Providence College Black Studies Program

Congratulations and good luck to the Class of 2023 Black Studies minors! 🎉

Some pictures of Dr. Kyei-Poakwa's BLS 225, BLS 101, and independent study students enjoying some delicious African food while giving their final presentations!

Join us on Tuesday May 2nd at 6:00 PM, for a celebration dinner and award ceremony for our senior minors! At this event we will eat some great food, gift our graduating minors with their Kente stoles, and announce the recipients of the senior awards. All are welcome to attend! Please RSVP using the link in our bio or the QR code on the invitation. See you there!

Join us tonight for An Evening in Brazil!

3:00 PM in the Aquinas Lounge. See you there!

Tonight at 5:00 PM in Aquinas Lounge!

Mark your calendars for the First, Only, Different Alumni Panel, this Wednesday at 6! We hope to see you there!

New BLS/GST elective for Spring 2023!

GST 370/BLS 470
Black Brazil: Racism & Resistance

This course investigates Brazil’s unique history of race and racism. We will use a chronological approach to access documents that expose the main events marking this history. These documents include news articles, policies, documentaries and creative pieces (film, music, literature). By the end of the course, students will understand the importance of Brazil’s history of race in the global scenario.

Please reach out to [email protected] if interested in registering!

New BLS/HPM elective for Spring 2023!

HPM/BLS 270 Racial Health Disparities

This course will use historical analysis to illuminate how racial health disparities have been understood, why they persist, and how to better address health care inequities in the current moment and beyond. Those from marginalized communities statistically experience higher rates of illness, worse health outcomes, and additional barriers to care. We will examine systemic structures of inequality in housing, education, and employment that leave communities of color more vulnerable than others to health inequities in the United States. Additionally, we will analyze the malleable ways in which racial categories have been used to segregate bodies of color, diagnose illness, treat disease, and shape the American medical profession.

The Black Studies Program is hiring a Graduate Assistant to begin in January 2023! Please visit careers.providence.edu for more information and to apply.

GA Job Duties:
• Administrative: provide support to the Director (projects, events, logistics, etc.)
• Attend weekly meetings
• Personal programming initiative: creating your own programs that support the Black Studies Program.
• Promote Program on social media and other venues.
• General programing: work with academic departments, cultural centers, and student service units
• Compile yearly Programming Report
• Black Studies newsletter “Heritage”: gather articles from students, work to format/edit and print each edition
• Attend training/development workshops:
• Organize community centered events
• Model and encourage active community participation by attending meetings, proposing and implementing events, recruiting, marketing, and motivating others
• Review and update marketing materials
• Other projects as needed

First-years are encouraged to attend this event, which was organized by students for students! Come learn from your peers how to better navigate your PC experience and develop social capital at a PWI!

Congratulations and good luck to the Class of 2022 Black Studies minors! 🎉

The Black Studies Program is hiring a Graduate Assistant to begin in August 2022! Please visit careers.providence.edu for more information and to apply.

GA Job Duties:
• Administrative: provide support to the Director (projects, events, logistics, etc.)
• Attend weekly meetings
• Personal programming initiative: creating your own programs that support the Black Studies Program.
• Promote Program on social media and other venues.
• General programing: work with academic departments, cultural centers, and student service units
• Compile yearly Programming Report
• Black Studies newsletter “Heritage”: gather articles from students, work to format/edit and print each edition
• Attend training/development workshops:
• Organize community centered events
• Model and encourage active community participation by attending meetings, proposing and implementing events, recruiting, marketing, and motivating others
• Review and update marketing materials
• Other projects as needed

Join us tonight to celebrate our amazing Black Studies minors! We will be eating some great food, gifting our graduating minors with their Kente stoles, and announcing the recipients of the senior awards!

The Black Studies Program is excited to invite you to a book launch tomorrow, April 21st at 6:00 PM in Slavin 112 to celebrate the publication of You are Seen, You are Heard, You are Loved by Professor Akeem Lloyd!

Come join us on April 6th at 6:00 PM for "The Hold is also an Embrace: Black life, Performance, and Liberation", a talk by Dr. Naimah Pétigny!

The Department of Sociology & Anthropology would like to invite you to join us for a panel and group discussion this Thursday March 3rd at 7:00 PM in Moore Hall 125!

This event is designed to educate and engage the Providence College community in understanding the impact of solitary confinement on individuals, the ways that our prison system uses this practice to enact harm, and how interested folks can help address this issue through the introduction of the Restrictive Housing Act.

Cosponsored by: Sociology & Anthropology, Black Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies

Join us on Saturday, March 19th at 7:00 PM for a concert featuring La Donna Musicale and Rumbarroco!

Black Studies is hiring a Graduate Assistant, to start in January 2022! Interested applicants should visit careers.providence.edu for more information and requirements.

The Black Studies Program is committed to promoting and encouraging scholarship that is designed to challenge multiple forms of oppression both within the U.S. and globally. The program engages in various activities intended to encourage students to critically think of knowledge production and to arm them with the necessary tools to critique such production. We study the unique cultures, collective experiences and connections within the African Diaspora, so that students gain a better understanding of American society and the world we live in. In addition to the academic benefits of obtaining the minor, students enjoy the extra-curricular experiences, such as movie series, guest speakers, and an array of community activities. Upon graduation students receive Kente stoles to mark their achievement.

Job Duties:
• Administrative: provide support to the Director (projects, events, logistics, etc.)
• Attend weekly meetings
• Personal programming initiative: creating your own programs that support the Black Studies Program.
• Promote Program on social media and other venues.
• General programing: work with academic departments, cultural centers, and student service units
• Compile yearly Programming Report
• Black Studies newsletter “Heritage”: gather articles from students, work to format/edit and print each edition
• Attend training/development workshops
• Organize community centered events
• Model and encourage active community participation by attending meetings, proposing and implementing events, recruiting, marketing, and motivating others
• Review and update marketing materials
• Other projects as needed

‼️NEW COURSE ‼️

Afro-Latinidad(es): Identities, Expressions, Resistance is a course by Professor Wheeler in Spring 2022!

Register for BLS 470-003
CRN 2108 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 8:30-9:20 AM)

This course will engage the concept of Afro-Latinidad through an exploration of Afro-Latinx Identities, Expressions, and Resistance in Latin America and the United States. As we discuss the presence and experiences of people of African descent in diverse social, cultural, and geographical contexts, we will interrogate racial ideologies and racial formation in the Americas; consider the implications of diasporic intersections; center AfroLatinx voices in language, music, film, and popular culture; and highlight Afro-Latinx resistance, struggles, movements, and solidarities. In the Black Studies tradition, this course offers students an opportunity to correct contemporary and historical silences by filling those gaps with stories told by Afro-Latinx individuals and communities.

For more information, contact Prof. Wheeler at [email protected].

The Heritage Journal is a biannual newsletter for the Black Studies Program at Providence College. We invite our community - students, alum, faculty, staff, and community members to contribute. Submissions can take multiple forms, such as art, poetry, prose, photography etc. They can be reflective or analytical, but we ask that you consider our theme: Race. Gender. Violence. Submissions will be featured at our events throughout the year.

Please email submissions to Hanna Awwad, [email protected] by November 22, 2021.

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who attended the film screening last night in ! The video will be posted online by the end of this week for you to view and share.

This project would not exist if it weren’t for the activism, documentation, and tireless effort of the alum and faculty who risked everything for these demands. I deeply admire you all and I am eternally grateful. I hope this video will serve as documentation of the 2015 Demands and honor the incredible work that Black, Indigenous, and people of color have done to make Providence College a beloved community for ALL.

❤️ - Hanna Awwad, Graduate Assistant

In 2015, a group of students came together to write the Demands for Redress, in response to racism and anti-Blackness at Providence College. Join us on October 26, 2021 at 6:00 PM EST (Moore Hall Lounge) for the premiere of , a living memory documentary of the movement.

Is there a better way to spend your Monday evenings during spring semester? No.

Pre-register for T.H.U.G L.I.F.E (BLS 470) now by emailing Vanessa Sullivan: [email protected]

📢Announcing! The ‘21-‘22 theme for the Black Studies Program is…

Race.
Gender.
Violence.

In our 26th year, we’re exploring 50 years of women at Providence College, and the racialized and gendered violence at PC and beyond. Join us.

Stay tuned ✨

Thanks so much to Dr. Lima-Neves for joining us last night to discuss her new publication, "Cabo Verdean Women Writing Remembrance, Resistance, and Revolution: Kriolas Poderozas"!

Join us on October 7, 2021 (6:00 PM EST-8:30 PM EST) in Moore Hall 125 Lounge for Dr. Terza’s book launch! Learn more about the COVID precautions we’re implementing for the event and REGISTER for in-person or virtual: https://bit.ly/3F5E27w

📚Cabo Verdean Women Writing Remembrance, Resistance, and Revolution: Kriolas Poderozas documents the work and stories told by Cabo Verdean women to refocus the narratives about Cabo Verde on Cabo Verdean women and their experiences. The contributors examine their own experiences, the history of Cabo Verde, and Cabo Verdean diaspora to highlight the commonalities that exist among all women of African descent, such as sexual and domestic violence and media objectification, as well as the different meanings these commonalities can hold in local contexts. Through exploring the literary and musical contributions of Cabo Verdean women, the Cabo Verdean state and its transnational relations, food and cooking traditions, migration and diaspora, and the oral histories of Cabo Verde, the contributors analyze themes of community, race, sexuality, migration, gender, and tradition.

Come join us in the Black Studies Community Space (Howley 314)!! We'll be here until 5 tonight!

Meet the incredible people that make up BLS, learn about the program, check out our community space, and enjoy some snacks!

✨You’re invited!✨ We’re having an open house on Wednesday, September 29, 3:00-5:00 PM! Come meet the incredible people that make up BLS, learn about the program, check out our community space, and enjoy some snacks! Howley Hall 314! See ya there!

From all of us at Black Studies, welcome back! Be sure to “like” this page to stay in the loop with upcoming events and more 😋

Don’t worry if you don’t have a hard copy! You can view the Spring 2021 edition of Heritage online via PC’s Digital Commons.

https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/heritage/

Open to all class years! Register today!

Grounded in Black feminist approaches to community organizing this course will offer students the opportunity to learn about and develop what Black feminist educators and organizers describe as Black girl spaces.

Course material will draw on/explore historic and contemporary Black feminist organizing practices, expand students’ knowledge about the socio-political contexts that lead to Black feminists’ activism and organizing with, for, and alongside Black girls, allow students to examine the historical and contemporary literatures within the emerging field of Black Girlhood Studies, and analyze curriculums, pedagogies, and practices fostered in spaces created by and for Black girls.

This course will also explore and analyze current movements, like and , that are rooted in celebrating and honoring Black girlhood, and centers and prioritizes their voices, narratives, and the realities of their daily life experiences. Students will learn from community organizers and educators who currently work alongside Black q***r, trans, and cisgender girls to create Black Girl Spaces nationally. Additionally, this course will deeply examine how their work is rooted in a particular Black Feminist organizing that foregrounds honoring Black Girlhood in theory, practice, and ultimately towards the path of Black liberation.

Cleaning out the Graduate Assistant’s office in Howley and came across this gem… a 2012 edition of Heritage! I’m looking forward to getting this space ready for an in-person fall semester! - Hanna Awwad, GA

We’re so proud of the BLS grads 🤩

Pictured here is Cameron Liesching, ‘21 Sociology major, Black Studies minor.