Duane Deterville

Duane Deterville (MA 2009)  a writer, visual artist. His primary interest is in African and African Diasporic cultural expression. Before entering the MA program in VCS, Duane co-authored a visual history of Black Artists in Oakland(2007). Duane’s MA thesis, titled “Defining the Afriscape through Ground Drawings and Street Altars,” focused on the ways that the ancestor veneration of African diasporic religions  inform the secular rituals performed by members of black communities in response to police shootings and other tragic events. He conducted independent field research on sacred ground drawings in Haiti and Brazil. After graduating from CCA, Duane became a columnist for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s online publication Open Space. As the artistic director of Sankofa Cultural Institute, which he co-founded, Duane has produced three symposia on the history, aesthetics and culture of Jazz music. He has presented his work on Jazz and Visual Culture at several colleges and museums, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and San Francisco State University.