The Color Curtain Project
An art book + culinary experience that invites reflection on the meaning of Afro-Asian solidarity and community.
The Color Curtain Project is a series of dinner parties and art book presentations that bring individuals of African- and Asian-American identities together. By breaking bread, learning history, and sharing stories, the project encourages constructive dialogue around political and social justice challenges that entwine African- and Asian-American experiences today.
The project takes its name from The Color Curtain (1956), a travelogue by Richard Wright, who authored the American literary classics Native Son and Black Boy. The Color Curtain summarizes Wright’s observations as an African-American reporter covering the Bandung Conference — an epic convening in April 1955 held in Bandung, Indonesia between twenty-nine Asian and African countries eager to establish a coalition denouncing racism, colonialism, and nuclear war. The Color Curtain is not a comprehensive or technical account of what transpired in Bandung; Wright did not delve into the political and bureaucratic dealings between statesmen. Rather, The Color Curtain offers a personal snapshot of his experience witnessing the collision of Afro-Asian identities, and their collective struggle to find political, economic, and social freedom after many decades of colonial rule.
Many people do not know about The Bandung Conference or The Color Curtain, but their themes, achievements, and shortcomings still reverberate today. The Color Curtain Project aims to celebrate and critically reflect on the connections between past and present by offering a contemporary interpretation over dinner and urging guests to think about what has changed, if at all, between the Afro-Asian diasporic relationship since 1955.
The Color Curtain Project is a collaboration between Washington, DC- and New York-based scholars, artists, and entrepreneurs. To learn more, please contact us.
The Dinner
At first blush, the Color Curtain Project dinners resemble the grandeur of the state dinner: excessively lavish affairs attended by diplomats to demonstrate their stature and reaffirm geopolitical relationships. But upon a closer look, the Color Curtain Project dinners break away from the rigid protocols of the state dinner by inserting counter-narratives — an unconventional seating arrangement; floral decor rich with symbolism; the sharing and passing of plates; recognition of chefs and the story behind their ingredients — that foster a spirit of informality, and in turn, a sense of community and family.
The first Color Curtain Project dinner and art book presentation was held at the Eaton Workshop in Washington, DC on September 29, 2018. Sixty guests intermingled and celebrated their distinct and shared identities as immigrants, Washingtonians, creatives, policy practitioners, New Yorkers, transplants, African-Americans, entrepreneurs, community advocates, Asian-Americans, among others. Throughout the night, they debated and shared perspectives about issues that Bandung Conference diplomats also grappled with in 1955: displacement, nuclear disarmament, and the true meaning of freedom.
