John E. Drabinski hosts a discussion with Sarah Jane Cervenak, who teaches in the departments of Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies and African American Studies at University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She is the author of a number of critical essays on African American art and literature with particular focus on Black feminist writing and performance, and has written two books - Wandering: Philosophical Performances of Racial and Sexual Freedom (Duke, 2014) and Black Gathering: Art, Ecology, and Ungiven Life (Duke, 2021), which is the occasion for our conversation today. In this discussion, we explore the motivations and aims of the project, the relationship between writing, performance, and art, and the complexity of thinking about gathering, self-possession, and the given and ungiven dimensions of life in literature and the arts.

In this podcast, we discuss the cover photograph “Denver” by Xaviera Simmons. Simmons’ biography and overview of work can be seen here at the Guggenheim website.