Chicago, IL.—- The DuSable Museum of African American History will roll out the red carpet later this month as it welcomes delegates from across the country and Puerto Rico to “Reflect, Reinvest, Revitalize! Preserving The African American Experience,” the Association of African American Museums (AAAM) National Conference. More than 500 attendees are expected for the annual meeting which begins Wednesday, August 27 at the Chicago Hilton Hotel and Towers, 720 South Michigan Avenue. The conference officially ends on Saturday, August 30.
For thirty years, the Association has helped shape the African American museum experience through the celebration of history, diversity, culture, environment and identity. While in Chicago, the delegates will experience the city’s diversity during visits to The Art Institute of Chicago; the McCormick Freedom Museum, the National Museum of Mexican Art and of course, the DuSable Museum of African American History, in addition to participating in a series of Pre-Conference Workshops and Conference Sessions.
Conference participants in addition to the general public will also have the opportunity to visit “America I AM Across America,” a multi-sensory museum experience complete with artifacts, text, video, music and a unique visitor interactive opportunity. In a customized mobile recording booth, visitors can leave their own “imprints” as recorded video messages which may become part of a major exhibition, “America I Am: The African American Imprint,” scheduled to begin a four year tour in January of 2009. The mobile experience will be at the DuSable Museum on August 28 and August 29, 2008.
Keynote speakers for the conference include; author, educator and poet, Haki R. Madhubuti, Director Emeritus of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing, and Director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Chicago State University. Dr. Madhubuti will speak during the Awards Luncheon on Friday, August 29th.
Other speakers will include: Theodore Stanley of Princeton University; Valinda Carroll of Hampton University; Dr. John Fleming of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History; Dr. Andrea Barnwell Brownlee of Spelman College; Ford Bell of the American Association of Museums; and Gregory Narrows of the National Archives.
For a complete conference agenda and on-site registration information, please visit the AAAM Web site at http://www.blackmuseums.org.
The Association of African American Museums is a non-profit member organization established to support African and African American focused museums nationally and internationally, as well as the professionals who protect, preserve and interpret African and African American art, history and culture. The organization was originally founded in February 1978 as the African American Museums Association (AAMA). In 1998, the organization was restructured and met for the first time under its current name in Birmingham, Alabama.
The DuSable Museum of African American History, the first and oldest institution of its kind in the country, has been dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation and dissemination of the history and culture of Africans and Americans of African descent for 47 years. For more information on the Museum and its programs, please call (773) 947-0600 or you may visit our website at http://www.dusablemuseum.org.
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