Disturbing the Peace: Black Women in the Arts

How do Black women attain subjectivity through performance and artistic practices? In this course we will explore how writing, visual art, music, and performance by Black women incites conversations, change, joy, and controversy. Black women’s art reveals the hidden and often unspoken conditions of being Black and female, while our creativity often complicates history and reveals uncomfortable truths about artistic fields and institutions. Some artists we will discuss during the course include Ntozake Shange, Betty Davis, Barbara Ann Teer, Elizabeth Catlett, Nina Simone, and Faith Ringold. We will discuss the many risks and the abundant spiritual and intellectual rewards of writing, painting, dancing, sculpting, making music, creating films, and performing while Black and female.