Black, and Caribbean Studies at Adelphi University.
(Photo courtesy Adelphi University)
Dr. Patricia G. Lespinasse, associate professor of African American Literature in the African, Black, and Caribbean Studies at Adelphi University, will discuss the African American vernacular tradition (sermons, spirituals, blues and jazz) in a lecture on Feb. 23. The event will be online from 7 to 8 p.m and is open to the public.
Lespinasse’s lecture, “(Re)sounding Freedom: The Vernacular Tradition In African Diaspora Texts,” will be presented through a historical perspective and analyze its connection to soundscapes in African Diaspora Literature.
Before joining Adelphi’s faculty, Lespinasse received fellowships from Rutgers University and SUNY Binghamton University, where she taught full-time in the department of Africana Studies.
She is the author of The Drum Is A Wild Woman: Jazz and Gender in African Diaspora Literature and associate editor of The New Black Renaissance: The Souls Anthology of Critical African-American Studies. Her current book project is The Other Intersection: Race, Gender and Religion in Twentieth Century Women’s Writing.
Lespinasse’s articles have appeared in the College Language Association Journal and Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal. She is co-director of Proud Blood, a documentary film that explores the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s controversial ban on blood donations from Haitians, part of a policy at the height of the HIV/AIDS global epidemic.
Lespinasse earned her Master’s, Master of philosophy and PhD degrees from Columbia University, and her Bachelor’s from St. John’s University.
The event, part of Adelphi’s John Hope Franklin Distinguished Lecture series, is sponsored by the University’s Center for African, Black and Caribbean Studies.
Learn more and register at adelphi.edu/events/john-hope-franklin-distinguished-lecture.
—Submitted by Adelphi University
