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Gumbo Yaya/ or this is why we speak in tongues is an artistic and spiritual work conceived by members of the Black Women in Performance Studies Work Group at New York University. Gumbo Yaya/ or this is why we speak in tongues highlights black women’s cultural production in relationship to community, self, legacy, spirituality and womanism. The piece was developed collaboratively over a six month period with women scholars and activists in New York City, Durham, NC, Atlanta, Georgia, and Houston, TX. Inter-generational narratives of spirituality and healing ground this creative and scholarly process, along with performances of healing and movement.

The Black Women in Performance Studies Work Group was created by Ebony Noelle Golden, Ayanna Williams, Geneva Thomas during their graduate studies in the Department of Performance Studies and Gallatin respectively. The Work Group has created and connected to a network of Black women scholar-activist-artists who are serious about womanist performance methodology and black feminist social theory.

Gumbo Yaya/ or this is why we speak in tongues draws on the rich legacy of womanism as articulated by Chikwenye Okonjo Ogun-yemi and Alice Walker among others. Additonally, this process shapes and defines the practice of womanism as it performed presently by younger generations of black women. By galvanizing the energy of our foremothers, we intend to “make something new” as it is suggested through the artistic production and scholarship of Anna Deavere Smith.

In this installment of Gumbo Yaya/ or this is why we speak in tongues, we will share a multi-media performance that reflects our ongoing and evolving process of negotiating our environments and methods of cultural and artistic production.

Life and Peace,
Ebony Golden
furiousflower@gmail.com