In Conversation with Black Arts, Black Lives: Lunch with Amber Johnson

In Conversation with Black Arts, Black Lives seeks to extend conversations with artists, scholars, and activists whose work advances black humanity through the study and practice of art.

Dr. Amber Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Saint Louis University. Her research trajectory merges qualitative and rhetorical research design in the areas of identity, social justice, performance, art activism, and digital media. She is an award-winning scholar and teacher, including the Golden Anniversary Monograph Award for her research on black masculinity and the performative possibilities of social media, the Lilla A. Heston award for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpretation and Performance Studies for her work on embodied pedagogies and social justice, and the recipient of the Faculty Excellent Award for Diversity and Social Justice. She has published articles in several journals including Qualitative InquiryCritical Studies in Media and CommunicationText & Performance QuarterlyLiminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, and Communication Quarterly. Her forthcoming book, Rainbow in the Clouds: A Letter to my Gender Nonconforming Child, blends poetic narrative, autocritography, and memoir. 

Amber Johnson is founder of The Justice Fleet, a mobile network of experiences that foster community healing through art, play, and dialogue. Housed inside of box trucks, each mobile exhibit ventures into various neighborhoods to engage community members in discussions about implicit and explicit bias, social justice, and empathy. The first exhibit in production engages community members in a dialogue about Radical Forgiveness—the profound notion that we don’t have to live with fear, pain, hostility, or injustice because we have control over the way we perceive, understand, and act. Radical Forgiveness is a fluid and deliberate process that allows us to heal the wounds from injustice. Additional exhibits include Radical ImaginationBlack Girl Magic, and Transfuturism

The Black Arts Black Lives (BABL) Series with American Culture Studies (AMCS) at Washington University in St. Louis seeks to chronicle the work of black artists, and foster creative work into and research of black art through collaborations among scholars, artists, and communities within and beyond Washington University. During the Fall 2017 semester, Jasmine Mahmoud teaches “Black Lives Matter: Art, Theory & Practice.” In coordination with guest speakers brought to this class, the events of the Black Arts Black Lives series are all open to the public. This event is co-sponsored with the Center for Diversity & Inclusion.

Please RSVP to tbehr@wustl.edu by no later than November 24th.