Reactivating Memory
September 9-10, 2021
overview
One hundred years ago, the dazzling all-Black Broadway musical Shuffle Along ushered in the Jazz Age with a syncopated score and tap dancing chorus. One week later, white residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma, murdered hundreds of Black residents and burned down the vibrant Black neighborhood of Greenwood.
Looking back at these seemingly disparate events, what can we learn about Black success, racial capitalism, and white violence? What can we learn about how journalists and historians document, neglect, or erase certain events? And, how can we now redress the past by “REACTIVATING MEMORY”?
On September 10, a remarkable group of artists, journalists, and scholars gathered via Zoom for a free and accessible day marking the centennial of these two neglected but pivotal events in U.S. history. The “REACTIVATING MEMORY” virtual symposium, a Princeton Humanities Council Magic Project, traced the legacies of both Shuffle Along and the Tulsa Race Massacre in the contemporary United States, examining gaps and silences in historical archives and the work currently being done to fill those gaps.
The symposium included three panel discussions and performances by tap dancers, singers, and musicians examining how we “reactivate” cultural memory through performance, journalism, scholarly research, and programs such as HBO’s Watchmen.
As an exciting prelude to the symposium, members of the production team and cast of the 2016 meta-musical Shuffle Along gathered for a virtual reunion.
The daylong symposium featured dynamic programming, including performances and three-panel discussions among scholars, journalists, and artists.
FREE and open to the public. Virtual via Zoom Webinar.
Event Details
Panelists and Guest Artists
Featured symposium panelists include Jack Baker, DeNeen L. Brown, Jayna Brown, Crystal Z Campbell, Meta Carstarphen, Nathan Alan Davis, Caseen Gaines, Eric M. Glover, Hannibal B. Johnson, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Koritha Mitchell, Tina Post, and Isaiah Wooden. Featured reunion panelists include Marshall L. Davis, Jr., Savion Glover, Amber Iman, Michael J. Love, Awoye Timpo, and Daryl Waters. Featured artists include Masi Asare, Tyehimba Jess, Lisa LaTouche, Michael J. Love, Alicia Hall Moran. View bios for all panelists and featured artists »
Event Hosts
Hosts and facilitators of the symposium events included Michael D. Dinwiddie, KalaLea, Kinohi Nishikawa, Awoye Timpo, and Autumn Womack.
Event Organizers
The symposium events were organized by CLASSIX members Brittany Bradford, A.J. Muhammad, Dominique Rider, Arminda Thomas, and Awoye Timpo; Stacy Wolf, Director of Music Theater at Princeton University; Catherine M. Young, Lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program, and Michael J. Love, 2021-23 Princeton Arts Fellow. View bios for all event hosts + organizers »
Sponsors
This was a Princeton Humanities Council Magic Project funded through a David A. Garner ’69 Magic Grant and presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts. A signature program of the Humanities Council, a Magic Project is a deliberate intervention designed to create new collaborations and to be an intentional shaping force in the landscape of the humanities at Princeton.