The exhibit, presents more than 30 of Douglas’s paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. It is on display until Oct. 1 in the museum’s second-floor Chellgren Gallery. Read this review by Forbes magazine .

UofL students, faculty and staff enjoy free general admission to the Speed Museum. Through a generous donation from Eleanor Bingham Miller, general admission for all members of the public will be free through Oct. 1, during the run of this exhibition.

Douglas�� was a prolific visual artist and longtime resident of Louisville’s West End, a former community organizer, and a teacher and mentor to generations of artists and thinkers. He earned a fine arts degree at UofL in 1963 and, after obtaining his master’s and Ph.D., returned to UofL as a PAS and art professor.

To discuss the relevance of his work in examining and reflecting the Black community in Louisville, two UofL professors will hold a at the Speed Museum at 6 p.m., Sept. 7. will feature , UofL associate professor of English, and , chair of PAS and director of the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research.

He took time to talk with UofL News about recent career accomplishments, Black Studies and Black ����ֱ��al Theory as areas of research, as well as the interdisciplinary nature of his work.

UofL News: It seems your career has expanded over the past year, including tenure, a dual-appointment, high productivity in publications – what is the force behind this success?

Washington: The dual-appointment with Pan-African Studies has allowed me to revisit both my academic work and the person I was when I entered my doctoral program. So, I tell a lot of folks that this dual appointment is really me being my most honest and congruent professional self. I went into my doctoral program deeply immersed in Black psychology and Black educational practice literature. I felt alienated because it sometimes seemed there wasn’t anyone in my department that tapped into that work and made the connection back to counseling. It feels rejuvenating to be back to where I started thinking about these issues whether they be counseling or education through the lens of Black peoples’ experiences. That’s what I am most excited about.

UofL News: Hip-hop doesn’t always seem like the most common area of research. Talk a bit about that passion and translating it into your academic work.

Washington: I went into my doctoral program already in love and infatuated with hip-hop studies and hip-hop culture. It never occurred to me during my matriculation that it could be an area of research. For me, part of being the researcher and academic I am today is an effort to ultimately develop a presence in counselor education that lives and breathes hip-hop and recognizes its inherent therapeutic value.

In terms of translating this work to practice – I knew hip-hop was therapeutic from the moment that I met it. It’s an epiphany to white school educators – like ‘wow, hip-hop is amazing and can be therapeutic.’ My question is, when has Black cultural production not been therapeutic? The frustrating part of this is having to convince folks of hip-hop as a discipline. The things that Black and Brown folks have been saying for ages is meaningful to their existence – we are just coming around to treating it as a discipline? It can be frustrating. I’m not doing anything innovative, this work has been going on since the 80s. But it is still difficult to find an accredited program with references to hip-hop culture.

UofL News: While the dual appointment is relatively new, how has it informed your work in the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development and vice versa? How has it informed your teaching?

Washington: Pan-African Studies has so many ethical responses to the questions that are assumed to be asked in other disciplines. Critical race theory – the conversation that folks in education seem to have only just now showed up to – constitutes the core of what Black studies has been since its inception.

Take the Socratic method, for example. It is inherently problematic to associate the ability to do this pedagogical intervention to a man named Socrates, when there were folks doing it before he even existed. You can’t talk about the Socratic method and say you don’t engage in forms of white supremacy. So, this field is about creating basic and foundational courses that raise consciousness. There are things we do as teachers that we proclaim we would not do, but we do them because they are woven into the way we are taught to be teachers.

UofL News: Talk a bit about your work in schools throughout Jefferson County.

Washington: Most of my work has occurred at Central High School and the Academy at Shawnee. At Central, my work is with the Muhammad Ali Institute and the Muhammad Ali Scholars program. That program seeks to create a pipeline to our undergraduate programs.

I also co-developed and co-taught a course there called Hip-Hop Culture in American History. That was a rigorous and intense elective course. They were working through the same textbook that we would use for college students, and the course was the last period of the day. We had students signing up for that class even after the semester had begun. So, in terms of evidence of investment and engagement, that is meaningful.��

UofL News: How do you see that developing in the future?

Washington: I have never relinquished the aspiration and the desire to contribute to the creation of a school counseling program that has hip-hop culture and pop culture as a core foundational ingredient. I think that’s meaningful and important, and it doesn’t exist in school counseling. There are programs and certificates that are related to hip-hop studies that show promise, so there are examples to prove that it’s viable.

UofL News: What makes the work we do at UofL distinct or unique from other schools across the country?

Washington: UofL’s Department of Pan-African Studies is one of the first in the region and the only degree-granting department in Kentucky. That’s impactful. Thinking about that and the possibility of contributing to that revitalization and history is something that makes our work unique.

Washington recently published a co-authored chapter in the book by Cheryl Holcomb McCoy, released November 2021. His chapter entitled, “Decolonizing the Counseling Canon” was written alongside Janice A. Byrd, Pennsylvania State University and Joseph M. Williams, University of Virginia.��

The ABI, a program within the College of Arts and Sciences, was established in 2006 and honors the work and legacy of longtime racial justice organizer, educator and journalist, Anne Braden. McCormack shares his thoughts in this Q&A interview.

UofL News: Describe your passion and the ‘why’ behind your desire to lead the institute.����

McCormack: I am drawn to the ABI’s mission of bridging the gap between scholarship and activism, and the possibilities that this mission presents for our campus and community in this crucial moment of racial reckonings.����

UofL News: What is your vision for the ABI and how does it build on the legacy of Anne Braden, along with co-founders Cate Fosl and the late J. Blaine Hudson?����

McCormack: As director, I want to position the ABI as a synergistic hub of critical thought, creative activity and community-engaged research. A place where faculty, staff and students across an array of disciplines can make connections between their research — whether it is in geography or gender studies; Jewish studies or jazz studies — and ongoing struggles for racial and social justice.����

UofL News: What goals do you hope ABI will accomplish over the next five years?����

McCormack: What I appreciate most about Anne Braden was that she was deeply committed to racial and social justice, but never centered herself in the work. She once described herself as joining “a long chain of struggle,” that stretched back long before her and would extend long after she was gone. I hope to help more and more people find creative ways to join, and be sustained in, the work of that long chain of struggle. If by the end of my directorship, we can look back and see where more and more students, staff and faculty found ways to link up to, deepen their engagement with, persist in, and expand upon that ongoing freedom struggle, I will have done my job.����

UofL News: How does this support UofL’s anti-racism agenda?����

McCormack: The ABI, in collaboration with other units, can play a vital role in cultivating the critical intellectual thought and community-engaged practices that undergird the work of an aspiring “premier anti-racist public research university.” The recent racial uprisings — national, global, and perhaps most significantly, local — that called forth UofL’s anti-racism agenda require a renewed wrestling with the varied, and often fraught, relationships between scholarship and activism. In this moment of renewed struggle, and intensified backlash, those connected to the ABI must be committed to a sense of academic excellence and social responsibility that vigorously resists the violent workings of a white supremacist, capitalist, hetero-patriarchal, social order. At the same time, we must help others to imagine and envision a far more beautiful alternative that inspires people to want to strive to bring about a more just society for all of us. As I see it, that is Anne Braden’s legacy, and the ABI should further community-engaged intellectual work that expands upon that legacy.����

UofL News: Your research explores��the intersections between Black religion, popular culture, the arts and activism. Tell us more about this.������

McCormack: As a Black Studies scholar, trained in history and critical theories of religion, cultural studies, social ethics and practical theological approaches to the study of religion, I bring critical questions of meaning, value, vocation and what it means to be human to bear upon racial and social justice research and action. This means that in addition to the historical and social scientific approaches that have grounded the work of the ABI to date, I am interested in calling greater attention to the indispensability of spirituality, culture and the arts in movements for racial and social justice. I see this as consistent with Anne Braden’s profound relationship to, and struggle alongside, the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., James Lawson, Vincent and Rosemarie Harding, Ella Baker and Bernice Johnson Reagan.����

UofL News: Describe your role as a speaker and influencer outside the academic setting.������

McCormack: As the child of parents who never attended college, I am deeply invested in speaking to, and learning from, communities of everyday people, who gather to make meaning and struggle for freedom outside of the academy. The ABI can play an important role in amplifying the voices and concerns of those who are consistently relegated to the margins of society — those who may never enroll at the University of Louisville, or even set foot on a college campus. I see my work as director as a way of becoming more deeply rooted in community-engaged scholarship while refusing to relinquish critical intellectual engagement with the best that the academy has to offer.����

UofL News: Anything else you’d like to share with us?����

McCormack: I am very excited to be entrusted with this work and I look forward to possibilities for collaboration on campus, within the community, and across the country!����

The University of Louisville does not shy away from the fight for equality. Instead, UofL tackles the issue head-on while celebrating diversity and fostering equity. UofL’s commitment to this effort can be seen through programs such as the Cardinal Anti-Racism Agenda, Black Male Initiative and Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars program, among others.

But perhaps the most foundational effort in UofL’s commitment to diversity and equity is the Pan-African Studies department.

The origins of UofL’s Pan-African Studies department can be traced back to the late 1960s when there was unrest not only across the country, but also on campus. Ricky Jones, chair of the Pan-African Studies department, said during this time, there was a student-led effort to develop more Black Studies opportunities.

“Black students wanted to see themselves represented in the classroom and intellectually. We had a partnership of people in the community, students and their advocates both on and off campus who protested and fought to bring Pan-African Studies and other Black studies departments into existence,” he said. “It was a student movement as the students partnered with the greater Louisville community in the 1960s and ‘70s.”����

After hiring a small faculty, the Pan-African Studies department was officially established in 1973 to explore the original divide in America: the divide of race. The department is only five years younger than the first ever Black Studies department in the U.S. at San Francisco State University, making it one of the first departments of its kind in the country. It was the first such program established in the south.

While many colleges and universities created classes or programs in the Black Studies discipline, UofL dedicated its resources toward a full, comprehensive department. Instead of following in the footsteps of many other universities at the time that only focused on African-American studies, UofL intentionally broadened the scope of their department to focus on the global Black experience, as well as the American Black experience.����

Jones said the all-encompassing nature of UofL’s Pan-African Studies department and the faculty, staff and students who have passed through the department throughout its 48 years are what make it so unique and put UofL on another level.

“The people and history of people who have come through our department really make us stand out,” he said. “UofL has been lucky to hire many dynamic luminaries in this department. People like Blaine Hudson and Robert Douglas.”

Hudson, who was kicked out of school and was once told he would never move up, worked to become a professor in the Pan-African Studies department and eventually rose to dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“These types of personalities helped build Pan-African Studies to what it is,” Jones said. “There are strong professors in this department who also have strong commitments to the community and strong commitments to the ideals of Black studies, which is commitment to academic excellence and social responsibility. Pan-African Studies has had a long history of professors who take that very seriously.”

Kaila Story is one of those dynamic professors.

With a joint appointment in the Pan-African Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies departments, Story empowers her students to break barriers, encourages community engagement and emphasizes the importance of a holistic and intersectional learning experience.

“Pan-African Studies has always prioritized intersectional learning and activism with the courses it offers,” Story said. “Because my identities have always lived within those intersections as Black feminist lesbian, I always wanted to obtain a job that would allow me to build intersectional curricula. Being dually appointed has not only allowed me to do my intersectional research, build intersectional curricula and engage in community activism that is intersectional in scope, but both departments have welcomed and encouraged that work.” ����

That work and the Pan-African Studies department have helped UofL create a lasting impact not only on its students, but also society and beyond, by continually expanding research and education in Black studies.

“We’ve been creating global citizens for a very long time,” Jones said. “Whether students major with us, minor with us or just take a few classes, our students leave us seeing the world through a different lens.”

Students can earn a bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, minor or PhD in Pan-African Studies. The department also offers field study and internship experiences and special courses on research methods, race, gender, diversity and intercultural education.

Jones said graduates of the department have gone on to varied career paths, including education, law and even coaching. But the thing that unites them all is the ability to view the world through different perspectives.

“Our students understand the world with a higher level of maturity about race, diversity and justice and understand that this isn’t a monochromatic world,” Jones said. “So if they go on to work in Louisville or beyond to even more diverse places like San Francisco, Atlanta, Miami or New York, our graduates fit into those worlds easier. We don’t just create good students, we create good citizens for humanity.”

Featured photo courtesy of .��

Story, who joined UofL in 2007 as the Audre Lorde Chair in Race, Gender, Class and Sexuality Studies, recently took some time to talk to UofL News about how she ended up in Kentucky, how she approaches curriculum development, and what advice she has for her students.

UofL News: How did you end up at UofL?

Kaila Story: When I was still in Philly working on my dissertation. I saw a job advertisement in ‘Diverse Issues in Higher ����ֱ��,’ for an Audre Lorde Chair in Race, Gender, Class, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Louisville. I knew that I would be finished in time for the appointment, so I went ahead and applied for the job. I got it and here I am almost 10 years later.

UofL News: What would you say is your favorite part about working here?

Kaila Story: It has to be my students that I have had the pleasure and honor of teaching, and my colleagues in Women’s and Gender Studies and Pan African Studies. Both make working here worthwhile.��

UofL News: How long did the process take you to develop curriculum for an LGBTQ minor?

Kaila Story: Prior to the creation of the minor, UofL already had professors teaching about the intersection of gender identity and sexuality; for example, Anne Caldwell’s Queer Politics class and Nancy Theriot’s History of American Sexualities were already being taught before I got the job here. When I came to UofL, I immediately created a number of courses that would aid in the creation of the LGBTQ minor. I created Black Lesbian Lives, Intro to LGBTQ Studies, and Queer Perspectives in Literature and Film, which helped solidify the minor. Since its creation, I’ve also created Queer Performance. It really took no time really to get the minor going. I arrived in 2007 and we had the minor by 2009.

UofL News: Why was it important to you to have this minor in place?

Kaila Story: I think having this minor in place was important because, unfortunately, when we talk about traditional disciplines – English, history, political science, etc. – oftentimes they don’t speak to the experiences of LGBTQ folk.

We needed our students to have a more holistic view of the contributions and knowledge that have come directly from LGBTQ thinkers, intellectuals, activists and communities. Further, I think it’s important that our LGBTQ see themselves reflected within our curricula. It not only gives them a sense of where they fit in history, but it also gives them folks to admire and allows them to gain a better sense of self.

UofL News: Were you surprised to be named to NBC Out’s list of 30 LGBTQ influencers?

Kaila Story: I was so surprised and honored to be nominated for NBC’s inaugural list. It truly meant the world to me to have my work highlighted in such a way. I also felt so humbled by being listed amongst such extraordinary and influential LGBTQ thinkers and activists. I consider being nominated such a gift.

UofL News: What drives you to teach?��

Kaila Story: My passion for learning and my passion for social change.

My interest in queer theory and LGBTQ Studies began at the same time that my interest in Black Feminist theory began. Being a Black Lesbian cis-gendered woman, I had been subjected to discrimination all of my life based upon my race, gender and sexuality. I wanted to be able to figure out the root of this discrimination and how I could change it.��Teaching for me, became the best avenue in which I thought I could most effectively ignite social change amongst my students. This is what drives me to teach. Changing minds and the world in which we inhabit.��

UofL News: How has the subject-matter changed since you came on board, if at all?

Kaila Story: I’ve learned a lot from students and other professors over the years, and have also incorporated this newfound knowledge within my courses. I go with what piques my interest, personally and academically, and begin working from there. As I have evolved and changed as a person and as a scholar, so has my research focus.

UofL News: Will UofL have an LGBTQ major?

Kaila Story: I’ve been thinking about that more and more, as my time at UofL has progressed. I think that the creation of a major is necessary and needed.

I also think that students would greatly benefit from such a thing. I don’t have anything in the works as of yet, but in the years to come I hope I will be able to see one come to fruition.

UofL News: What is next in terms of curriculum and focus in your field?

Kaila Story: Right now, I’m working on several projects, none of which I want to elaborate on at this moment because they’re still in progress. One that I am particularly excited about is a new book project that explores the representation of Black lesbian identity as it is posited within popular media.

UofL News: What advice do you have for incoming students who may be interested in this field?

Kaila Story: My advice would be to remain open to receiving new information and enlightenment.

I would also suggest that they be open to change themselves based on their new knowledge, and to turn that personal change into action. Our world only becomes better if we do. Change starts within and works outward.