Africana Studies at Penn

09/04/2026

Have you ever heard of Allyson Felix? She’s the most decorated athlete in U.S. track and field history and a leading voice for Black maternal health. She earned 11 Olympic medals (seven gold, three silver, one bronze) between 2004 and 2021, plus 20 World Championship medals. Her advocacy work started after a scary turn during her first pregnancy. At 32 weeks, she was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia, a condition that put her life and her baby’s life at risk, and she needed an emergency C-section. Around the same time, her longtime sponsor Nike reportedly threatened her with a 70% pay cut following childbirth, which pushed her to go public with her story in a New York Times opinion piece.

Her advocacy took on new weight in 2023, when her 2016 Olympic gold medal winning teammate in the 4x100m relay Tori Bowie died at just 32 years old from complications related to childbirth, after being eight months pregnant and in labor. Felix later wrote that three gold medalists from that same relay team had set out to become mothers, and all three faced serious complications. Reflecting on the loss, she said the team would keep speaking up so that Tori’s death wouldn’t be in vain. Since then, Felix has testified before the U.S. Congress about racial disparities in maternal health and joined the CDC’s Hear Her campaign to raise awareness of pregnancy warning signs. She’s also started a women’s footwear company, Saysh, that offers maternity friendly return policies, and helped push for the first ever nursery for athlete parents at the Paris Olympic Village.

09/03/2026

Marcia Chatelain, Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, illuminates the "The Black women whose voices lifted hearts at the March on Washington." - read this from Philadelphia Inquirer

Sixty-three years later, the voices and vision of the women of the march have yet to be appreciated.

09/03/2026

TOMORROW, September 4, 2026, join Lakou Ayisyen at Penn for a curator-led personal tour of "The Time to Right All Wrongs: France, Haiti, and Philadelphia in a Revolutionary Age" at the Penn Libraries on the FINAL DAY of the exhibition, with special remarks by Penn Historian Dr. Yvie Fabella!

Don't miss your last chance to experience the exhibition with the scholars who brought it to life. Please RSVP by emailing [email protected]

09/03/2026

The Lauder Institute and Penn’s Center for Africana Studies are pleased to present African Narratives, a new film series that showcases global African cinema. The series will feature two films that explore the diverse complexity of African life and culture and/or highlight the work of its new and established filmmakers.

Join us for a screening and discussion, in collaboration with Penn IUR, Center for Experimental Ethnography, of the Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos. RSVP Here: bit.ly/africannarratives_vagabondqueen

Written and directed by the Agbajowo Collective, this film was inspired by the 2017 forced eviction of the Otodo Gbame, a Lagos waterfront community of 30,000 people. In the film, Jawu, a young mother from a waterfront slum in Lagos, stumbles upon corrupt blood money marked for a real estate development that threatens her home. Overcoming isolation and temptation, she must stand as a unifying force in a community that stands to lose everything.

Each showing includes light refreshments and a post-film discussion/Q&A.



With The Lauder Institute, Penn Institute for Urban Research, Center for Experimental Ethnography at UPENN

09/03/2026

Many beaches in the United States were segregated until 1964. Social policy scholar DeMarcus A. Jenkins of the School of Social Policy & Practice discusses this discriminatory chapter in American history.

Locally, New Jersey beaches were segregated by custom. Atlantic City beaches were segregated from 1900-1964 to appease white guests from the Jim Crow South.

Delaware beaches, such as Lewes and Rehoboth, were segregated by law from 1877 to 1964. Black beachgoers were relegated to the “colored” section.

“There are media reports dating back to about the 1920s from Florida that describe African Americans’ frustrations with being constrained to what was called at the time ‘colored leisure beaches,’” says Jenkins - Learn more from Penn Today

With University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice & Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania

Many beaches in the United States were segregated until 1964. Social policy scholar DeMarcus A. Jenkins of the School of Social Policy & Practice discusses this discriminatory chapter in American history.

09/03/2026

📸 Enjoy these photos from “To Defend This Sunrise: Black Women’s Activism and the Authoritarian Turn in Nicaragua” featuring professor and visual artist Courtney Morris. On November 1st, 2023 we listened to Courtney Morris examine how black women activists have resisted historical and contemporary patterns of racialized state violence, economic exclusion, territorial dispossession, and political repression from the 19th century to the present.

09/01/2026

Philly is celebrating 100 years of Coltrane!

John Coltrane, born on September 23, 1926, came of age in Philadelphia, the city where he found his voice, built his community, and launched a musical revolution that changed the world.

One hundred years later, Philadelphia has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to honor his legacy through a coordinated, citywide celebration rooted in artistic excellence, community, and equity.

Coltrane100 Philly is a season of performances, exhibitions, education programming, and community events uniting Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, artists, organizations, and institutions around the legacy of one of our greatest sons. Coltrane100 Philly will offer coordinated programming across the city with landmark programming around Coltrane’s 100th birthday, and culminating in November with a tribute to the 60th anniversary of Coltrane’s seminal recording Offering: Live at Temple University.

This celebration is made possible through the generosity of Senator Vincent Hughes and the collaborative leadership of Jazz Philadelphia, Creative PHL, WRTI, and Ars Nova Workshop.

Aligning Philadelphia’s Jazz Community Around The John Coltrane Centennial John Coltrane, born on September 23, 1926, came of age in Philadelphia, the city where he found his voice, built his […]

08/31/2026

What does the political rhetoric in the current environment reveal about race, gender, ideology, and power in contemporary American politics?

Marjorie Taylor Greene accused Loomer of "nonstop insanity."

08/27/2026

📸 These photos are from 2017's "Under the Gun: State Violence and Black Populations", a conference from the Marginalized Populations Project in Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, which brought scholars from the Penn community together with internationally renowned scholars and activists to examine the role of organized violence in the lives of Black populations in multiple societies.

08/25/2026

Keenan Hudson reveals the challenges faced by incarcerated people who are seeking education.

Keenan Hudson is a bestselling author, transformative speaker, and founder of The Re-entry Connect Organization. Keenan Hudson's life is proof that with faith, education, and hard work — your past does not decide your future.