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Diversity Caucus Hosts Lectures About African Diaspora Archeology and Black Power Music

September 2016

Dr. Whitney Battle-BaptisteDr. Emily J. Lordi
Dr. Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Dr. Emily J. Lordi

The Sankofa Lecture Series featured two programs with unique topics, African Diaspora Archeology and the role of women in Black power music.

Moving Mountains and Liberating Dialogues: My Life as a Black Feminist Archaeologist

Dr. Whitney Battle-Baptiste, an associate professor of anthropology at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, spoke about African Diaspora Archeology and cultural identity at a free lecture last month at QCC.

An historical archaeologist of African and Cherokee descent, Dr. Battle-Baptiste has done fieldwork at Colonial Williamsburg, the Hermitage, the W.E.B. Du Bois homestead and other sites. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas-Austin and conducts research on plantations in the U.S. Southeast, the materiality of contemporary African American popular culture and Black Feminist theory and its implications for archaeology. Dr. Battle-Baptiste is the author of “Black Feminist Archaeology” and co-editor of the African Diaspora Archeology Newsletter.

In this lecture, Dr. Battle-Baptiste discussed the field and significance of African Diaspora Archaeology. She also talked about her variegated heritage and cultural identity to inform her research and enhance the discipline of archeology. Being a member of the Hip-Hop generation is a significant aspect of her personal/professional identity. She routinely incorporates Hip-Hop into her written and oral discourse, because, as the soundtrack of her life, Hip-Hop has always sustained her and kept her real.

Soul Sisters: Black Power Music from Nina Simone to Beyonce

The Sankofa Lecture Series presents Dr. Emily J. Lordi, an associate professor of English at University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the author of two books, “Black Resonance: Iconic Women and Singers and African American Literature” and the forthcoming “Donny Hathaway Live.” She has published articles and book chapters on literary modernism, soul aesthetics, funk and neo-soul music and contemporary poetry. Her music and book reviews appear on such sites as Pitchfork, The Root and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Dr. Lordi’s lecture emphasized the role of black women in soul music, a genre often associated with male artists from Sam Cooke to James Brown. In particular, she highlights the radically virtuosic activism of Nina Simone, who was dubbed “The Empress of Soul” in the late 1960s. Her lecture also explores how Beyonce’s album Lemonade deliberately channels the political and experimental power of Simone’s music.

Both lectures were sponsored by the Diversity Caucus.

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