September 1, 2025
Dear Colleagues, Griot Family and Friends,
Hoping, for those of you readers back on campus, your first week was smooth. For those not on campus, a warm welcome back to updates from campus and The Griot Institute. Though we slowed our pace a bit, we were deeply engaged over the summer, creating new narratives. This included a 3-week course in the Caribbean, a well-attended Juneteenth event co-organized with the Lewisburg and Williamsport communities, planning for the theme Youth from Africa and the Diasporas: Knowers, Innovators, Visionaries, and Everyday People, and also the more mundane work of reorganizing the Griot office space. Summer’s slower pace has allowed us to reflect and reenergize for the 2025-26 academic year, energy we will need to delve into our theme. Centering our mission “to document and bring into view narratives of both historical and contemporary African and Diaspora communities,” our theme this year will allow all to engage in conversations around coming of age and the knowledge, visions, innovations, and concerns of youth, young adults — our students.
This week, we have a Friday lunch (12:00-1:00) with faculty. Saturday (12:00-2:00) is our annual opening with Soul in Motion! There will also be a special performance by the youth organization of Gumboot Dancers to compliment the Soul in Motion engagement with the community. This event is open to all. If you are planning to join the lunch on Friday please RSVP by today. We hope to see you one of these events.
We have an important set of book and film groups throughout the Fall and a Dancing Mind Challenge at the end of September as a preparation for those reading groups and an opportunity to unplug. September 17 we have organized a lunch for student leaders to come together. We have one speaker/performer coming to campus October 1 through a collaboration with the Music Department. Below are posters for a few of the upcoming fall events. If you would like to have a full list of events for fall and spring please email griot@bucknell.edu.
As usual, events will be shared in this newsletter throughout the year as they approach. We look forward to seeing you at many of these events, and particularly our vibrant opening event in the Terrace Room on Saturday, September 6 from 12-2. The Griot Institute office (Hildreth-Mirza 202) is open most weekdays from 8 -3. If you are interested in a collaboration or starting a conversation, please email us at griot@bucknell.edu.
Warmest Regards,
Cymone Fourshey
Professor of History and International Relations, Director of The Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Cultures
Updates on Life from Griot Institute Interns
Lily Hebda, Graduate Student
Lily, a graduate student pursuing her Master’s degree in English, hails from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where she obtained degrees in English and education from Wilkes University. Passionate about literacy education, Lily has worked as a writing tutor, library assistant, and English teacher. She is excited to continue her own education while promoting campus and community engagement through her work and research at the Griot Institute. Lily will be working in a Toni Morrison research project and serving as editor at The Griot. Fun facts: This summer, Lily vacationed with her family in Chincoteague, Virginia and attended Ghost and My Chemical Romance concerts.
Holiness Kerandi ’26
Over the summer I went home to Kenya, where I truly received rest. It was refreshing to experience life both as a tourist and as an everyday person, noticing how home continues to move with or without me. I had fun, expanded my curiosities, and reconnected with the purpose behind my journey. I also gained professional experience working with the Kenya Pipeline Company.
Jesse Leon ’28
Hi! It’s Jesse Leon and I just wanted to let you know what I’ve been up to over the summer, as it has been very relaxing, but eventful at the same time. If you take a look at the photo above, you can see a beautiful view at over 8,000 feet from Mountain San Jacinto! I took this picture when I reached the top of the mountain by taking the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs, CA while on vacation. Along with my vacation, I also dove into file clerk work at a Law Firm and pursued a new hobby, skating. It has always been an interest of mine since middle school, so I decided to learn, as it also has become my new transportation around campus. Although I didn’t do much over the summer, it was enough as I also had my share of relaxing and family time in my hometown city of Long Beach, California.
Da’Mirah Vinson ’26
This summer I had the opportunity to spend time at Bucknell doing full-time mentored research through the Bucknell Program for Undergraduate Research. My mentor was Professor Janet Adomako, and the topic of my research was British colonial influence on food and land systems in Ghana. I was able to present findings from my research at the Susquehanna Valley Undergraduate Research Symposium. During the summer I was invited to a three day Black Farm tour by the Black Church Food Security Network, where I spent three days visiting historically Black farms in the DMV area. It was so cool to see the Black history that is reflected through these farms. I also spent some time back home in Baltimore hanging out with my friends and family. We spent time going to the beach, movie theaters, vinyl shops, and eating at a lot of restaurants.
Upcoming Events
Faculty/Staff Lunch with the Griot
Friday, September 5, 2025
Hildreth-Mirza Great Room
The Griot Institute Opening Event
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Terrace Room (Elaine Langone Center, 2nd floor)
Renée’s Kitchen will be selling BBQ at the event! Don’t miss getting your plate! CashApp accepted!
West African Drumming Lessons
Mondays at 4:30 pm starting September 8, 2025
Hildreth-Mirza Great Room
Looking to relax and learn a musical instrument in a low stress environment? The Griot Institute is once again offering West African drumming lessons to Bucknell faculty, staff and students, as well as members of the community. No experience is necessary and instruments are provided. The group lessons are held weekly on Mondays from 4:30-5:30 beginning September 8. Although there is no fee to join, because we have a limited number of instruments, please register by emailing griot@bucknell.edu.
Why try West African Drumming?
Importantly, you will learn with others in the lessons about West Africa’s deep and rich histories of drumming. You will be exposed to different cultures’ patterns of counting, knowledge production, and community building. In addition to the important social and historical lessons, West African Drumming has several benefits as it:
*Improves listening skills and productive multitasking abilities
*Improves the way you work as part of a team
*Improves concentration and ability to focus
*Improves short term memory
*Improves left and right hand coordination and independence
*Encourages non-verbal communication
*Promotes Confidence Building
*Helps in discovery of improvisation and soloing
*Relieves stress
The Dancing Mind Challenge
Saturday, September 27 OR Sunday, September 28, 2025 – You Choose!
Based on Toni Morrison’s reflections in her essay “The Dancing Mind,” this challenge is an opportunity for Bucknell students, faculty, staff, and community members to “unplug” and read without any electronic interruptions or distractions for several consecutive hours. Please see the full details and sign up here!
Guest Speaker/Performer: Mama C
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Rooke Recital Hall, Sigfried Weis Music Building
Please join the Music Department and The Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Cultures as we host Charlotte Hill O’Neal aka Mama C aka Iya Osotunde Fasuyi, a musician, visual artist, poet, film maker, ATR priestess and peace builder through her Art and her Life Example!
Mama C is a veteran Black Panther from the Kansas City Chapter which she joined at the age of 18. She is cofounder of the United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC). Please see her full bio here.
Bucknell in the Caribbean 2026 Information Sessions
Tuesday, September 30 (12-1 pm) and
Tuesday, October 21 (5 – 6 pm), 2025
Hildreth-Mirza Great Room
Griot Institute Fall 2025 Book Groups
Wednesday, October 8 and
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Hildreth-Mirza Great Room
On October 8, join The Griot Institute to discuss Black Boy by Richard Wright. Wright’s once controversial, now celebrated autobiography measures the raw brutality of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive as a black boy. Enduring poverty, hunger, fear, abuse, and hatred while growing up in the woods of Mississippi, Wright lied, stole, and raged at those around him—whites indifferent, pitying, or cruel and blacks resentful of anyone trying to rise above their circumstances. Desperate for a different way of life, he made his way north, eventually arriving in Chicago, where he forged a new path and began his career as a writer.
Books will be given to the first 15 registrants. Lunch will be provided. Please register by Friday, October 3. https://forms.gle/8mxF5Lf8oEdUaZJr9
On November 5, join The Griot Institute to discuss Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War by Edda L. Fields-Black. Most Americans know of Harriet Tubman’s legendary life: escaping enslavement in 1849, she led more than 60 others out of bondage via the Underground Railroad, gave instructions on getting to freedom to scores more, and went on to live a lifetime fighting for change. Yet the many biographies, children’s books, and films about Tubman omit a crucial chapter: during the Civil War, hired by the Union Army, she ventured into the heart of slave territory–Beaufort, South Carolina–to live, work, and gather intelligence for a daring raid up the Combahee River to attack the major plantations of Rice Country, the breadbasket of the Confederacy.
Books will be given to the first 15 registrants. Lunch will be provided. Please register by Friday, October 31. https://forms.gle/8mxF5Lf8oEdUaZJr9
Cosponsored Events
Gospel Music at Bucknell
September 20 – 21, October 4 – 5, November 15 – 16, 2025
Rooke Chapel
The 2025-26 Rooke Chapel Gospel Music Fellowship offers current master’s or doctoral students (and recent graduates) the opportunity to cultivate the Gospel music tradition within a vibrant, multicultural University worship setting. The fellow leads, in collaboration with the Protestant chaplain and director of music, weekend residencies open to students, staff, faculty and the local community through the course of the academic year, which are designed to teach, explore and celebrate Gospel music. Rooke Chapel is pleased to welcome back Rev. Angela Jones as our 2025-2026 Gospel Music Fellow! The Rev. Angela Jones is a Howard University School of Divinity graduate and gospel recording artist who has performed with genre Billboard-charting artists such as Richard Smallwood, Yolanda Adams, Bebe Winans, Marvin Sapp, Brandon Camphor & One Way, to name a few. Her singing group, Brandon Camphor & One Way, has been nominated for Stellar Awards, has been included on Billboard’s top-30 chart four times, and has received three Wammie Awards. Jones currently serves as minister of worship arts at Word For Life Church Ministries in Maryland. In 2024-25 Rev. Jones served as the Rooke Chapel Gospel Music Fellow and we look forward to welcoming her back to Bucknell. Join us on the dates above for Saturday rehearsals and Sunday worship services!
Learn more about Rev. Angela here! Contact chapel@bucknell.edu with any questions.
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
