Best co-organizes conference on Black Urbanities

Geography Professor Asha Best recently co-organized Black Urbanities: Black Politics in the City, a conference held February 18–20 at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) in Barcelona, Spain.

The conference, which was presented by the MACBA and the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture (CCCB), convened voices from across disciplines, geographies, and political histories to explore the collective experiences of Black people living in urban environments. Through discussions of everyday urban tactics, global struggles for autonomy, and the practice and potential of Black imagination, participants asked what sorts of emergent futures could be held in Black districts across the globe, especially in the face of unprecedented political and ecological instability.

The conference included a performance by Saul Williams, a Grammy-nominated poet and actor who most recently appeared in the film “Sinners.” 

Best and co-organizer AbdouMaliq Simone collaborated with MACBA and the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture on a video explaining Black urbanism and the urgency of opening conversations about it. Watch on Instagram »