Events

Frames of Freedom: Capturing the Spirit of African American Leisure and Empowerment through Media

Nov. 6, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
Location:

Rosenwald Theater in the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film

In the U.S., black leisure and tourism have long been used to resist entrenched systemic racism. Prof. Elizabeth Patton (UMBC) uses photographs, documentary films, and guidebooks, advertisements, and personal home movies to shed light on the multifaceted ways African Americans harnessed media and cultural memory to document leisure. Her talk explores the intersections of media, racial geographies, and the collective memory of a community that used leisure as a practice to assert their humanity, challenge prevailing stereotypes, and counteract pervasive negative portrayals.