"Notes of an Affrilachian Daughter in the Midst of a Triple Pandemic"

In this virtual event, artist, educator, and writer Marie T. Cochran will be in dialogue about her arts advocacy with Kelly Elaine Navies, an Oral History Specialist at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. A Q&A will follow their conversation.

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Cochran uses visual art to convene partnerships that ignite collaboration; her mixed media pieces address community history and are often grounded in interdisciplinary dialogues focused on social justice. She is the founding curator of the Affrilachian Artist Project, which celebrates the intersection of cultures in Appalachia and nurtures a network of individuals and organizations committed to the sustainability of a diverse region.

The reference to a "triple pandemic" in the event title comes from filmmaker Ken Burns, who noted in an NPR interview in January 2021 that the United States was "beset by three viruses ... a year-old COVID-19 virus, but also a 402-year-old virus of white supremacy, of racial injustice. ... And we've got an age-old human virus of misinformation, of paranoia, of conspiracies."

Event contact: Xaris Martínez

Marie T. Cochran is the Lehman Brady Professor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Cochran is teaching a course this semester on both campuses, titled "Black Spaces Matter: Race, Place, and Resilience."