Performing Female Blackness: The Concept of Translucency and the Black & Free Project

Sponsored by Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Recorded on 07/26/2023
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 337

In the final episode of this four-part series, Dr. Naila Keleta-Mae, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo, discusses the concept of translucency that appears in her book, Performing Female Blackness. She explains how the concept connects to a phrase she pens in the text, “This is who I perform.” Grappling with the autonomy of the “performer,” Naila describes the power and control enacted by the artist, and how it conflicts with opposing cultural and environmental elements. She also chats about her Black & Free research project, which centers Black culture and art through various publications, creative works, programming, and public and private sector partnerships.

About the guest:

Naila Keleta-Mae
Associate Professor, Department of Communication Arts
University of Waterloo

Naila Keleta-Mae is a Dorothy Killam Fellow, the Tier 2 SSHRC Canada Research Chair in Race, Gender, and Performance, an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo, a multidisciplinary artist, and the Principal Investigator of Black And Free.

Enjoy the conversation? Listen to the rest of the series:

• Defining Performance
• Blending the Artist and the Academic
• Modes of Engagement

Check out our previous series with Wilfrid Laurier University Press:
– Canadian Poetry Today
– Animal Studies, Postcolonial Literature, and Multispecies Modernity
– Unpacking the Personal Library
– Cultivating Indigenous Studies
– Michelle Porter and the Métis Way

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