Event Details:

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Robin J. Hayes is a Yale alumnus who studied at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. At Yale, Robin was the first person to earn a PhD in African-American studies and political science. She has worked with acclaimed critical race theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw at Columbia Law School's African American Policy Forum, taught courses about race and social movements at Williams College, Northwestern, and UC Riverside, among others. In addition to winning scholarly awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), New York Public Library, and Ford Foundation. She wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary BLACK AND CUBA, wrote essays for THE ATLANTIC and produced the prize-winning play 9 GRAMS. Dr. Hayes recently participated in The Black List/Women in Film Episodic Lab and is a fellow in the Women in Film Mentoring Program. Her new book, Love for Liberation: African Independence, Black Power and Diaspora Underground, came out in 2021 and is published by the University of Washington Press.

ABOUT THE TALK

During the height of the Cold War, frustrated Black power activists became enamored by the possibility of African independence. New nations such as Ghana, Algeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) were hailed by the African American press and HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) as role models for racial justice. Leaders including Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and Kathleen Neal Cleaver followed these beacons of liberation, engaged with heads of state and guerrilla movements on the continent, then became entangled in hijacking, romance, and murder. Featuring interviews with activists, extensive archival research, and media analysis, Robin J. Hayes reveals in this narrative history how Black Power and African independence activists created a diaspora underground, which redefined racial discrimination as an international human rights issue. Through advancing education, sustained collective action, and global solidarity, this coalition laid the groundwork for Black Lives Matter.

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