THE IMAGINED NEW, (or, what happens when History is a catastrophe?) Volume 1, working through alternative archives/ art, history, Africa and the African Diaspora

238pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Johannesburg, 2023

"The Imagined New(or, what happens when History is a catastrophe?) is a collaborative project between the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice (SSJ), Brown University, and the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Center (VIAD), University of Johannesburg (UJ). This long-term, three-part project provides an interdisciplinary platform for critical exchange and research around African and African Diasporic art practices and curatorship, and the political work of the radical Black imagination.

This volume forms part of the inaugural iteration of the Imagined New project, which began as a three-day workshop (10-12 May 2019) held at UJ and convened by the CSSJ and VIAD. Titled Working through Alternative Archives: Art, History, Africa and the African Diaspora, the interdisciplinary workshop included curated conversations, artistic interventions, panel discussions and performances."

Contributions include:

"Preface: the Imagined New (or, what happens when History is a catastrophe?) by Leora Farber

"'I don't think my education comes from reading theory, it's the result of relations to specific people'", Nolan Oswald Dennis in conversation with Riason Naidoo

"Further and Further Out: Ben Ngobeni's Pursuit of Freedom" by Thabang Monoa.