Griot Newsletter: May 18, 2026

Dear Griot Colleagues, Family and Friends,

"The Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Culture: Intellectual and creative engagement with the interdisciplinary investigation of the cultures, histories, narratives, peoples, geographies, and arts of Africa and the African diaspora." over a picture of Carmen Gillespie, the founding director of The Griot Institute.

Congratulations to Bucknell’s 2026 graduates! For our interns – Deborah Gonkpah, Grace Ifiegbu, Da’Mirah Vinson as well as our photographer Jean Marie Ngabonziza and former interns Athalia Elvis and Mercy Ifiegbu – Happy First Day After Graduation! We hope everyone slept in a little this Monday and let the great achievement of attaining a degree sink in for a few moments.

As the weather rapidly warms and the final weeks of the semester are behind us, we want to take a moment to acknowledge what has taken place this year at The Griot Institute. It has been a year shaped by inquiry, creative expression, and community engagements with six speakers, one Pulitzer Prize winning Historian, one youth environmental activist, one student alumni panel, one filmmaker, two film showings, one energizing annual opening with Soul In Motion drummers and dancers alongside Taratibu Youth, one music jam, twenty drumming lessons, two book groups, a dozen partnerships, one Dancing Mind Challenge, nine student research posters (Fall) and seven research presentations (Spring), multiple awards won by students (Debra Gonkpah, The H. Boardman Hopper Prize; Da’Mirah Vinson, The Louis W. Robey Prize) and Programs Manager (Michelle Lauver, Inclusive Excellence Award Staff), and a dozen meals that sparked hundreds of ongoing conversations.

Our annual theme, Youth from Africa and the Diasporas: Knowers, Innovators, Visionaries, and Everyday People, guided every event, gathering, and conversation. Centering our mission to document and bring into view narratives of both historical and contemporary African and Diaspora communities, this theme invited our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and guests to engage with the knowledge, visions, and concerns of young people as full intellectual and creative agents in their own right and era. This year our intern cohort embodied the theme in every sense. Their research, leadership, support, and intellectual curiosity produced the robust programming and blog record that is the lifeblood of the Institute.

We are especially proud to recognize Bucknell students who participated in the Music Jam and Spring Speaker Series: Lyric Abdul-Rasheed ’26, Jackline Masetu ’27, and Omuhle Ndolovu ’27, Jean Marie Ngabonziza ’26, “KJ” Kenneth Scott ’26, joined featured guests as thinkers and presenters in their own right.

Please be sure to join us from Williamsport to Harrisburg in celebrating Juneteenth 2026 and commemorating the start of freedom season. Selinsgrove has added events for June 18th. Lewisburg will hold events centered on the theme Until All Are Free on June 19th at Huffnagel Park, Samek, Campus Theatre, and Community Zone from 12 PM-6 PM.

We are excited to announce that our 2026/27 theme is Pan-Africanism: Global Freedom Movements & Unrealized Promises. The Griot Institute’s Speaker and Artist Series explores Pan-Africanism as a theory and approach for understanding interconnected struggles for liberation across Africa and the African Diaspora. At a moment when global solidarity is both urgently needed and actively contested, this series brings together thinking from academics, scholars, artists, activists, and community organizers to examine how African people worldwide have built networks of generative sites of creative invention, imagination, resistance, and solidarity that transcend national borders.

The series centers art, music, cultures, identities, spirituality, and community-level organizing as integral to liberation movements, recognizing that freedom struggles are not only political and economic; they are also aesthetic, spiritual, and deeply human. Drawing on Francophone, Lusophone, Spanish-speaking, Atlantic World, and Indian Ocean African Diaspora perspectives alongside Anglophone traditions, the series asks us to think more expansively about what Pan-Africanism has meant, what it means today, and what it might yet become.

Partner With Us

If you are interested in co-sponsoring an event or have a guest artist, academic, or community-engaged thinkers you think would complement our 2026/2027 program, please contact us by June 15, 2026. griotinstitute@bucknell.edu

Kind Regards,

Cymone Fourshey, Professor of History and International Relations
Director 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:

YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED TO USE YOUR VOICE
An Interview with Anthony Ray Hinton
Deirdre Cooper Owens: Disparity in the U.S. Healthcare System
Dr. Winnifred Brown-Glaude Lunch Event
Interview with Dr. Winnifred Brown-Glaude

See all intern blog posts

Griot intern contributors: Debra Gonkpah ’26, Lily Hebda ’27 (graduate student and editor), Grace Ifiegbu ’26, Holiness Kerandi ’26, Jesse Leon ’28, Ahmed Omo ’28, Lucas Reid ’29, Da’Mirah Vinson ’26, and Najwa Waysome ’28.

News

Congratulations to The Griot Institute’s graduating seniors!

Debra Gonkpah joined the Griot team in Fall 2025. Her research has contributed to the Griot Storytelling Project. We will miss her personal stories, her dedication to making other people’s stories known, and her contagious energy and vision, as well as her Liberian cooking! Debra is graduating with a degree in International Relations and plans to work on expanding her business in China and then attend graduate school the following year.

Grace Ifiegbu became a Griot Institute intern in Fall 2025. Her research has been on voices of the Civil Rights Movement. Grace has been a thoughtful team member, always considering ways to help and support others. We will miss her amazing artwork and all of her other creative ideas! Grace is graduating with a degree in Chemistry and will be pursuing her Master’s in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University this fall.

Jean Marie Ngabonziza has served as a Griot Institute photographer since Fall 2024. He has made countless contributions to the Griot archives with his impressive photos. In the very manner of a Griot, Jean Marie has told compelling stories in an artistic way, showing up again and again to capture the moment. He is graduating with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering and plans to hunt for a job, build good habits for his health and read books.

Da’Mirah Vinson joined the Griot Institute as in intern in Fall 2024. Her research focus has been on Blackness and Food Systems. Da’Mirah has a remarkable commitment to bringing more justice to the world. She is visionary, and we will greatly miss her passion for finding a way to make things happen. Da’Mirah is graduating with a degree in Sociology and will now be pursuing a PhD in Sociology at University of Oregon.