Academia Through a Black Woman's Lens

Tonya Pinkins presented Through A Black Woman’s Lens—Academia livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 28 October 2021 at 2 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 4 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 5 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

Black women face and endure debilitating micro and macro aggressive acts of violence in white institutions, especially, in academia. How can we help ensure the safety of these women, while also infusing the academic space with a Black identity that can be seen, studied and understood in these institutions.

Black women are the educators, the providers and the defenders of our community, but we are often left out of the narrative of our own stories. Tonya Pinkins (writer director, and producer of the socio-political horror film, Red Pill) and HowlRound have partnered to create a 6-part series with some America’s leading Black women from the world of literature, film, academia, theater, tech and business to discuss and take a deeper look into the Black Woman’s lens and perspective on the world that we live in. We will discuss what scares us, why we are not heard, seen or understood and what changes need to be made to protect our hearts, minds, bodies and soul. We will provide an outline of how as Black women we can pivot, center our stories, and tell the world who we are, what we are doing and how the rest of the global society can get on board. “This is not a conversation, This a moment to listen to Black women and take action on what we are saying.” -Tonya Pinkins

Zama Dube
Zama Dube is a voice-over artist, educator and researcher pursuing a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of California Los Angeles. She earned her MA in African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg South Africa. Drawing from her experiential knowledge as a media practitioner in the South African broadcasting industry, Zama’s research interests contribute to a legacy within Black visual cultures that have often been preoccupied with interrogating the politics of representation, notions of the spectacle and the possibility of a Black feminist gaze. Her current research examines subversive visual practices of Black women media-makers and cultural producers in the African diaspora. Zama is also the inaugural fellow of the Marty Sklar Entertainment Innovation Fellowship (2021) where she will participate in major collaborative projects at REMAP that interweave the physical and digital worlds to share new kinds of stories and engage with the legacy and future of themed entertainment. Past honors include The Teshome Gabriel Memorial Award, the Irma Polaski Award, the Mariame Kaba Graduate Fellowship in Black Feminist Research, and membership in the UCLA chapter of the Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.

Lisa B. Thompson
Lisa B. Thompson is the Patton Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies, a Fellow of the Ransom Chair, and the College of Liberal Arts' Advisor to the Dean for Faculty Mentoring & Support at the University of Texas at Austin. Her scholarship focuses on Black feminist theory, Black theatre and performance, Black film, and African American literature. She is also a playwright and the author of Beyond the Black Lady: Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class, Single Black Female, and Underground, Monroe, and The Mamalogues: Three Plays. Her scholarly and creative work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies; the University of Texas at Austin’s Humanities Institute; Harvard University’s W. E. B. DuBois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center; the Michele R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research; the Five Colleges; the University of California’s Office of the President; Stanford University’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity; Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs; Hedgebrook; Millay; the National Performance Network; and MacDowell.

Afrika Brown
Playwright, screenwriter, and director Afrika Brown began her career as a journalist writing fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment features. In 2006, Brown published Sepia Sapphire, a collection of poetry. In 2007, Brown’s weekly chapter series Diary of a Breakup was featured on Universitychic.com. In 2014, The Outing played at Open Hydrant’s Urban Waves Festival, Manhattan Repertory Summer Shorts Festival, and The Strawberry Festival. In 2015, her sociopolitical play Strange Fruit Redux premiered at Manhattan Repertory Theatre’s 10th Anniversary Event and participated in the Midtown International Theatre Festival. In 2016, Strange Fruit Redux played festivals in North Carolina and Michigan. Also, in 2016 Brown premiered Slow Bullet, My Three Loves at Manhattan Repertory Theatre. In 2017, she traveled to Barcelona to take part of a residency at Can Serrat. Brown is a Resident Playwright at Manhattan Repertory Theatre, a 2018 Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights Fellow, and her short film script, After…Suite 220, won the 2019 Lovesick Film Festival.