W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies
50th Anniversary Virtual Symposium

Conscious to Woke:
Fifty Years of Revolutionary Black Thought

W.E.B. Du Bois, seated against a red backdropFounded in 1970 during the era of social and political change in the United States, the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies on the UMass Amherst campus was among the first departments of Black Studies and was the second department to offer the doctoral degree.

Establishing a department of Black Studies was a revolutionary act fifty years ago and that revolution continues. This symposium speaks to the current state of the nation in the throes of movements addressing equal justice and challenging anti-Blackness, illustrating the ongoing significance of Black Studies. Over three days, Oct. 22-24, this symposium will present student-activist and faculty founders of Black studies on the UMass Amherst campus and in the Pioneer Valley along with current students and faculty in loud and proud discussions. They will present the history of the department’s founding and provide insight on the student movement establishing Black Studies in Western Massachusetts. In the current environment of social transformation, these conversations are timely and valuable for the next fifty years and more.

Program

#Conscious2Woke2020

Please note that all times for the 50th Anniversary Virtual Symposium are eastern and that the symposium will be recorded on Zoom.

  • Separate registration is required for each day that you wish to attend the virtual Symposium.
  • Zoom links for the specific dates will be sent via email prior to the symposium.
  • The assigned Zoom link for each day can be used to re-enter the symposium as needed.
  • The Zoom registration links are associated with each day and will expire once that day’s events end.

Thursday, October 22, 2020 4:00-6:30 p.m.

Registration for October 22, 2020

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”
Lyrics, James Weldon Johnson
Composer, John Rosamond Johnson

4:00 p.m. Welcome

McKinley Melton, Alumn Representative
James Smethurst, Interim Chair, W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies
Barbara Krauthamer, Dean, College of Humanities and Fine Arts
John McCarthy, Provost
Introduction of the Chancellor by James Smethurst, Interim Chair, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies
Kumble Subbaswamy, Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Images from the Augusta Savage Gallery

4:30–6:30 p.m. Proud and Loud Conscious to Woke Rally: Black Lives Matter

A rally comprising student and faculty founders of Black Studies at UMass Amherst and in the Pioneer Valley. Participants will discuss the student movement that resulted in establishing the Du Bois Department and Black Studies in the Valley; they also will address the politics and activism of the 1960s & 1970s and the twenty-first century connections. Audience Q & A

Co-moderators: Y?misi Jimoh and Amilcar Shabazz

Proud and Loud Founders
Participants: Michael Thelwell; Esther Terry; Bernard Bell; Cheryl Evans; Johnnetta Betsch Cole; Imani Kazana; Ingrid White; Herman Davenport, Denise Materre (Smith College), and more

Strange Fruit-I Can’t Breathe

Proud and Loud in the Twenty-First Century
John Bracey, Anne Kerth, Toussaint Losier, Traci Parker, Britt Rusert, Steve Tracy, Tricia Loveland; Terry Jenoure, director emerita, Augusta Savage Gallery; Daphne Lamothe, Smith College; Femi Vaughan, Amherst College; Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, Smith College; Samuel Ng, Smith College

Friday, October 23, 2020 1:00-6:15 p.m.

Registration for October 23, 2020

1:00 p.m. Welcome

Steve Tracy Musical Cenotaph Tribute for the Transitioned

1:15–2:45 p.m. New Directions in Black Studies: Graduate Students Poster Session

Brief demonstrations of dissertation projects by selected graduate students. Audience Q & A

Moderator: Christopher J. Martin

Presenters:
Radiance Flowers, “Black Women, Black Churches, and the Civil Rights Movement”
Jose Gonzalez, “Conscious Hip Hop as a form of Liberatory Praxis in the Black Lives Matter Movement”
Kym Newberry, “The Contemporary Art of the African Continent as a Disruption”
Erika Slocumb, “Reliquary of Blackness”
Kiara Hill: “’Where We At?!’: Black Women Cultural Workers and Arts Activism in the Era of Black Power”
Travis Davis: “Liberatory Schools: The Politics of the Black School House”

Images from the Augusta Savage Gallery

3:00–4:30 p.m. Black Studies in the Valley: Revolutionary Black Thought and the Liberal Arts Curriculum

A roundtable discussion of Black Studies in the liberal arts curriculum. Undergraduate students from Amherst and Smith Colleges will focus on the discipline as an intellectual and ethical endeavor, committed to examining the social and political conditions, histories, and culture and artistic productions of Africa and its Diaspora. This panel will explore student engagement of questions having to do with gender, race, and class, inequity, power, and agency in the classroom; and how they connect their studies to issues and problems in society on local, global and hemispheric levels. Audience Q & A

Moderator: Paul José Lopez Oro
Discussants: Camille Bacon, Rosie Poku, Joelle Crichlow, Djelimory Diabate, Madison Matthews

Images from the Augusta Savage Gallery

4:45–6:15 p.m. Not Just Special Field Order 15 or Forty Acres and a Mule: Revolutionary Talk on Reparations, a Conversation with William “Sandy” Darity

A moderated conversation between Dr. William “Sandy” Darity and Du Bois Department alumns, graduate students, and faculty. Dr. Darity is an economist on faculty at Duke University, co-author of From Here to Equality, and an eminent scholar on reparations for African Americans. Audience Q & A

Moderator: Y?misi Jimoh
Discussants: Toussaint Losier, Christopher Tinson ’10, Jacinta Saffold ’17

Saturday, October 24, 2020 9:45am–6:30pm

Registration for October 24, 2020

9:45 a.m. Welcome

10:00 a.m.–12:10 p.m. (10-minute break @ 11am) Marching ’til Victory is Won

A roundtable discussion on professional journeys and current scholarship of doctoral alumns. Audience Q & A

Moderator: Candace King
Discussants: Christopher Lehman ’02, Stephanie Evans ’03, Shawn Alexander ’04, Zebulon Miletsky, ’08, Ernest Gibson ’12, Kelli Morgan ’17, Nneka Dennie ’18

12:15–1:30 p.m. Augusta Savage Gallery Breathing while Black

A screenshot of the work Breathing While Black, depicting a person wearing pink gloves washing their hands at a kitchen sink
Danielle Demetria Dear Clean Up Woman

1:30–3:00 p.m. Conscious and Woke: A Conversation with Moya Bailey on Misogynoir, Equal Justice, and Embodied Power—Black Studies @ #50

A moderated conversation between Dr. Moya Bailey and Du Bois Department alumns, graduate students, and faculty. Dr. Bailey coined the term misogynoir and is a Black Studies and Women’s Studies scholar on faculty at Northeastern University, co-author of #HashtagActivism, and author of the forthcoming monograph Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance. Audience Q & A

Moderator: Amy Jordan
Discussants: Trimiko Melancon ’05, Yelana Sims, Biko Caruthers

Images from the Augusta Savage Gallery

3:15–5:25 p.m. (10-minute break @ 4:30pm) Standing for Something

A roundtable discussion on intellectual, activist, and professional journeys of undergraduate Black Studies alumns, addressing how they arrived at Black Studies as a major and where their background in the field has taken them. Audience Q & A

Moderator: McKinley Melton
Discussants: Imani Kazana ’72, Ingrid White-UMass ’73, Herman Davenport-UMass ’73, Sylvia Wong Lewis-Smith College ’74, Ciara Mendes “Sky Jones” ’08, Christian Woods-UMass ’20

Images from the Augusta Savage Gallery

5:30–6:30 p.m. 21st Century Conscious to Woke Cultural Arts

A live presentation of artistic work by current and recent Black Studies students

Dance Performance: Brandon Barker
Poetry: Zachary Stewart
Readings: Olivia Ekeh, Bertovah Michel, Christian Woods

*NOTE: Registration confirmation will begin 30 minutes prior to the start of the 50th Anniversary Virtual Symposium each day.