical narratives, Red Star seeks to incorporate and recast her research, offering new and unexpected perspectives in work that is at once inquisitive, witty and unsettling. Red Star holds a BFA from Montana State University, Bozeman, and an MFA in sculpture from University of California, Los Angeles. She lives and works in Portland, OR.

DJ Rekha is a producer, curator, and activist, who has pioneered Bhangra music in North America via their monthly club night, Basement Bhangra (1997-2017). They are on the board of Queens-based Chhaya Community Development Corp., serving New Yorkers of South Asian origin. They produce the weekly podcast Bhangra and Beyond.

The editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hyperallergic, Hrag Vartanian is an editor, art critic, curator, and lecturer on contemporary art with an expertise on the intersection of art and politics. Hrag co-founded the publication Hyperallergic in 2009 in response to changes in the art world, the publishing industry, and the distribution of information. Breaking news, award-winning reporting, informed opinions, and quality conversations about art have helped Hyperallergic reach an audience as high as a million visitors per month.

The Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring greater representation, equity, and opportunities for Asian American artists and cultural organizations through resource sharing, promotion, and community building. Since 1983, A4 has sought to unify, promote, and represent the artistic and cultural producers of one of New York City’s fastest-growing populations. A4 comprises a diverse alliance of artists, organizations, and arts supporters who believe that working together as a pan-ethnic, multidisciplinary community is essential to nurturing the development of artists and arts groups. A4 serves as a thoughtful convener of the Asian American cultural workforce around issues of race, identity, and artmaking and provides a critical voice for this community. A4 is the only service organization in the country dedicated to the professional development of Asian American artists in all disciplines. www.aaartsalliance.org