Black Flamenco Network - FUAAD Flamencos Unidos Africanos y Afro Descendientes 

Taking our place at the table:  Where do Black Artists fit in Flamenco?

History has taught us of the turbulent, perilous times that brought about the materialization of the cultural phenomenon we know and love that is Flamenco. Watered by the tears and wrought from the collective cries of marginalized people in Andalucia, Spain, Flamenco’s roots are varied and intertwined, its branches twisted and grafted together, its fruit uniquely nourishing for those who continue to seek the power of its communal and individual expression. But what place do Black voices have in an art form that largely has hidden the contributions that Africans have made to it?

“Taking our place at the table,” moderated by Caro Acuña-Olvera and Justice Miles will explore, with our panelists, critical topics concerning the health of Flamenco’s fruit – its very success as an art form that will be evident by its ability to step up to a global call for justice in a world still grappling with historical trauma, violence, oppression, and racism.

The panel discussion featuring Phyllis Akinyi, Omonike Akinyemi,  Yvonne Gutierrez, Kevin LaMarr Jones, Rosalinda Rojas and Esther Weekes, representing the Global Flamenco Artists of African Descent, will bring to light the practitioners’ unique perspectives as African-descended Flamenco artists from their personal study, embodied knowledge, and anthropological research. 

The discussion will center the perspectives of Black Flamenco Artists as they unpack what they see as issues of reckoning for Flamenco to become a more inclusive art such as: Diversity and representation in Flamenco; Ownership and the right to perform flamenco; Creation of responsive Flamenco curricula; The need for archival justice; and The historic invisibilization and appropriation of “la negritúd.”