African American Studies Commons^™

Wear The Story Like A Jacket: Akbar Imhotep, Paulette Richards

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

This profile of Akbar Imhotep’s work as a puppeteer and storyteller in Atlanta in the late 20th century describes his connections to the Center for Puppetry Arts, the folk-art roots of his approach to puppetry, the unique puppet stage he made from old suitcases, and the process he uses to prepare for performances.

Black: :Body: :Gesture: From Puppetry To Performance & Design, Gabrielle Civil, Kelly Walters

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

In this visual document, Gabrielle Civil and Kelly Walters distill and recreate key aspects of their live dialogue on African-American puppetry, black performance art, material and digital design. What are examples of African American living objects in the 21st century? What does it mean to animate objects when, as a people, we were once considered to be living objects ourselves? Drawing on their own practice, these artists engaged these questions, activated audience discussion, and transformed the results into a new source text for further activation.

Black And Blackface In The Performing Object: Bullock, Chessé, Paris, The Jubilee Singers, And The Burdens Of … Everything, Ben Fisler

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

The representation of Black identity through puppetry ranges from “grotesque exaggeration to near pictorial realism,” and engagement not only with racial stereotyping, but also the possibility of positive racial representation. Fisler details the extensive degree to which puppeteers in the early 20th century depended upon Black and blackface characters for their livelihood, and points out the complexities of such representations involving Black puppeteers of Federal Theater Project puppet companies, and the work of Creole puppet artist Ralph Chessé. Fisler argues that some white puppeteers, including Frank Paris, sought to portray such Black characters as Josephine Baker in a “potentially more …

Tar Baby: The Performance Of Object, Ra Malika Imhotep

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

This essay engages the figure of the “Tar Baby” as a guide through the theoretical terrain of Afro-Diasporic storytelling culture. Thinking about the role of gesture and voice in the repertoire of global Black performance, this presentation sets out to offer a nuanced Black feminist analysis of the sticky character and the impact of her diasporic flight. Calling in both theoretical work on Black performance and personal reflections on an engagement with the Tar Baby through storyteller and puppeteer Akbar Imhotep’s rendition of the story performed at the Wren’s Nest in Atlanta Georgia, the essay explores the ways Afro-Diasporic storytelling …

The Appropriation Of Blackness, Nehprii Amenii

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

The continuing appropriation of Black culture in the U.S. is closely tied to the trauma and injustice of the African diaspora and the history of slavery. Black people, Amenii argues, need to re-appropriate themselves, through the “excavating and re-articulating of our intellectual heritage and knowledge systems.” Citing Ahmad Azzahir’s description of African modes of thinking as “based on spirituality, symbol, mythos, and harmonium,” she sees her own work as “creative anthropology” that draws on storytelling and image-making to create self-study. Her production Food for the Gods, “a multi-media performance installation created in response to the killings of Black Men by …

African Puppetry And Brazilian Mamulengo: Possible Links Between Symbolic And Material Representations, Izabela Brochado

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays

Although Brazil’s popular Mamulengo hand-puppet tradition is often considered to have primarily European roots, Brochado argues that “the primary source of the Mamulengo lies with African slaves.” Citing sources including puppeteers and folklorists explaining the origins of Mamulengo in northeast Brazil, Brochado argues for the African roots of the form, citing the relation of Mamulengo performance to Afro-Brazilian cult rituals; the commonality of often-comic sexual content in Mamulengo and in Yoruba puppetry of Nigeria and Benin; as well as the similar mechanics of puppets from both traditions which display work activities. She concludes that “even if African puppets were not …

Mlk Celebration 2019 - Kneeling For Justice Then And Now: As You Choose Flyer, Western Michigan University

Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Jan. 16 to Feb. 20, 2019.

Mlk Celebration 2019 - Kneeling For Justice Then And Now: As You Choose Poster, Western Michigan University

Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Jan. 16 to Feb. 20, 2019.

The Cape Fear Ran Red: Memory Of The Wilmington Race Riot And Coup D'État Of 1898, Jacob Michael Thomas

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

On November 10, 1898 the city of Wilmington erupted in racial violence as the members of the white population massacred anywhere from twenty-five to a hundred of the black citizenry. The result of the Wilmington Race Riot was the reassertion of white supremacy in North Carolina and a flip in Wilmington’s population, as whites became the majority. This paper will argue that the events of the Wilmington Race Riot and Coup D’état came about from the direct interference of Wilmington’s white elite along with outside interference from Democratic Party Leaders across the state of North Carolina as well as the …

Huntington Civil Rights Oral History, Kelli Johnson

Ephemera

Civil Rights era stories from Appalachia project poster.

The Roots Of Community: A Local Librarian's Resource For Discovering, Documenting And Sharing The History Of Library Services To African Americans In Their Communities, Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

Intended for current library professionals, this toolkit provides a theoretical basis for completing public history projects about libraries and explores specific project types, selected best practices and related resources. It divides into three major sections: Part 1, “Planning,” Part 2 “Gathering” and Part 3, “Sharing.” Respectively, these sections cover the preparation, collection and communication tasks of research projects and, where appropriate, offer readers several types of potentially useful resources. Many of these resources—forms, letters, standards, examples of evidence—were used for the author’s Roots of Community project and appear as examples of resources deemed suitable for that project. In other instances, …

What’S In A Name? Rhetorical And Political Naming In Toni Morrison’S Song Of Solomon, Kristen V. Edwards

Theses

This thesis aims to examine the usage and history of the various racial labels attributed to Black Americans and how the cyclical usage of Negro, Black, Colored, and African American are a haunting that Black people will most likely face again. As these terms do not fulfill a nationalistic identity, the quest for a satisfactory term still exists. To illustrate this journey, examining the novel Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison will expose how her text subtly charges the reader to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Not only is the reader charged to “know thy self”, but they are …

Imagining Revolutionary Feminism: Communist Asia And The Women Of The Black Panther Party, Benjamin Young

Research & Publications

Using newspapers, autobiographies, and interviews, this article examines the ways in which women of the Black Panther Party imagined the women of Vietnam, China, and North Korea as radical archetypes during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Using Judy Wu’s theory of “radical orientalism” in conversation with Ashley Farmer’s concept of the “gendered imaginary,” I argue that the Panther women imagined the women of “the East” as pioneers in world revolution and women’s liberation in order to protest against gendered injustices within the Party and broader U.S. society. This article also investigates the realities on the ground for the women …

Ua19/16/1 Lady Topper Basketball Media Guide, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

2019-20 women's basketball media guide produced by WKU Athletic Media Relations, includes athletic records and statistics, photographs, schedule and information regarding opponents.

Face To Face With Black History Tour: A Complete And Comprehensive Trip Report, Preston Love Jr.

Black Studies Faculty Publications

Thank You!
Thanks to you, our donors and partners, the 2nd annual 2019 Black Votes Matter Tour exceeded all expectations!
We inspired youth and adults to Learn, Respect, and then Go Make History. We are extremely grateful for all of our donors and ask for your support as we continue to invest in the next generation of youth leadership development.
We are also educating Greater Omaha to greater empathy and understanding of Black History and where our youth fit in the picture.
Will you join us?

Background
The seed for the Black Votes Matter Youth initiative is as a response …

Ua19/16/2 Track & Field Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases regarding WKU's track and field teams for 2019.

Economic Liberation From The Margins: The Power Of Racial Politics In Social Change, Joshua Sherman Bartholomew

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Joshua Bartholomew's doctoral project is a meta-ethical research study of the relationship between economic justice and racial equality within the United States and its transnational range of influence. Bartholomew critiques the Eurocentric foundations of capitalist economic paradigms, and supplants them with community-oriented strategies of anti-racist self-determination from within the Black Panther Party's socialist praxis. By highlighting the praxis and significant intellectual contributions from arguably the most revolutionary example of racial politics for black liberation throughout the Black Power Movement, Bartholomew emphasizes the need for alternative economic models to capitalism that can support and build upon moral visions of collective racial …

Ua12/2/36 Gamma Sigma Sigma, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Gamma Sigma Sigma at Western Kentucky University.

Ua1c4/3 Alumni Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of Alumni Association groups of Western Kentucky University.

Ua1c4/6 Fraternities Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of fraternity groups.

Ua1c3/2 Faculty/Staff Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of faculty and staff of Western Kentucky University and its founding institutions.

Ua1c3/5 Faculty/Staff Small Group Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of small groups of identified faculty and staff.

Ua12/2/33 Association For The Study Of African American Life & History, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about the Association for the Study of African Amercian Life & History.

Texas On The Record: The Church Of God In Christ (Cogic) Determination To Possess The Land In Texas (1907-1935), Karen Kossie-Chernyshev

Department of History, Geography and General Studies

This essay examines the missionary impulse of the Church of God in Christ, the largest predominantly African American Christian denomination in the world.

Ua1c4/7 Student Groups & Association Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of student groups and associations not otherwise listed.

Ua12/6/2 Diversity Programs - Events, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Events sponsored by the Diversity Programs office.

Ua19/16/2 Athletic Media Relations Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

General WKU athletic press releases for 2019.

Josef Benson's Review Of White Male Nostalgia

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

A review by Joseph Benson in Modern Fiction Studies of Tim Engles' book White Male Nostalgia in Contemporary North American Literature.

Mary Simms Hope Collection, University Archives And Special Collections, Prescott Memorial Library, Louisiana Tech University

Manuscript Finding Aids

Deed of the sale of slave, Henry, age 13, to Isaac L. Leonard, 1858.

Sylvia C. Ridgeway Binder, Sylvia C. Ridgeway

Publications

This collection of materials showcases the life of Sylvia C. Ridgeway. Some of the items included in these materials include biographical data, family history information, photos and ephemera of family life, documentations of missions trips, some of her accomplishments with the NAACP, and letters of recommendation written by others.