Black Table Talks
Upcoming Events
Black Table Talks
In this series of informal virtual talks, faculty from University of Delaware's Department of Africana Studies will discuss current affairs and answer questions about pressing topics facing Black people in the African Diaspora. Topics include Black environmental thought, mental health and wellness, sports, Black Lives Matter, the 2020 election, art and social change, public memory and museums.
For more information, email kbgolden@udel.edu. Kathryn B. Golden,assistant professor of Africana Studies, organizes this Africana Studies Speaker Series.
Previous Events
On September 24, 2024, the University of Delaware's Department of Africana Studies welcomed Stefan Bradley and Democratic Representative for the state of Delaware Sherry Dorsey Walker for a discussion moderated by department faculty member Alicia Fontnette. They explored the essential role Black women play in political movements, advocacy, why it’s important for them to be represented in elected offices, as well as the raced and gendered challenges they face in their efforts to do so.
Link to UD Capture video, "The Truth We Hold: Race, Gender, Kamala Harris, and the Black Vote": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_h4qour4o/
Monday, May 6, 2024
On May 6, 2024, the University of Delaware welcomed photographers Adrienne Waheed and St. Clair Detrick-Jules to the Black Table Talks speaker series, hosted by the Department of Africana Studies. With a focus on the intersection between Black Joy and the politics of hair through the medium and lens of photography, Waheed and Detrick-Jules shared their respective book projects, Black Joy and Resistance and My Beautiful Black Hair. Waheed is a photographer, photo editor, and book author based in Brooklyn, New York, and Berkeley, California. Detrick-Jules is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, author, activist, and public speaker.
Black Table Talks at UD, "(UN)Framing Black Joy": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_wff4mt2e/
Monday, March 18, 2024
University of Delaware professors Alicia Fontnette, Kathryn Benjamin Golden and Cheryl Hicks discussed Black women's dissidence, criminality, and knowledge production. Golden discussed her book, This Insurgent Ground: Black Women, Marronage, and Rebellion in the Great Dismal Swamp. Hicks shared research from her book, Audacious Hanna: Interracial Scandal, Pleasure, and the Politics of Race in Turn-of-the-Century, 1865–1930. Fontnette shared her work on on her article, "The Criminalization and Adultification of Black Girls in America's School System & Identity Formation." All three professors are faculty members of the Department of African Studies.
Black Table Talks at UD, "Black Women Dissidents: Audacity, Criminality, and Knowing Otherwise": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_igsljus0/
Wednesday, Nov. 15 2023
Reverend Heber Brown, director of Baltimore’s Black Church Food Security Network, and Mr. Shaun Thomas, owner of Go Vegan Philly, discussed how access to food and foodways in Black communities is shaped by racial inequality and injustice – but also grassroots organizing toward Black health, wellness, and vitality.
Link to Black Table Talks at UD, "Feeding Liberation: A Roundtable on Black Farming, Veganism, and Food Justice": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_hfsi0y43/
Tuesday, Sep. 26 2023
Speakers Speakers highlighted the importance of teaching culturally relevant information, teacher workloads and challenges with administrations.
UD Capture video, Black Table Talks at UD, "A Call to Action Part I: Mis-Education and Commodification in America's K-12 Schools": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_8q6n51ww/
Tuesday, Sep. 12 2023
A national conversation with teachers from across America who attended the College Board’s training to teach the newly formed AP African American Studies course. They discussed their experiences, issues with the curriculum, as well as the experiences of those in attendance who have not previously taught Black life and culture.
UD Capture video, Black Table Talks at UD, "Black Table Talk Community Conversation": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_35xicxtc/
Monday, April. 24 2023
The Department of Africana Studies hosted an engaging conversation about urgent issues in Black study and Black life. In light of recent “antiwoke” censorship and continued efforts to undermine and diminish the Advanced Placement course in African American Studies, Professors Alicia Fontnette (Africana Studies) and Kisha Porcher (English Education) discussed the importance of Black Studies in secondary education, and the meaning of liberatory curricula in our high schools.
UD Capture video, Black Table Talks at UD, "Black Studies Curriculum in America’s High Schools: A Call to Action": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_9kh3fjcn/
Monday, March 20 2023
In honor of Women’s History Month, Dr. Vanessa Holden, Associate Professor of History and African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky, conversed with Africana Studies Professor, Kathryn Benjamin Golden, about the book, Surviving Southampton, and the previously unseen contributions of Black women in America’s most famous slave revolt.
UD Capture video, Black Table Talks at UD, "Black Women in Resistance": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_mlplir0v/
Monday, Nov. 14, 2022
Women and Gender Studies Professor Emerald Christopher-Byrd and Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, Professor in the History of Medicine at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, discussed how sexual and reproductive violence against Black women — past and present — affects Black women’s lives in post-Roe America.
UD Capture video, Black Table Talks at UD, "Black Women, Reproductive Justice, and Life After Roe": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_7k05p0jv/
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
The Department of Africana Studies at the University of Delaware hosts an engaging conversation about urgent issues in Black study and life. Professors W.O. Maloba, Jeffrey Richardson, and Kathryn B. Golden will discuss the relationships between the natural environment and Black communities, past and present. An exploration of Black eco-critical and environmental thought, this talk will expand upon Black environmental experiences of vulnerability, harm, and exploitation, as well as Black world making and resistance.
UD Capture Video, Black Table Talks at UD, "The Natural Environment and the Black World": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_x6iz90mb/
Monday, October 25, 2021
The Department of Africana Studies at the University of Delaware hosts an engaging conversation about urgent issues in Black study and life. Professor Monica Coleman and Dr. Clifton Berwise, psychologist at the Center for Counseling & Student Development, discuss faith, spirituality, and everyday strategies for coping with loss, exclusion, and racial trauma. Audience Q&A follows.
UD Capture video, Black Table Talks at UD, "Mental Health and Strategies for Black Survival": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_dxl0ondv/
