Explore highlights of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, programs, and research throughout our College. Faculty across the College are in the midst of programming a slate of speakers that highlight diversity in various fields and boost inclusion efforts among artists and designers of color. Faculty are also expanding upon the canons of the arts in their studios, classrooms, and ensembles. In addition, faculty and students have engaged in performance and research projects supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
GUEST ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS
The Department of Art & Art History hosted James H. Rolling, president-elect of the National Art Education Association, for its Friday Speaker Series. Dr. Rolling’s talk was titled “Art and Community During Two Pandemics,” addressing the two pandemics of Covid-19 and the more long-lasting one of racism. A recording of the talk is available on youtube.
During the 2020-2021 academic year, the School of Architecture is presenting a virtual lecture series that is focusing on diversity and inclusion. During the Fall 2020 semester, five public lectures included architects from a variety of racial/ethnic heritages discussing how their professional practices and personal experiences engage diversity.
Guests in the music department have included jazz saxophonist Brad Leali (University of North Texas), violinists Melissa White and Elena Urioste, conductor Virginia Allen (The Juilliard School, formerly US Army Bands Program), and guests in Music Education, who include Alice-Ann Darrow (Florida State University), whose research interests include inclusive practices for students with disabilities, and Rollo Dilworth (Temple University), whose research activities focus on African American choral music and community engagement.
The Department of Dance offered an online series for students and faculty focused on anti-racism and social justice. They included Christal Brown (Middlebury College), the Founding Artistic Director of INSPIRIT, a performance ensemble and educational conglomerate dedicated to bringing female choreographers together to collaborate and show new work; a discussion between faculty and students in which faculty discussed social justice and their research and teaching agendas; and Dance and Healing Workshops with Ananya Chatterjea (University of Minnesota).
The SoA also held faculty Colloquia in which five faculty members or teams are engaging issues of race and equity in their courses and research. Spring 2021 Lectures and Colloquia will continue to focus on diversity and inclusion. Lectures are at 2 PM EST and colloquia are at 12:30 PM EST; both are virtually held via Zoom. See the Spring 2021 line-up here.
In the Fall 2020 semester, the Department of Theatre welcomed artist Jerrilyn Lanier from Bridging the Gap to teach a virtual workshop on hair and makeup for Black performers for Theatre. The Department of Theatre also hosted a public conversation with Tony award-winning actor and disability advocate Ali Stroker.
expanding upon the arts canons
The Dept of Dance Curriculum Committee led a curriculum revision in 2019-20, incorporating African Diasporan dance forms as part of required coursework. In Spring 2021, they begin an anti-racist initiative, examining department syllabi to discern the anti-racist work being done across the department, chart its confluences, and make recommendations for further innovation.
Opera Workshop students worked on scenes from Bologne’s L’amant anonime and PQ Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kíhn, which is based on a Vietnamese folk tale. Chamber Music students completed a virtual project in which they performed works by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George, the son of an enslaved Senegalese woman and a French plantation owner.
Dance Professor Kaustavi Sarkar developed an online series featuring Indian and African diasporan artists and scholars called “Diversifying Technique.” Students in Kim Jones’ Choreography I course have worked with dance for the camera artists and choreographers from India, the United Kingdom, and across the United States.
Over the summer of 2020, students in the Department of Music, alumni, and faculty from UNC Charlotte, along with musicians from across the Charlotte community, collaborated to virtually perform William Grant Still’s Mother and Child (1943) for String Orchestra to show support for Charlotte's Black community and to affirm that Black Lives Matter.
performance and research projects
Karen Hubbard consulted on the jazz dance film Uprooted: The Journey of Jazz Dance, a feature-length documentary celebrating the history, lineage, and future progression of jazz dance going back to the roots of Africa. Hubbard shared her knowledge and perspective alongside other major dance figures, including Chita Rivera and Debbie Allen.
Eric Posada has applied to create a chapter of the Justice Choir, a national template intended to encourage more community singing for social and environmental justice. Kelsey Klotz contributed an essay on Dave Brubeck’s The Gates of Justice (1969) for the Milken Archive of Jewish Music. Brian Arreola will be performing with the opera company The In Series in a new film of Georges Bizet’s The Pearlfishers, which will feature an all-Asian cast and creative team (premiering Spring 2021.)
The Popp Martin Student Union Gallery presented a solo exhibition by Malik J. Norman, a senior photography major and member of the College of Arts +Architecture Student Diversity Council. Project Noose: Unidentified addresses the systematic abuse of Black bodies and was on view December 6, 2020 - January 29, 2021.
Associate Professor of Dance Kim Jones continues her research project about North Korean modern dance artist Choe Sung-hui, an important figure of early modern dance in Korea, Japan, and China who gained worldwide fame in the 1930s. Jones found a Korean artist who was able to interview Choe’s student and legacy holder, Kim Yeoung Sun, with Jones participating via ZOOM.
Tamara Williams continued her Ring Shout research with a filmed version, shown during the department’s online Fall concert. Williams partnered with Charlotte filmmaker Marlon Morrison and five of her dance students to create a video showcasing their performance of Ring Shout dance, first practiced by African people enslaved in the West Indies and the United States. The class filmed its performances on the banks of the Catawba River, in front of the historic Siloam School, and at the only remaining slave dwelling in Mecklenburg County.
Assistant Professor of Classical and Contemporary Voice Sequina DuBose is a Creative Director for the International Florence Price Festival, an annual festival of music dedicated to the legacy of composer Florence Price, her contemporaries, and the music of historically marginalized composers. The inaugural festival will take place in Washington, D.C. in 2021.
Chris Berry is working as the Dialect coach for Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 At Syracuse Stage. Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 is a foundational work dealing with racism and the historic events around the riots following the Rodney King verdict. Aly Amidei gave a webinar on Accessible Costuming for the United States Institute of Theatre Technology.
Assistant Professor of Theatre Kaja Dunn is a frequent consultant and presenter on issues of equity and diversity. Throughout January and February 2021 she is presenting the workshop "Foundations in Race and Intimacy" for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. She was also recently featured in the Thomas Schroth Visiting Artist Series at Kent State University.