Invited Talks/Keynotes/Lectures/ Workshops

Across campuses, conferences, and community spaces, I’ve been invited to share my work at the intersection of performance, Black cultural expression, and interdisciplinary pedagogy. These talks and workshops are opportunities to engage a wide range of audiences—from students to scholars to artists—around the themes that animate my teaching and research.

Whether I’m speaking about digital storytelling, Black feminist performance, or creative approaches to curriculum design, I aim to foster dialogue, spark curiosity, and share tools that empower others in their own work. My priority is teaching all students more about the field of Black performance studies. However, there are specific moments in which I am requested to explore various themes in horror, Black feminism, and expressions of joy based on my previous public productions or published works. I still aim to integrate some aspect of performing into those presentations.

This page includes a small highlight of invited presentations and workshops that reflect the breadth of my public scholarship and collaborative practice since working at Xavier. More examples can be found on my CV.

Black Horror

My talks on Black Horror explore how performance, film, and cultural storytelling present Blackness as spectacle, threat, survival, and resistance. I examine how horror becomes a site for negotiating racial memory, embodiment, and power. In invited lectures and festival conversation, I offer an interdisciplinary analysis that bridges Performance Studies, Black feminist thought, and visual culture.

Highlighted events:

- "Horries" lecture @ Petit Jean Performance Festival (2024)

- Class discussion on Black horror @ Villanova University (2024)

Black Feminism

My Black feminist lectures center lived experience as theory and performance as method. I explore how embodiment, care, identity, and intersectionality shape cultural production and scholarly practice. I offer frameworks that connect Black feminist thought to everyday life, archives, and digital spaces.

Highlighted events include:

- Guest lecture in Dr. Jennifer Morrison's class, "Black Hair Narratives" (2024)

- Opening welcome for Saidiya Hartman's talk (2025)

-"Black Hair Technologies" @ San Francisco State University (2025)

-"Performing the Archive: A Travelogue on Zora Neale Hurston" at LSU (2026)

Embodied Workshops

My embodied workshops invite participants to think through movement, voice, and collaborative creation. These sessions focus on performance as a tool for reflection, storytelling, and critical inquiry. Whether facilitating classroom engagements, creative intensives, or professional development sessions, I guide participants in putting theory into practice through interactive, process-based exercises.

I sometimes offer free workshops at other institutions with limited resources. I believe in meeting students where they are and fostering creative opportunity.

Highlighted events include:

-Workshop with Dr. Sakinah Davis' students for Pirates of Portsmouth (2024)

-"Healing" @ Southern University in Baton Rouge (2025)

Mini-Presentation

This clip captures a brief moment from my closing public remarks at The HistoryMakers Institute and Training (July 2025). After a week of intensive engagement with Black oral history archives—working closely with interviews and materials in the collection, learning alongside Master Fellows, K–12 educators, student ambassadors, and meeting living HistoryMakers, including being mentored by founder Julieanna Richardson—I reflect on how this experience reshaped my approach to curriculum design.

In this recording, I discuss the changes I made to my course Performing the Archive: Zora Neale Hurston, emphasizing the ethical responsibilities of working with Black archival materials and the importance of teaching students how to listen, interpret, and perform history with care. This clip serves as an example of how audiences immediately respond to my moments of public speaking.

Next, learn more about my Professional Development opportunities.