Walking Proudly: Embodying Liberation Capital in Chicago's West African Dance and Drum Communities grows out of Dr. Zabriskie’s research on dancers and their place in Black life in Chicago from the 1960s through the 2010s. In this presentation, Zabriskie will engage audiences in a movement-based presentation about “embodied liberation capital” drawing on her historical, ethnographic, and performance-based research on West African Drum and Dance practices in Chicago, IL.

The central question motivating Zabriskie's research into dance and drum practices in Chicago is: What has been the role of the body and embodied practice in struggles for cultural equity in the city?

In this presentation, Zabriskie will share from her research on dance and drum practices in the city, teach movement, and facilitate the development of movement by audience members in a verbal and embodied dialogue about embodied liberation capital. 

Queen Meccasia Zabriskie (PhD Sociology, Northwestern University; BA Economics and African American Studies, Duke University) is a passionate and creative anti-racist educator, organizer, artist, scholar, and lifelong learner. She is a Resident Fellow at the Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom at Antioch College, and Associate Professor of Sociology and Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at New College of Florida.

Zabriskie uses arts, culture, and creative practice to work towards racial and social justice. Involved with West African Dance and Drum practices since childhood, she studied and performed in United States, Guinea, and Senegal. She taught West African dance to youth and adults in Chicago and Sarasota. She is co-author of Black Theater is Black Life: An Oral History of Chicago Theater and Dance, 1970-2010. Her current book examines the struggle for cultural equity in Chicago's West African dance and drum communities.

Co-sponsored by the UIS Institute on Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Justice, and the UIS Diversity Center