Conference on Black American Culture and Scholarship: Contemporary Issues
name: label: Collection Collector
content: Maltsby, Portia
label: Collection Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Program in African American Culture
setName: label: See more items in
content: Program in African American Culture Collection
label: See more items in
content: Program in African American Culture Collection / Series 1: Program Files
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1983 July 8-9
container: label: Container
content: Box 11, Folder 10
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The program included two colloquiums, one on Friday, July 8, and one on Saturday July 9, 1983, in the Carmichael Auditorium, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. The Friday morning session included an opening and "Black American Cultural Programs and Projects: Public and Political Policy". The Friday afternoon sessions included "Researching, Teaching, and Practice: The State of the Field" and "Changing Definitions and Boundaries: Breaking Stereotypes". The Friday Cultural Presentation and Discussion was entitled Oh Death Have Mercy: Afro-American Death and Dying, was presented in six parts, and was followed by a discussion. A note of the presentation: "Easy Lawd" is a performance based song/narration delivered in folk speech and standard English, containing literary selection Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neal Hurston, Jubilee by Margaret Wlker, Death and Burial on Yamacraw by Pat Conroy, and a sermon by James Weldon Johnson. The presentation was accentuated by hymns, gospels, blues ballads, and jubilees. 

The Saturday morning session included an opening and "Black American Culture and Media: Positive and Negative Intervention". The Saturday afternoon sessions included "Continuing and Creating Traditions" and "Black American Culture: Theory and Analysis". Panelists and performers included Horace Boyer, Avery Brooks, Archie L. Buffkins, June Dobbs, Edward Cabbell, John Cephas, Gerald Davis, Jeff Donaldson, James Early, Sharon Farmer, Dennis Folly, Leonard Goines, Linda Goss, John Gwaltney, Kings of Harmony of the United House of Prayer for All People, Richard long, Portia Maultsby, Ethelbert Miller, Flora Molton, Antonia Pantoja, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sterling Stuckey, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Eleanor W. Traylor, Pearl Williams-Jones, and Kalamu ya Salaam.

The conference was made possible through the Smithsonian's Educational Outreach Program and the following individuals: S. Dillon Ripley, secretary; Roger Kennedy, director, National Museum of American History; Josiah Hatch, director, Office of Public and Academic Programs; Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, director, Program in Black American Culture; Fatimah Proctor, conference production coordinator; Niani Kilkenny, production assistant; and Harold A. Closter, technical director. Program number AC408.19.