Afro Atlantic Histories

the long version

"Afro-Atlantic Histories" brings together a selection of more than 400 works and documents by more than 200 artists from the 16th to the 21st centuries that express and analyze the ebbs and flows between Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe. The book is motivated by the desire and need to draw parallels, frictions, and dialogues around the visual cultures of Afro-Atlantic territories--their experiences, creations, worshipping, and philosophy. The so-called Black Atlantic, to use the term coined by Paul Gilroy, is geography lacking precise borders, a fluid field where African experiences invade and occupy other nations, territories, and cultures. The plural and polyphonic quality of "histórias" is also of note; unlike the English "histories," the word in Portuguese carries a double meaning that encompasses both fiction and nonfiction, personal, political, economic, and cultural, as well as mythological narratives.