Friday Speaker Series presentd by Angela Hall, Narrative Writing

Dismembered and Forgotten Bodies: The Lynching of Black Women

Angela has received a research grant from the Willson Center for Arts and Humanities to develop The Pregnant Tree, an epic that explores white face minstrelsy and the traumatic history of lynching in the American South. Her research for The Pregnant Tree has been Interdisciplinary with a focus on Trauma Studies in relation to the marginalization and degradation of Black women (manifesting in emotional, mental and physical ailments that in many ways mimic the symptoms of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome). In creating a project that centers the lynching of Black women, the bulk of time and research has been devoted to deep study of phenomenology with particular interest on the body as an object, a thing that like any other object can be manipulated. Adding race to the equation brings up a lot of disturbing questions and truths surrounding the treatment and history of the Black female body in the United States, and is further complicated by the location of that body in the American South. Thusly, the goal is the reclamation and re-inscription of the Black female body; in my case through various forms of creative performance.