Reuniting Black LGBTQ+ People and African-Centered Thought: A Talk with Prof. Michele K. Lewis

Reuniting Black LGBTQ+ People and African-Centered Thought: A Talk with Prof. Michele K. Lewis, Fulbright Distinguished Chair, Arts and Social Sciences - In Conversation with journalist and Professor Adrian Harewood.
This event, which marked the first day of Black History Month in 2024, was co-organized by the Department of Equity and Inclusive Communities and Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University.
For her lecture, Prof. Lewis revisited her and her colleague’s historic *mbongi presented at the 53rd International Association of Black Psychologists Conference in 2022. She outlined the relevance of Black LGBTQ+ persons’ cultural and historical existence within the African human family and within the Associations of Black Psychologists (ABPsi), and how Lewis and her colleagues integrated Black wisdom into their respective work as clinicians, academics, researchers and artists. Examples included their work incorporating contemplative practices to decolonize inner life, challenging Eurocentric thought and disrupting dynamics of oppression.