What is called the imagination (from image, magi, magic, magician, etc.) is a practical vector from the soul. It stores all data, and can be called on to solve all our “problems.” The imagination is the projection of ourselves past our sense of ourselves as “things.” Imagination (image) is all possibility, because from the image, the initial circumscribed energy, any use (idea) is possible. And so begins that image’s use in the world. Possibility is what moves us.
—Amiri Baraka, “The Revolutionary Theatre”, Liberator, July 1965
A Message to BPIII Attendees

Dear Participants, I would like to thank you all for attending and contributing to the success of BLACK PORTRAITURE[S] III: Reinventions: Strains of Histories and Cultures in Johannesburg, South Africa this past week. The primary goal of the conference was…