The program is a collective of dedicated members and other interested partners who explore and situate topics such as the culture, history, medical and health concerns, economics, race and racism and other social complexities — including migration of Africa and its peoples in various diasporas. Our community studies these subjects within the larger context of global history, political, economic and cultural movements.
A primary goal of the program is to demonstrate and interrogate how African and African diasporic identities acknowledge, engage, and highlight: race, gender, sexuality, class, religion and regions —among many other topics— as intersecting categories across our curriculum and practice.
Recognizing that Africans and African diasporic communities make up a vast and disparate group of people united not only by a common heritage and by experiences of exploitation and racism, but also with some obvious cultural diversities, drives an imperative objective of our program:
The search for and putting into practice of innovative ways of responding to and tackling critical and, at times even life-threatening, issues that constantly affect black people. Such issues include: true social justice, the effects of systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, post-colonial shocks and aftershocks — and more.