RFTMI Inaugural Season 2026
RFTMI hosts monthly virtual meetings consisting of select scholars and artists, and their dialogue. These sessions are accessible in real time through the livestream and later, via YouTube.
All sessions are scheduled on a Saturday and in Eastern Standard Time.
Dedicated to D’Angelo
Upcoming RFTMI guest Rocka Jamez Krumps at Washington Square Park, NYC. Captured by Petra Richterová, July 20, 2020.
Session Two
FRED MOTEN + FRANK STEWART
Notes on our Trip to Spain / Improvising on a Riff
Photos (L to R): Kari Orvik and Ayano Hisa
Session Three
C. DANIEL DAWSON + ADAM RUDOLPH
Widi Mambo / Transmission of Energies: Inspirations and Mythologems
Photos (L to R): Ronald Herard and Ashli Linkous
Session Four
ROBERT G. O’MEALLY + YOSVANY TERRY
Before Thompson and After Thompson / Diasporic Conversations: Arará Musical Traditions and the Republic of Benin
Photos (L to R): Columbia University and Nicola Dracoulis
Session Five
GEORGE NELSON PRESTON + ADGER COWANS
The Meaning Beyond the Other Side of the Canvas / On Becoming Adger
Photos (L to R): Frank Stewart and Gail Nogle
Session Six
MARTA MORENO VEGA + ADAMA DELPHINE FAWUNDU
The Multidisciplinary Aesthetic Vision of Master T: The Flash! / Vibrations from the Deep: Ancestral Wisdom and Artmaking
Photo (L to R): CCCADI and Adama Delphine Fawundu
Session Seven
WILL CALHOUN + SAKI MAFUNDIKWA
Halographica: Sound, Space and the Fabric of Reality / Explosion of Writing Systems and Typography in Afrika
Photos (L to R): Lia Chang and TED
Session Eight
PETRA RICHTEROVÁ + ROCKA JAMEZ
Rumba: Writing and Sculpting in Air / Uniting Dance Cultures
Photos (L to R): Mark Blackshear and Carlton Hart
Session Nine
YANIQUE HUME + GABRI CHRISTA
TBD / Suriname: Ancestors Move the Spirit
Photos (L to R): UWI Cave Hill and Briana Blasko
Session Ten
HENRY DREWAL + RENATA WHEEDBEE
Sensory Encounters: Arts in Africa and its Diasporas / Onyx Samurai: A Sensory Journey Through Afro-Diasporic Futurism
Photos (L to R): University of Wisconsin-Madison and naddydread
Session Eleven
MICHAEL VEAL + NEIL CLARKE
Sirius Musicology / Rethinking the Presence of the African Drum in North America
Photos (L to R): Petra Richterová and Petra Richterová
Session Twelve
MARCUS STRICKLAND + KWAMI COLEMAN
Being Blue is Being Human / Can Music/Sound Free Us?
Photos (L to R): Petra Richterová and Alex Bell
Session One
BÁRBARO MARTÍNEZ-RUIZ + FAISAL ABDU’ALLAH
Made to be Seen: Kongo Graphic Writing as a Basis for Rethinking the Transmission of Knowledge / Solid, Liquid, Gas: Mapping with Substance, Sonics, and the Multiple