Candis Watts Smith: Making Black Lives Matter
This spring the Department of African & African American Studies continues to commemorate the 50th anniversary of black studies at Duke with a speaker series featuring prominent Duke alumni. Candis Watts Smith, Ph.D. ’11, associate professor of political science and African American studies at Pennsylvania State University, kicks off the speaker series this month with […]
Local Black Women Artists join Professor Neal for Ruby Fridays
Three black women artists, members of the vibrant and supportive Durham arts community, shared details of their creative practices, and the challenges and joys of being working artists at a Nov. 15 “Ruby Fridays” event. Durham-based visual artists Candy Carver and Natasha Powell Walker, and independent filmmaker Natalie Bullock Brown joined Mark Anthony Neal, the […]
Challenging Borders Conference Highlights Severity of Migration
with reporting by Jasmine Clairsaint Migrants are facing increasingly difficult challenges such as being publicly beaten, accused of being criminals, or forced to pay unreasonable amounts of money for visas, trying to find a better life, according to panelists at Monday’s Challenging Borders conference. Achille Mbembe, a philosopher, political theorist and public intellectual, delivered a […]
Actress Kim Coles To Visit Duke Comedy Class, Oct. 24
DURHAM, N.C. — Actress and comedian Kim Coles, perhaps best known for her five-season turn as “Synclaire” on the FOX series, “Living Single,” will be special guest for the Duke University course “Dick Gregory and the History of Black Comedy,” Thursday, Oct. 24 at 6:15 p.m. The course is taught by Professor Mark Anthony Neal, […]
They Shoot Black People, Don’t They? A Cartoonist’s Take
Artist Keith Knight keeps it real during visit to Duke Comedy Class Cartoons can take a simple concept and impact lives. That was the message cartoonist Keith Knight shared with an audience on a Thursday evening at the NorthStar Church of the Arts. Knight shared slides of his most impactful comic strips, including one that […]
Where Did the Hammond Sound Come From – and Where Did It Go?
Ashon Crawley lecture begins AAAS 50th speaker series Ashon Crawley, Ph.D.‘13, grew up in the Black Pentecostal church playing the Hammond organ by ear. He thought it was a sound that belonged to the black church. In fact, the sound of the organ can be traced from pre-slave trade Islam to southern delta gospel and […]
Comedian Marsha Warfield: ‘Celebrating All of the Things I Am”
By Camille Jackson If Marsha Warfield could organize a dream comedy tour with anyone – dead or alive – who would she bring? “Not the dead ones. Five days on a tour bus – can you imagine?” said the Chicago-born comedian, who was in town for one night as a special guest for Prof. Mark […]
AAAS Speaker Series Highlights Duke Black Studies Alum
On Wednesday afternoon the Department of African & African American Studies will launch its 50th anniversary speaker series with Duke alum Ashon Crawley. Crawley, Ph.D., ‘13, will deliver a talk, “Migration Stories and the Hammond Sound,” at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18 in the Moyle Room of the newly opened Karsh Alumni and Visitor’s […]
Duke’s Black Comedy Class Brings ‘Upper Ghetto Godmother,’ Sept. 19
By Camille Jackson Next Thursday, Sept. 19, comedienne, actress and self-dubbed “upper ghetto godmother,” Marsha Warfield, perhaps best known for her wise-cracking bailiff ‘80s-sitcom character, Roz, on NBC’s “Night Court,” will visit Duke University. Warfield is a special guest for the Duke University course “Dick Gregory and the History of Black Comedy” course, taught by […]
What Inspired A Death in Harlem?
Karla Holloway, the James B. Duke Emerita of English and professor of African & African American Studies and Law, describes what inspired her to write A Death in Harlem. In A Death in Harlem, Holloway weaves a mystery in the bon vivant world of the Harlem Renaissance. Taking as her point of departure the tantalizingly […]
