Print Page

Arts and the Africana Experience


A skilled storyteller, dancer or musician can communicate in ways that enrich—and, sometimes, extend far beyond—the analytical narrative. And many scholars believe that the ties between the performing arts and Africana-studies scholarship are particularly strong. 

Scholars and artists explored those connections last weekend at the Central Pennsylvania Consortium Africana Studies Conference, Performing Memory, History & Identity in the Black World. Hosted by Dickinson, the event brought together national experts in Africana studies, American studies, history, dance, music, photography, film and communications arts to examine the ways in which performing arts inform and reflect black identity, history and lived experience. Students and experts from three regional colleges attended the conference.


1of1

  • Rinaldo Walcott delivered the keynote address, Black Queer Studies, Freedom and Other Human Possibilities. Walcott is the associate professor and chair of the University of Toronto's department of sociology and equity studies.
    Rinaldo Walcott
  • Held Feb. 24 in the Stern Center Great Room, the keynote address drew a sizable and an attentive audience.
    Stern Center Address
  • On Feb. 23, Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy, Africana-studies chair (shown above), introduced E. Patrick Johnson, a professor of performance studies and African-American studies at Northwestern University. Moonsammy  was appointed Dickinson’s first Distinguished Chair in Africana Studies in 2010.
    Professor Moonsammy
  • Johnson delivered a dramatic reading of his work Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales. His current research focuses on performance in the black church and black queer performance texts.
    E. Patrick Johnson
  • Johnson melded theatre and scholarship in his dramatic reading about the struggles and triumphs of gay black men of the South.
    Pouring Tea
Rinaldo Walcott delivered the keynote address, Black Queer Studies, Freedom and Other Human Possibilities. Walcott is the associate professor and chair of the University of Toronto's department of sociology and equity studies.Prev ImageNext Image

By MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
Photos by Carl Socolow ’77 and Jennifer Crowley ’12