In this video, storyteller Aida ponders whether Black History Month can change minds, referring to some of the conversations in the cultural space between African Americans and East Africans in the mid-20th century that were the focus of her PhD research.

So as part of my background in theatre, I pursued it more academically and I got my PhD in looking specifically at the Conversations between African Americans and East Africans between 1952 and 1979. In the cultural space specifically because this was an extremely revolutionary moment in both those spaces. It was the change to decolonization, but also it was resistance of the moniker Negro and an embrace of the term black as a specific like political angry unapologetic thing. And and in that time, so I'm continuing to think about people who inspire me, there was the Black Arts movement.

And there's people who, I mean, at the end of the day, everybody, you know, I almost hesitate to name because when you name people, everyone, everyone is later on messy, everyone's later on problematic, and sometimes, sometimes they're great with race, other times they're terrible with sexism, but there were people whose voices were really important there and gave permission to, to not just take the water hose but to A fight back and to show the to show, I guess the spectrum of feelings for protest and resistance. So yeah, I think that and I think sometimes those voices at a time like Black History Month, it could be really empowering depending on the age for older. Kids or black kids who aren't being taught their own black history the rest of the year to sometimes see expressions of that and then get it's sort of like a buffet of people who could inspire you and inspire you also in different moments and to what end.

 

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