BLACK AND FREE

Project Overview

The pursuit of freedom has been a central preoccupation of Black people ever since the advent of the Transatlantic slave trade in the 16th century when Europeans led the taking of Africans from their lands to build European settlements in North America and the Caribbean (Bakare-Yusuf; Cooper; Diverlus, Hudson and Ware; Fanon; McKittrick; Williams). For centuries, Black people in these geographical regions have used performance, theatre, visual art, music and other means of expression to describe nuances of Black people’s lives in the public and private spheres that influence everyday life (Brand; Gale; Elam and Jackson; Harrison, Walker II and Edwards; Henderson; hooks; Hope; Madison). Building on the work of Black studies scholarship and artistic practices, the objective of Dr. Keleta-Mae’s Black And Free Research-Creation Project is to examine what Black art and culture from different parts of the world reveal about blackness and freedom in the 21st century.

Work Cited