Freedom Moves: Black Liberation Through Music and Dance, 4/14 @ 3pm

Professor Zabriskie’s primary teaching and research interests include race, class, and gender; social inequality; dance sociology/ sociology of dance; sociology of culture; performance theory and practice; black feminist thought; qualitative methodology; and culture, performance and politics in the African/Black Diaspora. She is currently working on a project that examines cultural power, embodied knowledge, and constructions of Africanity within Chicago’s West African Dance and Drum communities. Professor Zabriskie’s artistic and creative work explores issues of identity, community, healing, and empowerment.

Ezequiel Torres is a master of the making and playing of Afro-Cuban batá drums, a set of three double-headed, hourglass-shaped drums used for Orisha (the traditional religion of the Yoruba people of West Africa) ceremonies. Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1955, Torres became interested in Orisha music at the age of 16 and learned the complex tradition of batá drumming and Orisha chanting from the legendary Griots of Afro-Cuban cultural traditions. Torres is currently recognized as one of the top batá drummers, drum-builders and beaders in the United States. 

Please join us for dance demonstrations and live drumming!