From Ellison to Atlanta: Afro Surrealism as Resistance with Alcy Leyva

Registration for this workshop has closed.

In this six-week course, we will be directly looking at the ways Afro Surrealism has become a way for artists to explore the ways black bodies exist/non-exist in society. We will trace the history of the literary style all the way back to its foundations in art. We will explore how Afro Surrealism appears in various pieces of literature (such as Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man) as well as in the visual medium (such Jordan Peele’s Get Out and the hit show Atlanta). These works will stand as a basis for our conversation around writing as a form of resistance.

Course Outline:

• Session 1 (1/11): Intro to Surrealism and Afro Surrealism
  • Appearance in art
  • Contemporary Surrealism
  • Defining and Redefining POCC spaces
  • BSAM and the new movement
  • Short readings and reflections from What It Means When a Man Falls
  • From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
• Session 2 (1/18): The Visible and Invisible Man- Ellison
  • Short readings from Invisible Man
  • Excerpts from Citizen: An American Lyric
  • Writing about hypervisibility/invisibility
• Session 3 (1/25): Get Out and Candy Man as Social Horror
  • Short screening
  • Reframing fear and colonialism in both films
  • Exposing Fear in Writing
• Session 4 (2/1): Laughing So Hard, You Cry
  • Random Acts of Flyness
  • Sorry to Bother You
  • Exposing Joy in Writing
• Session 5 (2/8): There’s No Place Like Atlanta
  • Short screenings of 5 episodes
  • Dread and Loathing
  • Exposing the Unknown in Writing
• Session 6 (2/15): Writing Workshop and Final Session

Capacity: 12