FOR AFRO-DIASPORIC ARTS
Robert Farris Thompson
December 30, 1932, El Paso, Texas — November 29, 2021, New Haven, Connecticut
"Until you know how African you are, you will never know how American you are.”
—ROBERT FARRIS THOMPSONThe Robert Farris Thompson Maroon Institute for Afro-Diasporic Arts is designed to function as a virtual maroon society promoting advanced multidisciplinary scholarship and artistic practice through exchange, collaboration and preservation. RFTMI brings together a collective of cross-disciplinary scholars and artists whose work focuses on Afro-Diasporic arts and culture from a holistic perspective. As an online destination, RFTMI supports research, study, publishing, and practice of Afro-Diasporic arts via lectures, workshops, performances, exhibitions, screenings and archive. The Maroon Institute hosts monthly online salons consisting of select scholars and artists, and their dialogue. All RFTMI activities will be recorded and made available to the public via the YouTube channel.
—PETRA RICHTEROVÁ, C. DANIEL DAWSON AND WARRINGTON HUDLIN Cover photo of Robert Farris Thompson by Petra Richterová, 2006. Logo of Kongo Cosmogram design by Saki Mafundikwa.“As a mentee of Robert Farris Thompson, I am inspired by the fierce independence of maroon societies throughout the Americas—communities built on agency and cultural continuity. The Institute is our space for connection and dialogue among scholars, artists and traditional culture bearers regardless of discipline. We gather purely for the love of it and we make our work accessible to all. Welcome, brothers and sisters, to the Robert Farris Thompson Maroon Institute for Afro-Diasporic Arts.”
—PETRA RICHTEROVÁ, Director & Founder, RFTMI
“A giant of African/Black Atlantic cultural and esthetic scholarship no longer walks among us but along what Sun Ra called The Strange Celestial Road.”
—GREG TATE
Robert F. Thompson (L), George N. Preston (R), Will Calhoun (percussion, left), Baba John Mason (percussion, right) and Mohan Chugani (RFT friend). Video by Kurt Thometz, Museum of Art and Origins, NYC, December 29, 2017.
Session 11: Saturday, November 21, 2026 - 1-3pm EST
Michael Veal + Neil Clarke
Sirius Musicology / Rethinking the Presence of the African Drum in North America
Session 12: Saturday, December 12, 2026 - 1-3pm EST
Marcus Strickland + Kwami Coleman
Being Blue is Being Human / Can Music/Sound Free Us?