April 2, 2022
April 2, 2022 University of Pittsburgh Department of Africana Studies
On April 2nd, the Department of Africana Studies hosted Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, Keynote Speaker, followed by an awards ceremony, honoring important individuals and associates of the department.
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African & African-American Studies
Dr. Neal is the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African & African-American Studies and Professor of English, and the author of the new book Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive (NYU, March 2022). Dr. Neal is also the author of five books, including What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Public Culture; Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture; the Post-Soul Aesthetic and Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities; and That’s The Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (co-edited with Murray Forman).
Presentation Title: “Hello Stranger”: Fugitive Analogs and Maroon Interiorities in the Black Digital Archive
“Foregrounding the archival work of the Black Audio Film Collective and LA Rebellion, the filmmakers Barry Jenkins and Denzel Washington, playwright August Wilson, and the music of Dinah Washington and Jimmy Scott, this talk will explore the continued reliance and presence of analog archives in the so-called Black Digital Era. These presences, which might be thought of as hauntings, function as fugitive and maroon archives. “
Department of Africana Studies
Awards Ceremony
COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE DEPARTMENT/COMMUNITY PARTNERS
- African American Program at Senator John Heinz History Center – Sam Black, Director
- Mrs. Rena Amos
- Dr. Edna B. Mackenzie Branch of Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History (ASALH) – Ronald B. Saunders, President
- Mr. Fred Logan
- Pittsburgh Chapter of The Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society (AAHGS) – Marlene Bransom, President
- Mr. Sala Udin
[View Mr. Ronald B Saunders acceptance remarks at 23:48 – 27:37 minutes in the video below]
DR. EDNA B. MCKENZIE BRANCH OF ASALH 