Join us for a virtual conversation and studio visit about “The Art of Black Ecologies” with artist-scholar Jennifer Steverson on Wednesday, October 27, 12:15-1:30 PM PDT. Register for the event here. Note: registration closes at 11 AM PDT, October 27.
The concept of black ecologies underscores the undue impact of climate and environmental injustice on Black diaspora communities while lifting up “insurgent” Black ecological knowledge (Roane & Hosbey 2019). Join us for a virtual studio visit and conversation on art and black ecologies with independent scholar and artist Jennifer Steverson. Steverson uses indigo dye, textiles, and archives to highlight Black diaspora community and resilience practices created through art, craft, and agriculture. She will be in conversation with arts-based geographer Naya Jones (UCSC Sociology). This event is hosted by the UCSC Center for Cultural Studies, moderated by the UCSC Black Geographies Lab, and is part of the growing Black Botany Studio.
Jennifer Steverson (she/her/hers) is an independent scholar and multi media artist based in Central Texas. Her work is informed by the cultural ecologies of the African Diaspora, specifically by the way that Black people have crafted community and resilience practices through art, craft, and agriculture. She completed her undergraduate work at Eugene Lang College, a division of the New School and her masters degree in Community and Regional Planning at UT Austin. Jennifer was a Hive Collective Artist in Residence in 2019. In 2020, she completed a Texas Folklife Apprenticeship focused on quilting. She was a researcher on the Carver Museum’s African American Presence exhibit which opened in February 2020. Her work has appeared in the Rootwork Journal.
Naya Jones (she/her/hers) is a UCSC Assistant Professor of Sociology and Core Faculty in the Global and Community Health Program. She is a geographer and cultural worker whose solo and collaborative work foregrounds Black geographies of health, ecologies, and healing in North and Latin America. She practices arts-based methods, from participatory film to ritual and botanical arts. Her current book and storytelling project focuses on African-American plant knowledge and the Great Migration. She initiated the Black Botany Studio, a research studio, to promote the study and art of black diaspora plant geographies.
Erick Msumanje (he/his) will be the discussant for the event. A member of UCSC’s Black Geographies Lab, Msumanje is an interdisciplinary artist-
Register for the event at https://culturalstudies.ucsc.edu/2021/09/22/october-27-2021-naya-jones-and-jennifer-steverson-the-art-of-black-ecologies-a-virtual-studio-visit-conversation/