Dear Colleagues, Griot Family and Friends,
Happy Winter! Warm greetings for the season from The Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Cultures. As the year comes to a close, we extend our heartfelt gratitude for your continued robust support of The Griot. This past year has been a remarkable one for us. It has been filled with groundbreaking research, book launches, thought-provoking discussions, and a shared commitment to deepening our understanding of Africa and the Diaspora’s richly complex histories, cultures, and politics.
To our interns, thank you for entrusting us in mentoring you and supporting your research journeys. You are contributing to a vibrant, interdisciplinary archive making project and dialogue that brings fresh perspectives to our campus. To our insightful and steadfast board members, we are grateful for your diligence, expertise, tough and thoughtful feedback, and commitment to maintaining the high standards that make this institute a quality resource. And to our blog readers, your engagement and enthusiasm for Griot events is noticed. Collectively you all drive our mission forward.
As we reflect on the community engagements of our interns, the Dancing Mind Challenge, book group discussions, drumming lessons and intern presentations during the Fall semester, we look ahead with intellectual curiosity and thankfulness to what comes for us all in 2025. Together, we will continue to push the boundaries of scholarship, in ways that inform, challenge, and inspire. We know many of you will join us for our Spring 2025 speaker series and conference interrogating ideas of Decolonial Education and Liberatory Learning.
In the meantime, we wish you a family and friend filled season and an inspired New Year!
Cymone Fourshey, Professor of History and International Relations and Director of The Griot Institute
Michelle Lauver, Programs Manager of The Griot Institute
The Griot Intern Blog
For insights, reactions and detailed information on past Griot Institute events, please read our intern-authored blogs throughout the academic year. The blogs also include many updates and reports on what is happening around campus in connection to Black lives and cultures.
Newest Blog Posts:
- International Festival: Family Weekend by Holiness Kerandi ’26
- Black Engineers’ Experiences by Jeremiah Charles ’27
- Bucknell University’s International Festival by Mercy Ifiegbu ’26
- Dark Agoras: Griot Book Group by Ryleigh Roberts ’25
- Sounding Out Diversity by Jeremiah Charles ’26
Griot intern contributors: Jeremiah Charles ’27, Athaliah Elvis ’26, Mercy Ifiegbu ’26, Holiness Kerandi ’26, Jesse Leon ’28, Ryleigh Roberts ’25 (graduate student and editor), Da’Mirah Vinson ’26 and Barbara Wankollie ’25.
Upcoming Events
Decolonial Education & Liberatory Learning Speaker Series
Select Wednesdays at 7 PM
The series is free & open to the public.
Save the dates!
February 5 – Dr. Stephanie Jones, Associate Professor of Education at Grinnell College
Talk: Ending Curriculum Violence and Racial Trauma in the Classroom
February 26 – Dr. Monica Cox, Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Engineering Education at Ohio State University
Talk: Moving Beyond Diversity Initiatives to Authentic Equity: A Call to Accompliceship
March 5 – Ephraim Asili, Artist and Filmmaker, Associate Professor of Film and Electronic Arts at Bard College
Talk: Transgressive Transcendence
March 19 – Coco Fusco, Interdisciplinary Artist and Writer, Professor at the Cooper Union School of Art
Talk: Illicit Incursions in the Cuban Public Sphere
The Griot Institute Spring 2025 Conference: Decolonial Education & Liberatory Learning
March 28 – 30
Featured Guest Speakers:
- Michael Sawyer – Associate Professor of African American Literature & Culture in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh
- J.T. Roane – Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Geography at Rutgers University; Author of Dark Agoras: Insurgent Black Social Life and the Politics of Place
- Justin Hosbey – Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley
- Teona Williams – Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geography at Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences
MLK Week 2025
Learning to Action: Movement Toward Just Communities
January 20 – 31
Dr. King consistently referred to the three interconnected evils of the world: racism, poverty and militarism. This year’s MLK theme, Learning to Action: Movement Toward Just Communities, is a call to the community to actively engage in listening, (self) reflection, learning and action toward social justice. In a time of unrest and conflict, how can our local community of Bucknellians and our neighbors take up King’s call to better understand our words and practices as the work of transformation toward beloved community and justice? In an effort to learn how to take action that brings greater social justice, our keynote speaker will be Judy Richardson, formerly a student leader at Swarthmore who was an original participant in Freedom Summer (1963) and a member of SNCC, and currently a filmmaker and social justice educator/activist.
Keynote Speaker
Judy Richardson – Civil Rights Activist, SNCC Organizer, Filmmaker
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Vaughan Literature Building, 100 – Leanne Freas Trout Auditorium
In these difficult times, it’s important to remember those whose commitment and courage energize us as we work to strengthen and expand our democracy. Their stories and their tireless resistance have the power to strengthen us for the work ahead.
For more details and a list of MLK Week 2025 events, please see the MLK Week website.
West African Drumming Lessons
Mondays, 4:30 – 5:30
Hildreth-Mirza Great Room
West African drumming lessons will continue in Spring 2025! This opportunity is free of charge and is open to the Bucknell community, as well as the public! No experience is necessary and instruments are provided.
Because we have a limited number of instruments, please register by emailing griot@bucknell.edu.
About the instructor: Urie Kline is a versatile percussionist active across Central Pennsylvania. He first began studying West African drumming — specifically the Jembe and Dunan tradition of the Mande — in 2015. His educational experiences include masterclasses under both Dr. Djo Bi (Ivory Coast) and M’bemba Bangoura (Guinea). He has taught Mande drumming during his World Drumming course at Lycoming College since 2018 and started instructing at The Griot Institute in 2022.
In Memory of Renowned Poet and Activist Nikki Giovanni
In March of 2019, Carmen Gillespie, the founding director of The Griot Institute, reached out to Nikki Giovanni to invite her to Bucknell as the honored keynote speaker of the 2020 Griot Institute Spring Series focused on Black Radical Thought and Art. Teaching at the University of Toledo prior to her appointment at Bucknell, Carmen knew Nikki from her visit there as a guest speaker, as well as their connection as members of the Wintergreen Women Writers Collective. In her invitation to Nikki, Carmen, who unexpectedly passed away in August 2019, wrote of the transformative experience of hearing her speak in Toledo and said, “I think, at this moment, we can make the same kind of impact here at Bucknell.”
Though Carmen did not have the opportunity to engage with Nikki Giovanni on January 29, 2020, the Bucknell community embraced her presence with a standing room only audience as she spoke of “grit, grace and glow” with hopes for the future. The impact Carmen hoped for was present and powerful. Nikki Givoanni closed the evening with what she named her favorite poem, Quilts, as it reflects on memory and comfort. As we take a moment to remember both accomplished poets, Carmen Gillespie (1965 – 2019) and Nikki Giovanni (1943 – 2024), please be warmly reminded of connections in your own life who make a deeply felt impact and carry us onward.
Those with Bucknell credentials can access Nikki Giovanni’s January 29, 2020 talk at Bucknell on MediaSpace.
–Michelle Lauver, Programs Manager of The Griot Institute
About the Griot
To check event dates, subscribe to the Griot Institute Public Event Calendar
Email: griot@bucknell.edu
Phone: 570-577-2123
Location: Hildreth-Mirza, 2nd Floor
Hours: Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 3:00pm or by appointment
Director: C. Cymone Fourshey | Program Manager: Michelle Lauver
