AZ Speaks

This presentation will demonstrate that hip hop and rap is, as Robin D.G. Kelley argues, “arguably the post Civil Rights Era’s highest form of creative, extemporaneous, ever evolving form of communication and expression.” Whitaker will argue that it developed as collective critique of the stigmatization and marginalization of black youth, and has evolved into a […]

Discovered in 1863 by Henry Wickenburg, the Vulture Gold Mine was the first big gold mine in Arizona.  The mine and its colorful cast of characters, along with the town of Wickenburg, were instrumental in stimulating considerable growth and development in Central Arizona. This presentation will share the multi-layered story of the gold mine, thus […]

Vicariously experience the environment and atmosphere of a 1960s-era Civil Rights Movement camp.  Through theatrical performance, music, poetry, and participatory activities, audience members will examine the culture of discrimination, racial prejudice, and social injustice in the United States as it was during the 1960s.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strategy of passive resistance will be […]

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and early 1930s and it was an unprecedented period of expression by African Americans in music, literature, art, dance, poetry, politics, and economics.  Never before had America seen such a rich explosion of black culture.  This interactive presentation, which includes storytelling, poetry, theatre, art, […]