Wednesday July 1, 2 -3 pm Eastern Daylight Time (note early start time!)
Black Women Undulating Justice: Dancing Feet Touch Earth to Assert Their Right to Life
“Women who perform Indigenous African dances heal the present and assert their power to co-create our future. Our dancing feet retrace the same path of our elder’s steps, invoke the same deities, and honor the same earth elements. Writing from my perspective as an activist scholar and dancer/initiate of the Yorùbá Orisha tradition of West Africa and the Diaspora, I research the ways women use dance to navigate their roles in sacred and secular spaces. Through the theoretical lens of Gloria Anzaldúa’s nepantla theory, I posit that women who study and share Indigenous dances are nepantleras. Dancing nepantleras embody life between borders, love in times of immense political and racial turmoil, feel the pain of the earth and their sisters. From this space, I invite others to move with me to catalyze personal and collective healing. This paper and conversations are not limited to, or preferencing bodies that move.”
Mandisa Amber Wood, M.A., M.F.A., a tenure-track Arts/Humanities/Philosophy faculty member at Napa Valley College, is an artist, dancer, and urban farmer kept by bees. Mandisa is also a PhD student in Sustainability Education at Prescott College. Her research focuses on women’s individual and collective healing modalities present in Indigenous dance forms. Mandisa is a Priestess of Aggayu, initiated in the Orisha tradition of West Africa and the Diaspora.
Scholar Salons are an ASWM member benefit. Current members can find the link to join the Salon on the Scholar Salons page, and they will also receive the link by email. If you are not yet an ASWM member, join here. (Thanks!) The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event.
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