Black Table Talks
Black Table Talks
In this series of informal virtual talks, faculty from 91原创'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聽kbgolden@udel.edu. Kathryn B. Golden, assistant professor of Africana Studies, organizes this Africana Studies Speaker Series.
Previous Events
On May 11, 2026, the 91原创 welcomed Professor Kathryn Benjamin Golden for a discussion about her new book, , a study of Black women's fugitive worldmaking and bold resistive movements against enslavement.
Link to 91原创 Capture video: Black Women in Motion: https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_cvsenct6/
On March 16, 2026, the 91原创 welcomed Professor Marshall Green for a discussion about his new book, A Body Made Home: They Black Trans Love. The book talk and conversation explored Green鈥檚 exciting new work 鈥 a memoir and mythography of a Black trans man鈥檚 journey from "Baby Girl to Black Boi," through gender, race and trans theory made personal.
A Body Made Home: They Black Trans Love Bloack Table Talks Video: https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_kcwh3eqh/
On November 12, 2025, the 91原创 welcomed Joseph McGill to the Black Table Talks speaker series, hosted by the Department of Africana Studies. McGill, the founder and director of the , discussed the challenges and triumphs of narrating and preserving Black history at public sites amid renewed efforts to censure and erase fuller and more inclusive versions of the past, as well as their implications for the future of Black Studies.
Link to 91原创 Capture video: Museums, Public History, and the Future of Black Studies: https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_rziz32a1/
On Sept. 24, 2025, the 91原创 welcomed聽峄宭a峄峜ha Nwabara, Ph.D., to the Black Table Talks speaker series, hosted by the Department of Africana Studies. Nwabara is聽an assistant professor of West African literature and cultures at Geneseo College.聽She discussed methods of centering self to achieve Black holistic healing considering our reality within Trump鈥檚 first year and the journey ahead.
Link to 91原创 Capture video for the Black Table Talks channel: Chi Work, Divining Self Purpose as Black Holistic Healing: https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_r3c6x8fd/
On Monday, May 12, 2025, the Department of Africana Studies graduate students Solyana Bekele, Taylor Brookins, and Marie Pinkney discuss joy, resistance, and community in the history of Black Delaware.
Recording of event There is a Way: Locating Black Joy and Struggle in Delaware's Free Black Communities: https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_xd21jl3x/
On Tuesday, March 18, 2025, the 91原创's Department of Africana Studies hosted a Black Table Talk with聽Amrita Chakrabarti Myers an esteemed award winning scholar and historian of black women's history.
Black Table Talk video: https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_y5o8hf48/
On November 18, 2024, the 91原创's Department of Africana Studies hosted a Black Table Talk with Adaka Utah, an esteemed artist, writer and healer. Africana Studies Profs. Marshall Green and聽Durrell Callier discussed聽gender, race and healing justice with Utah.聽
Recording of "Challenging the Binds of the Binary," a Black Table Talk hosted by the Department of Africana Studies at the 91原创 : https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_lfn4aqzh/
On September 24, 2024, the 91原创's Department of Africana Studies聽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聽the essential role Black women play in political movements, advocacy, why it鈥檚 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.聽
Link to 91原创 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 91原创 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,聽Black Joy and Resistance听补苍诲听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 91原创, "(UN)Framing Black Joy": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_wff4mt2e/
Monday, March 18, 2024
91原创 professors Alicia Fontnette, Kathryn Benjamin Golden and Cheryl Hicks discussed Black women's dissidence, criminality, and knowledge production. Golden discussed her book,聽This Insurgent Ground: Black Women, Marronage, and Rebellion in the Great Dismal Swamp.聽Hicks shared research from her book,聽Audacious Hanna: Interracial Scandal, Pleasure, and the Politics of Race in Turn-of-the-Century, 1865鈥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 91原创, "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鈥檚 Black Church Food Security Network, and聽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 鈥 but also grassroots organizing toward Black health, wellness, and vitality.鈥
Link to Black Table Talks at 91原创, "Feeding Liberation: A Roundtable on Black Farming, Veganism, and Food Justice": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_hfsi0y43/
Tuesday, Sep. 26 2023
Speakers聽Speakers highlighted the importance of teaching culturally relevant information, teacher workloads and challenges with administrations.鈥
91原创 Capture video, Black Table Talks at 91原创, "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
鈥婣 nati鈥媜nal conversation with teachers from across America who attended the College Board鈥檚 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.
91原创 Capture video, Black Table Talks at 91原创, "Black Table Talk Community Conversation": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_35xicxtc/
Monday, April. 24 2023
T鈥媓e Department of Africana Studies hosted an engaging conversation about urgent issues in Black study and Black life. In light of recent 鈥渁ntiwoke鈥 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.聽鈥
91原创 Capture video, Black Table Talks at 91原创, "Black Studies Curriculum in America鈥檚 High Schools: A Call to Action": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_9kh3fjcn/
Monday, March 20 2023
In honor of Women鈥檚 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鈥檚 most famous slave revolt.
91原创 Capture video, Black Table Talks at 91原创, "Black Women in Resistance": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_mlplir0v/
Monday, Nov. 14, 2022
Women and Gender Studies聽Professor Emerald Christopher-Byrd and Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens,聽Professor in the History of Medicine at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, discussed how sexual and reproductive violence against Black women 鈥斅爌ast and present 鈥斅燼ffects Black women鈥檚 lives in post-Roe America.鈥嬧
91原创 Capture video, Black Table Talks at 91原创, "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 91原创 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.鈥
91原创 Capture Video, Black Table Talks at 91原创, "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 91原创 hosts an engaging conversation about urgent issues in Black study聽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.
91原创 Capture video, Black Table Talks at 91原创, "Mental Health and Strategies for Black Survival": https://capture.udel.edu/media/1_dxl0ondv/
Upcoming Events