Dr. LaKisha Simmons
The Between Love and Hate theme group presents Dr. LaKisha Simmons discussing “Projects of Remembering: Beyoncé and Carrie Mae Weems theorize Contradictory Spaces” on April 11 from 6 to 7 p.m. in Bentley Hall 140.
Simmons is Assistant Professor of History and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan.
This talk explores the contradictory space of Louisiana sugar plantations. How does space hold memories and feelings? As monuments to the past, sugar plantations in Louisiana are contested sites of memory: some people hold weddings there and tour plantations for pleasure, remembering the bygone era of beautiful “Big Houses” and the belles and masters who lived there. Meanwhile, African Americans engage with a different site of memory—recalling the labors of enslaved ancestors upon whose bodies these monuments were made. How do we consider these spaces as ones filled with emotion—of love, hate, disgust, and awe? This talk explores how black feminist artists use these spaces to think about a black feminist sense of place—a sense of place that reorients our knowledge about the past, forcing us to see these spaces anew.
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