The Combahee River Collective Mixtape
The Combahee River Collective Mixtape: Black Feminist Sonic Dissent Then & Now: A multimedia presentation by Daphne Brooks, Kara Keeling, and Jacqueline Stewart
This multimedia presentation kicks off Ripples and Waves, 4-part a series of programs observing the 40th anniversary of the Combahee River Collective Statement, the radical articulation of the tenets and goals of a truly revolutionary Black feminist theory and praxis.
Scholars Daphne A. Brooks (Yale), Kara Keeling (USC) and Jacqueline Stewart (UChicago) draw on the CRC Statement to build sonic and visual archives that enable us to speak to and through this present moment of danger, while also summoning the spirit of the original document and the collaborative intellectual, social and political labor that led to its creation. With help from the work of musicians ranging from the Knowles Sisters, Nina Simone, Labelle and f.k.a. twigs to visual artists such as Carrie Mae Weems and the L.A. Rebellion filmmakers, we propose turning the statement into an interactive document that continues to contribute to ongoing efforts to bridge past, present and future Black feminisms. This session calls for audience participation: we invite attendees to listen along with us to the new knowledges we might yet find together by way of music and image.
Presented in conjunction with the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture and the fall Reproduction of Race & Racial Ideologies Workshop series, “From Combahee to #BlackLivesMatter: Exploring a History of Black Politics and Culture,” with support from the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at UChicago.