Combining music and film, Beyoncé’s “visual album” Lemonade smashed onto the airwaves a year ago in April, raising sales dollars, social awareness and critical controversy.
UTC is embracing Beyoncé’s vision, using her thoughts along with Candice Benbow’s “Lemonade: The Syllabus” as jumping-off points to discuss issues raised on Lemonade, such as the lives, loves and pain of black women.
During the week of April 3-6, faculty and students in UTC’s English, Art, Theater, History, Exercise Science departments and Women’s Studies program will come together to delve more deeply into the topics of Lemonade during daily events:
“We Are All/Are We All Feminist(s)?”
Monday, April 3, 7:30 p.m. UTC Multicultural Center.
Join Drs. Immaculate Kizza, Marcia Noe, and James Arnett, and PhD candidate Taryn Jordan from Emory, for a round table discussion of feminisms, black feminisms, Africana womanisms, and queer of color critique. We’ll be looking at the intersections of these discourses — and intersectionality — in an informal, informative setting. Inspired by Chimamanda Ngozie Adiche’s We Should All Be Feminists.
“Lemonade: The Lecture.”
Tuesday, April 4, 7:30 p.m. Derthick Lecture Hall.
Come join a number of UTC professors and students present their thoughts, reflections, findings, and responses to Beyoncé’s album Lemonade. This Lecture event will be multimedia and live! — the consummate local drag artist Marie Bebe Dupree will open and close this event with electrifying performances and paeans to, and as Queen Bey herself. This is a unique event that you don’t want to miss!
“A Night of Black Women Writers”
Wednesday, April 5, 7:30 p.m. Multicultural Center.
The UTC English faculty are pleased to present a literary salon night, where we celebrate the beauty, strength, and power of black women writers of all eras and genres — from Sojourner Truth to Chimamanda Adichie, our faculty is on hand to recite, to perform, to enrapture with the works and words of these wise women.
“The Right to Move: Okay, Ladies, Now Let’s Get In/Formation”
Thursday, April 6, 4:30 p.m. Dance Studio in the ARC.
It’s the end of the semester — take a load off, shake it out, and get moving! Join Professors James Arnett and Shewanee Howard-Baptiste for an event that provokes thought and gets you dancing — come for the warm-up lecture on civil rights and journalism pioneer Ida B. Wells, — and stay to learn some choreography to Beyoncé’s hit single “Formation”! Refreshments will be provided. Please note, members of the public will need to pay the $5 entrance fee to the gym.
All events are open to members of the UTC community and the public.
For information, contact Dr. James Arnett at james-arnett@utc.edu or 423-425-4602.