Winsome Pinnock’s most recent play, Rockets and Blue Lights, takes the audience on a deep dive into J. M. W. Turner’s painting “The Slave Ship,” asking questions about received and shared history. She is joined by past prize recipient Branden-Jacobs Jenkins in a discussion about how theater can help us look more fully into history.
A complementary display of works by J. M. W. Turner, including sketchbook drawings and color studies, finished watercolors, and prints, will be on view in the Yale Center for British Study Room that day.

“Skokiaan” is a popular tune originally written by Zimbabwean musician August Musarurwa that has been covered by many musician, including Louis Armstrong. Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu chats with Regina Bain, Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum, about the song and about Armstrong’s tours through the African Continent in the 50s and 60s.

In addition to her novels, Tsitsi Dangarembga has also written, directed, and produced a number of films. In My Father’s Village is a powerful short film about the inheritance of trauma that she produced in 2017. Tsitsi will introduce the film, discuss its creation with Professor of History and African Studies Dan Magaziner, and answer questions from the audience.

Niel Gray Jr. Professor of English Langdon Hammer talks with poet Zaffar Kunial about the sources of his poetry, from song lyrics to family histories to his undying love for the sport of English cricket.

Tsitsi Dangarembga and Assistant Professor of English and Humanities Ernest Mitchell discuss the hundreds of black and white photographs Richard Wright took in 1953 during a ten-week visit to West Africa to research his book Black Power (1954), an account of the Gold Coast’s transition to the independent nation of Ghana.