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Black Joy As Resistance: Why I Do What I Do

Professor Yaba Blay created the social media campaign, #ProfessionalBlackGirl.
Dr. Yaba Blay

Professor Yaba Blay, founder of #ProfessionalBlackGirl, will give a talk on Duke’s East Campus Monday evening.

The talk, “Black Joy As Resistance: Why I Do What I Do,” will be held at 6 p.m., April 16th, in the Friedl Building’s Jameson Art Gallery. Filmmaker Natalie Bullock Brown and local independent artist Natasha Walker Powell will join Blay in the discussion.

The event is free and open to the public, with nearby parking available. Light refreshments will be served.

Blay will discuss her online campaigns, #PrettyPeriod, a visual celebration of dark-skinned Black beauty, and Professional Black Girl, a web series and online community celebrating everyday, around-the-way Black girl magic. Blay will highlight how she uses Black joy as a methodology for resistance.

Blay is the Dan Blue Endowed Chair in Political Science at North Carolina Central University and has authored (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race. A professor and ethnographer, her scholarship centers on Black racial identity, Black aesthetic practices, and Black beauty, with particular attention given to hair and skin color politics.

Named to The Root 100, an annual list of top Black influencers, Blay is one of today’s leading voices on colorism and global skin color politics. Her commentary has been featured on CNN, BET, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times, Ebony Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Root, Huffington Post Live, Colorlines, and elsewhere.

For more information, email dcore@duke.edu.