Information about relevant special events and programming…
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During the 2018-2019 academic year, Williams College will commemorate 50 years of Africana Studies, an interdisciplinary field of study that emerged during the 1960s Freedom Movements, and that expands our knowledge of the vast experiences of people of Africa and the African Diaspora. Founded in 1969 as Afro-American Studies in the aftermath of student action and protest, the Department of Africana Studies at Williams College will celebrate the institutionalization of Black Studies on campus while also recognizing the ways that, even in the rural hills of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Black Lives have always and continue to matter. Through intentional, critical reflection on the intersections of the past, the present and the future, the Department of Africana Studies has developed a year-long series of events to commemorate AFR50, and many in collaboration with other campus partners including The Davis Center (who celebrates 30 years at Williams in 2018), Special Collections, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, Alumni Relations, and the W. Ford Schumann Faculty Fellow in Democratic Studies.
Many of these events will be open to the public. For more information, see https://africana-studies.williams.edu, https://events.williams.edu, or contact Greg Shook, Director of Media Relations.
Fall 2018 Programming
In the Fall of 2018, a slate of programming tied to Afro-Diasporic Environmentalism: Explorations Of Environmental Racism & Justice considered the national and global intersections of Africana Studies and the study of Environmentalism, and hosted events that centered the expertise of Dr. Rachel Harding (Sterling Brown ‘22 Visiting Professor of Africana Studies), Dr. Beverly Wright, Dr. Robert Bullard, Dr. Walter Johnson, Dr. José Constantine (Assistant Professor of Geosciences) and Dr. James Manigault-Bryant (Associate Professor & Chair, Africana Studies).
See the full slate of the fall 2018 programming here.
Spring 2019 Programming
In the Spring of 2019, programming will be more locally focused, with attention to the impact of Africana Studies at Williams, its influence on student activism, alumni presence, and the Williams College curriculum, and its transformative collaborations with The Davis Center, the Williams College Black Student Union, and The Du Bois Center in Great Barrington, among other partners. Numerous events will take place throughout the term, and will include a walking tour, a living museum, and audio-visual exhibits in Special Collections and WCMA, to name a few. The yearlong commemoration will culminate with a weekend celebration from April 4-7, 2019, which will feature our current students, alumni, staff, and faculty, as well as distinguished guests.
AFR50 The Weekend, April 47, 2019
Be sure to visit our event schedule for the full list of events!
For Such a Time As This: The AFR50 Exhibit
This Spring’s exhibit in Schow Gallery celebrates fifty years of Africana Studies, an interdisciplinary field of study that emerged during the 1960s Freedom Movements, and that expands our knowledge of the vast experiences of people of Africa and the African Diaspora. Commemorating Africana Studies at Williams College is a recognition that, even in the rural hills of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Black Lives have always and continue to matter.
The exhibit theme, FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS, celebrates the formal presence of Africana Studies at Williams from 1969 to 2019 while denoting cyclical time in our history, where tides of student, staff, and faculty have had unique impacts upon the study of the Black Diaspora. The exhibit is designed to do five things: 1) to note the ways in which the “souls of Black folk” have left a permanent imprint on this particular Berkshire space; 2) to reveal Africana Studies’ role in helping to make that imprint; 3) to account for a work of building community that requires continuous tending; 4) to recognize the at time thorny relationship Black Williams (and Africana Studies) have had with this institution; and 5) to remember the people and moments that have been instrumental to the life of Africana Studies at Williams College.
For such a time as this: Fifty years of Africana Studies at Williams College is on view in the Schow Gallery (Sawyer 455) during regular Special Collections hours from January through June. You can also access the exhibit brochure.
—Rhon Manigault-Bryant, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Exhibit Curator
Afro-Diasporic Environmentalism Series, Fall 2018
A Symposium Curated by Rachel Harding, Sterling Brown ‘22 Visiting Professor in Africana Studies
EVENTS:
- "Afro-Brazilian Religion and Environmental Ethics," public lecture by Makota Valdina Pinto (Tuesday, September 18, 2018)
- Makota Valdina Pinto is an ethicist, environmental justice activist and an elder inthe Congo-Angola tradition of the Afro-Brazilian religion, Candomblé. Ms. Pinto is also a specialist in the ritual pharmacology of the Afro-Indigenous religious traditions of northeastern Brazil. She travels widely – throughout Brazil and internationally – as an eloquent and esteemed spokesperson for devotees of African based religious traditions. Ms. Pinto has received numerous honors and recognitions for her work, including a “Grassroots Wisdom Master” award from the Gregorio Mattos Foundation of Brazil, the Clementina de Jesus Trophy and the Maria Quiteria Medal awarded by the Salvador, Bahia city council.
- Ancestors, Art and Black Ritual Diasporas, a public conversation with artists Junior Pakapym and Daniel Minter (Wednesday, September 19, 2018)
- Antonio dos Santos Cerqueira Junior (aka Junior Pakapym) is a digital artist and painter whose work draws on the rich iconography of Afro-Brazilian religious and cultural imagery. Mr. Cerqueira is a Candomblé initiate and member of a family with a longstanding tradition of racial and environmental justice advocacy. His art has been the basis for posters, banners and pamphlet covers related to grassroots organizing efforts in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. As a millennial, Junior represents a generation of young Afro-Brazilian artists who are approaching ancestral traditions of ritual art with the tools and sensibilities of anime, graphic art and contemporary digital modes.
- Daniel Minter is an award-winning, Maine-based painter, sculptor, illustrator and assemblage artist whose work is profoundly influenced by his roots in southern African American culture and his decades of exploration of artistic and religious traditions of the African diaspora. Minter’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at galleries and museums, including the Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Bates College, Hammonds House Museum, Soren Christensen, Northwest African American Art Museum, Museu Jorge Amado and the Meridian International Center. In 2004 and 2011, Minter was commissioned to design the Kwanzaa stamps for the US Postal service.
- Block Printing Workshop for students and community members, led by Daniel Minter and Junior Pakapym (Thursday, September 20, 2018)
- “Healing, Sovereignty and Activism: Perspectives from Candomblé and the Mohawk Nation,” a conversation circle with Candomblé and Mohawk elder/activists, Makota Valdina Pinto and Louise Herne (Thursday, September 20, 2018)
- Makota Valdina Pinto (see description above) will be joined by Louise Wakerakatse Herne, a Clan Mother of the Mohawk Longhouse of Akwesasne. Ms. Herne, is a respected ceremonial leader, counselor and community organizer responsible for protecting and passing on traditional spiritual and cultural teachings. She is also an activist whose work combines organizing for environmental and gender justice and advocating for the rights of indigenous people in North America.
- The Water Mothers: A daylong retreat for self-care and community wellbeing (Saturday, September 22, 2018)
- Drawing on resources and rituals from indigenous Afro-Latin, African American and South Asian traditions, this workshop encourages participants to apprehend healing in its broadest connotations – as both personal and societal/environmental; physical and psychological; material and spiritual. The workshop offers approaches that acknowledge the sacred feminine in various forms – particularly in aspects of the natural world like water, wind and earth. Workshop facilitators, Gloria Rodriguez, Lakshmi Nair and Rachel Harding share activities with participants that include physical movement that balances our energies (dance and yoga), guided meditation, plant wisdom from Candomblé and southern African American traditions, theater and intergenerational storytelling. Gloria Rodriguez is a psychologist, workshop facilitator and tenured professor at Bronx Community College in New York. She is also an initiate in the Yoruba/Lucumi religious tradition and director of DeAlmas Women’s Institute. She specializes in developing seminars and workshops focused in Afro-Indigenous spirituality and social justice advocacy. Lakshmi Nair is a 4th-generation yogi and founder of the Satya Yoga Teacher Training Program in Denver. Ms. Nair teaches yoga not primarily as a form of physical exercise but as a resource for activism and healing. Satya Yoga is one of the nation’s first yoga teacher certification programs designed specifically for people of color who are committed to teaching yoga in Black, Latinx, Asian and Native communities. Rachel Harding is the Sterling Brown visiting professor at Williams. She is also co-director of the Veterans of Hope Project where she regularly develops workshops at the intersection of a spirituality of compassion and social justice activism.
- The 2018 Davis Lecture with Dr. Beverly Wright
- "Afro-Brazilian Religion and Environmental Ethics," public lecture by Makota Valdina Pinto (Tuesday, September 18, 2018)
