Griot Newsletter: September 22, 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.

Dear Griot Friends, Family, and Colleagues,

As we enter the fifth week of the semester with Fall weather in full swing, it’s valuable to reflect on the events we have already experienced before looking ahead to several upcoming engagements.

Our semester started with a series of deep and meaningful conversations. These began with drums and dance at our lively opening celebration on August 29th, performed by Soul in Motion and Arts First alongside many wonderful community members. The dialogue continued during our enlightening lunch conversation on September 16th regarding Howard French’s book, The Second Emancipation. In between these events, approximately 30 community members traveled to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to witness American history in all of its complexity. Please read our student blogs to hear more about each of these experiences, as well as several cosponsored events and campus happenings that our student interns attended and reflected upon.

Looking ahead, we are thrilled to welcome Howard French to campus on September 30th from 4:30–6:00 PM in Hildreth-Mirza Hall. Howard French has well-traveled life experience as a foreign correspondent, is currently a professor of journalism at Columbia University, and was recently elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His talk is sure to be engaging and informative. In addition to the hundreds of articles he has published in notable outlets, French is the author of a half-dozen books and is currently completing a book on Thelonious Monk, set for release in January 2027. We look forward to seeing many of you there.

We are also looking forward to the Dancing Mind Challenge following Fall break on October 24–25th. We hope many of you will join us in putting away digital technologies for even a few hours to write, read, and think without constant mediated interruptions.

As a reminder, the Griot Institute theme for 2026–2027 is Pan-Africanism: Global Freedom Movements and Unrealized Promises. To represent this theme visually, we have featured a stunning piece newly acquired by the Samek Art Museum: Printing Black America: Du Bois’s Data Portraits in the 21st Century by William Villalongo, created in collaboration with urbanist Shraddha Ramani. This work beautifully captures the groundbreaking data visualizations created by W.E.B. Du Bois and his collaborators for the American Negro Exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition, and it is currently on display in the Printing Black America exhibition at the Samek.

Kind Regards,
Cymone Fourshey, Professor of History and International Relations
Director of The Griot Institute
Director, The Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Cultures

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:
New Faculty and Staff Welcome Lunch Event by Lily Hebda
Griot Opening Event 2026 by Ahmed Omo
Dana-Ain Davis Talk: Laboring Under Medical Racism by Lily Hebda
Kenneth V Young Alumni Presentation by Solomon Lloyd
D.C. Trip: National Museum of African American History and Culture by Lily Hebda
Ni Chaînes Ni Maîtres by Holiness Kerandi

See all intern blog posts

Fall 2026 Griot Intern contributors: Lily Hebda ’27 (graduate student and editor), Rachel Adetutu ’30, Holiness Kerandi ’26, Solomon Lloyd ’30, Ahmed Omo ’28, Lucas Reid ’29.

Join the Griot Institute for a lunch chat with Howard W. French, a former New York Times senior writer, chronicler of Africa, Asia, and the African diaspora, and author of five acclaimed works of history and reportage.

Please RSVP by September 27! https://forms.gle/6GYGceKV6qu4gLHZ8

Please join The Griot Institute as we host Howard W. French, an American journalist, author, photographer and professor. French’s work spans five decades of reporting from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Central America. A former bureau chief and senior writer for The New York Times, he joined the paper in 1986 and reported from the front lines of history across four continents until 2008. Since then, French has been a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. This event is open to all!
*Books will be on sale at this event.

We invite you to join The Griot Institute in celebrating Professor Hiram Smith’s book, Wassup, My Nigga: The Hidden History of a Controversial Word, the first book written by an African American linguist to explore the word’s origin, history, and usage.

*Books will be on sale at this event.

https://press.georgetown.edu/Book/Wassup-My-Nigga

Please RSVP by October 4! https://forms.gle/KWkt9vMGuoRUTAuo9

Where is your mind? Where is it on a Saturday morning, rolling out of bed, grabbing for your phone, scrolling through your email? Where is it when you’re driving through campus? Where is your mind when you’ve lost your focus? When you’ve lost your purpose? When your phone won’t stop beeping and your calendar keeps growing?

It’s time to challenge your mind—to dance.

The Dancing Mind Challenge is back! This event, based on Toni Morrison’s reflections in her essay “The Dancing Mind,” is an opportunity for Bucknell students, faculty and staff, and community members to “unplug” and read without any electronic interruptions or distractions for several consecutive hours.

Registration and more information: https://dancingmind.blogs.bucknell.edu/

Drumming lessons have begun, but it is not too late to join!

The group lessons are held weekly on Mondays. This opportunity is free of charge and is open to Bucknell faculty, staff and students, as well as the community! No experience is necessary and instruments are provided. Because we have a limited number of instruments, please register by completing this form: https://forms.gle/EXEtxmpWdqpWcwK49

Why try West African Drumming?
Importantly, you will learn with others in the lessons about other cultures and traditions rooted in West Africa’s deep and rich histories. You will be exposed to different cultures’ patterns of counting, knowledge production, and community building. In addition to the important cultural and historical lessons, West African Drumming:
*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!