The Birth Of Cool: A Talk With Professor Carol Tulloch
The Birth of Cool with Carol Tulloch on Thursday 6th December from 6-8pm at the Fashion & Textile Museum, London
Join writer and curator Professor Carol Tulloch on 6th December 2018 in discussing Harlem styles of the 1930s, taking inspiration from her book The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora. She will examine how images of the styled body that emerged during that decade came to symbolise what it meant to be black in America in the 1930s.
She will present an illustrated reading from her book with three examples: the 1932 James Van Der Zee photograph Harlem, a Couple Wearing Raccoon Coats; a self-portrait by Malvin Gray Johnson produced in 1934; and Billie Holiday’s performance of the activist song Strange Fruit and her use of a corsage.
The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora, (£21.99, Bloomsbury) examines how self-image has been used to express the diaspora experience over one hundred years. The book explores iconic as well as everyday people, with profiles of Billie Holiday and Malcolm X alongside teachers and bus conductors. The book ranges from the late-nineteenth century to the modern day and visits, among other places, Jamaica at the turn of the last century, Harlem in the 1930s and Doncaster in the 1960s.
The event starts at 6pm with a glass of wine in the Fashion & Textile Museum foyer. The talk follows at 6.15pm for 6.20pm in the Fashion Studio and lasts for approximately one hour including an opportunity to ask questions, followed by a book signing in the foyer. Ticket includes admission to the exhibition and guests are welcome to view this before or after the talk.
Book Online Numbers are limited for this event, please book early to avoid disappointment.
Carol Tulloch, writer and curator, is Professor of Dress, Diaspora and Transnationalism at the University of the Arts London based at Chelsea College of Arts. She is also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her recent work includes co-editor of The Persistence of Taste: Art, Museums and Everyday life After Bourdieu (2018), the exhibition Jessica Ogden: Still (2017), the monograph The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora (2016), the book and exhibition Syd Shelton: Rock Against Racism (2015).
Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3XF T: 020 7407 8664 | E: info@ftmlondon.org Fashion and Textile Museum is part of Newham College London
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