All tagged Africa

Oral Traditions 2023 Episode 2

Students draw comparisons between their own cultures and that of the Maroons, formerly enslaved Africans who fled imprisonment and formed close-knit communities throughout the americas. Our second segment explores rituals and spirituality of the Fon people. Concluding today’s show is a commentary on the book, Five Hundred African Voices, the accounts of African slave ship survivors. Students highlight Rosa Cruz, a formerly enslaved writer and religious mystic, and Phillis Wheatley, the first known and published African American poet.

Oral Traditions 2023 Episode 1

In this episode, students speak with musicians and experts of Chicago's rich jazz scene and discuss topics from the birth of the free jazz movement to the modern artists who are pushing the boundaries of the genre. We continue the show by exploring the fashions of West Africa with international designer and philanthropist, Haj Gueye. Haj goes into his formative experiences in fashion, the mission of his brand, and fashion as a means of storytelling.