Stony Brook University Africana Studies Department

09/08/2026

🎬 LONG ISLAND PREMIERE | THE BANJO BOYS 🎶🇲🇼

Africana Studies at Stony Brook is excited to share an upcoming film screening happening right in our community!

The Banjo Boys, directed by Johan R. Nayar, will make its Long Island premiere at the 2nd Annual Long Island Music Documentary Film Festival.

The documentary follows Madalitso Band—Yobu Maligwa and Yosefe Kalekeni, two Malawian street musicians whose extraordinary journey takes them from the streets and markets of Lilongwe to international stages. Building their own instruments from scavenged materials, the duo created a distinctive sound and ultimately performed at major festivals including WOMAD, Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar, Joshua Tree in California, and Glastonbury.

More than a music documentary, The Banjo Boys is a story of African creativity, resilience, cultural expression, survival, and the complicated realities of moving from local communities onto global stages.

📅 Friday, September 25, 2026
⏰ 2:35 PM
📍 97 Main Street, Stony Brook, NY
🎥 Long Island Music Documentary Film Festival
🏆 London Breeze Audience Award 2025

We encourage our Africana Studies students, faculty, alumni, and the wider Stony Brook community to support this special Long Island premiere happening just beyond our campus.

From Lilongwe to Long Island—African stories belong on the big screen. 🌍🎶

09/05/2026

As the summer comes to a close, one stalwart tradition always remains. For the past 80 years, the Shinnecock Indian Powwow has been held in Southampton. The four-day event typically draws over 10,000 spectators per day and more than 50 tribes stemming from all over North America participate.

"The powwow is a celebration of our culture," the co-master of ceremonies said. "We want everyone to realize that Shinnecock Nation is still here from 1640. Our spiritual and cultural connections to this land and water remain strong."

Read the full story here: https://nwsdy.li/4x14qcw
(Photo: Elizabeth Sagarin)

09/05/2026

🌍 AFRICA’S TRUE SIZE MATTERS.

For centuries, the maps most of us encountered in classrooms have shaped not only how we understand geography, but how we imagine power, importance, and the world itself.

The familiar Mercator projection dramatically enlarges land masses closer to the poles while making regions near the equator appear comparatively smaller. The result? Africa—an enormous continent of 54 countries—often appears far smaller than it actually is.

That distortion is more than a cartographic curiosity. For Africana Studies, it raises an important question: Who gets to map the world, and how does representation shape what we believe about it?

Africa is not peripheral to the story of the modern world. It is central to human history, culture, politics, economics, migration, and intellectual life.

Changing the map won’t change Africa’s actual size. But it may change the way generations of students see Africa.

🌍 Decolonize the map. Decolonize the imagination.

09/05/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/17zp7MDawy/?mibextid=wwXIfr

🔺 BREAKING: The university will examine the policies and decision-making that led to the appointment of its youngest black professor.

🔗 Click the link in the comments to read more

08/29/2026

The energy was REAL at the SBU Block Party! 🎉🌍🖤

A huge thank you to our incredible Africana Studies students and faculty who showed up, showed out, and represented the department with pride. From connecting with new and returning students to sharing information about our courses, programs, and community, our table was alive with conversation and Africana spirit.

Special appreciation to our SBU Africana Studies Society students for being outstanding ambassadors for Africana Studies. This is what building community looks like—students and faculty working together to make Africana Studies visible, welcoming, and accessible across campus.

Here’s to an exciting new academic year! Stop by, take a class, get involved, and discover what Africana Studies has to offer. ✊🏾📚🌍

Africana Studies is for everyone.

08/27/2026

I was one of the few Black scholars at both institutions. I understand—and loathe—how their tendency to undermine the suffering of Black people led to Jason Arday’s demise.

But the lesson of Arday’s death is not that he was some lone fraudster who sneaked into a professorship at Cambridge; it is that Black people in high positions are expected and demanded to be infallible. Any mistake will be seized upon and used to attack not just them but all Black people in these elite white spaces. In this schema, Arday stands in for all Black academia. He must either be a villain deserving of international disgrace or otherwise extolled as a blameless saint, his memory paraded as a mascot for racist victimization that only obscures discussion of the social forces that triggered this attack in the first place. Both racist and unjust binaries that stop us, ultimately from viewing him in the fullness of his humanity. Read more from Gazelle Mba:
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/oxford-and-cambridge-have-always-been-racist-arday/

08/13/2026

📸 AFRICANA STUDIES ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT | CAROUSEL RECAP 🎶

Swipe through for a look at Bay Shore Presents: Under the Big Tent, a community celebration held on July 25 in Bay Shore!

We are especially proud to highlight Mary Seymour of the legendary band MUSIQUE, one of our distinguished Africana Studies graduates, as she continues to share her musical talent beyond the classroom. Mary Seymour performed as part of an afternoon filled with music, dance, creativity, food, and fellowship, joining the Bay Shore High School Dancers and a vibrant lineup of local artists and community performers.

Moments like these reflect the ongoing impact of our alumni and the ways Africana Studies continues to shape creative expression, cultural engagement, and community connection long after graduation.

Congratulations to Mary Seymour and all the performers who made Under the Big Tent a powerful celebration of culture and artistry! 👏🏿🎶

SWIPE ➡️ to see moments from the day.

08/06/2026

Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary, built on the site of a former slave plantation and still operated as a working prison farm, has become one of the most visible symbols of that debate. Lawsuits and investigative reports have challenged conditions on the prison’s “farm line,” where incarcerated workers have described dangerous labor, extremely low pay, and practices they argue echo the plantation era.

Whether one agrees with describing Angola as a “modern slave plantation” or prefers different language, its history forces us to confront difficult questions about race, labor, punishment, and justice. Understanding this legacy is essential for anyone studying African American history, constitutional law, or the ongoing struggle for human rights.

07/28/2026

Gov. Kathy Hochul is directing SUNY and CUNY to offer expedited admissions reviews for students displaced after Howard University canceled admission for 502 first-year students over unmet tuition deadlines.

Participating campuses will pull from remaining Fall 2026 seats.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4pHfbi1

04/29/2026

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I had the pleasure of representing not only the Bethune-Cookman University Archives at Stony Brook University Africana Studies’ Retrospective honoring Dr. Annie Mae Walker but also Black Archives in general. Dr. Walker began her educational journey as a kindergartner at Mary McLeod Bethune’s Daytona Normal and industrial School. With some starts and stops, she matriculated from elementary to junior high and graduated high school in 1935. She returned and graduated summa cm laude from Bethune-Cookman College in 1944 with a degree in elementary education. She later taught fourth grade at Keyser Lab School on the campus. She would go on to garner graduate degrees from Adelphi University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she founded the Black Studies program. After retiring, she returned to Daytona Beach and taught at her alma mater and eventually Daytona State. She was a polygot who began piano lessons at age 79. Her life is one wondrous experience after another. To read more, pick up Dr. Lynn Hawkins’ Always the First. Dr. Walker touched the lives of many who continue to sing her praises and acknowledge the role she played in their journeys. I am grateful for whatever part the Archives played in gathering artifacts to continue the story of her life and its impact. It was a timely tribute to a history making woman who credits her time learning from Mrs. Bethune as life altering. bethunecookman