Blogging about Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham with dancers

By Danielle Hall

One way that I have contributed to our program’s technological efforts has been to compose blog entries about African American film and dance history by concentrating on the contributions of Katherine Dunham.

So far, my entries about Dunham have focused on her career in anthropology and dance, her published writings, and her combined use of dance with film. I have been especially interested in Dunham as a model for my current research on the histories of black women’s intellectualism.

Blogging about Dunham has allowed me to blend research interests on Dunham with technological practices via social networking sites such as twitter as well as blogs operated by Black Studies @ SIUE and the Project on the History of Black Writing.

In other ways, blogging has allowed me to make 21st century connections with Dunham, in particular chronicling Dunham Technique, her regional influence to the SIU school system and friendship with East St. Louis poet laureate, Eugene B. Redmond. I have also had opportunities to learn to read Dunham and the dancing/body in motion as a text.

Danielle Hall is a program coordinator and contributing writer for Black Studies @ SIUE.   

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