ESTELLA CONWILL MAJOZO, PH.D

 

 

ADDRESS:    Department of English                                                                TELEPHONE: (502) 852-3052

                        University of Louisville                                                                       

                        Louisville, Kentucky 40292

 

EDUCATION:

                Ph.D.  University of Iowa.  American Studies. 1984

                M.A.  University of Louisville.  English Literature. 1976

                B.A.  University of Louisville.  English Literature. 1975

 

EXPERIENCE:

                 University of Louisville. English Department

                                Full Professor.  2000-present.

               Hunter College – City University of New York. English Department.

                                Full Professor. 1988-2000.

               Kentucky State University,

                              Assistant Professor,  1986-88.

               Blackaliedoscope Cultural Center, Inc.

                              Founder and Director, 1975-77.

 

PUBLICATIONS:

                 

                  Books:

                               Blessings for A New World, Third World Press, 2007.

 

                               Middle Passage: 105 Days, Africa World Press, 2002.                   

 

                               Come On Up to Bright Glory. Notre Dame: Cross Cultural Publications, 2001.

 

                               Come Out The Wilderness: Memoir of a Black Woman Arstist.  New York: The Feminist Press, 1999.

 

Libation: A Literary Pilgrimage through the African- American Soul. New York:

Readers and Writers Press, 1991.

 

Jiva Telling Rites. Chicago: Third World Press, 1991.

 

 Darkness Knows, Iowa: Macaenas Press, 1975.

 

 Metamorphosis.  Louisville: The Bruce press, 1975.

               

             

                      Selected Articles:

               Walk Together Children, (An excerpt from Come Out the Wilderness) in Almost                

Touching the Skies:  Women’s Coming of Age Stories (Feminist Press, 2000).

 

Jazz…On the Site of Memory.  (co-authored with Judylyn S. Ryan) in Studies in the Literary Imagination Vol. 31 #2.

 

To Search for the Good and Make It Matter.  In Suzanne Lacy (Ed.), Mapping the Terrain:  New Genre Public Art, (Seattle:  Bay Press, 1995).

 

Towards the 21st Century:  From Dismemberment to Regeneration.  BLACK BOOKS BULLETIN, 1991.

                   

 

 

          Selected (Choreo) Poems:

 

                             “Litany for the Gulf”—Recorded CD for survivors of Katrina Hurricane, presented

by various radio programs throughout the nation. 2005.

        

                               “Gwendolyn Was Here/Is" Special 10th Anniversary Issue—Drum Voices, 2003.

 

                               “The Malcolm Calling Blues”.  An Exultation of Forms: Contemporary Poets

Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Michigan University Press. Fall, 2001.

 

                “The New Ringshout:  A Tribute to the African Burial Ground.”  Summer-Fall 2000           

                Drum Voices Revue; Words from the Cities:  Poetic Voices of Contemporary

 Urban Cultures.  2000.

 

                “Underground Railroad Praise Song”.  Thinker Review, 1992.

 

               “The Artist:  Call and Respond”.  Black Books Bulletin, 1991.

 

                              “Cosmic Iconography”.  Essence Magazine, 1990.

 

 “The Call/Response and Gwendolyn Was Here/Is”.  In Haki Madhubuti (Ed.), Say That     

  the River Turns, (Chicago:  Third World Press, 1987).

 

 “Footing It Down the Block in Louisville”.  In A Look at Louisville’s Afro-American    

 Traditions, 1984.

 

                       

 

PLAYS (and Performance Art Productions) Scripted:

 

Freedom Clothes: The Saga of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn on the Underground Railroad (Kentucky Heritage Council/Kentucky African American Heritage Commission Grant, 2002).

 

Litany for Langston Hughes--Performed by Pulitzer Prize Winner Toni Morrison and Chorus, and directed by Harry Poe at the dedication of “Rivers: The Langston Hughes Memorial” at  The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City.  (See Schomburg Archives)

 

Little Africa Traveling Exhibit –Performed by Majozo, Aleida Pleasants and Earbie Johnson as part of the 50th  Anniversary of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in the historic “Little Africa” district of Louisville, Kentucky, 2003.        (See Courier Journal Preview)
                —. Performed as part of the 30th Anniversary of the Pan-African Studies Department of the University of Louisville, 2004. (See Courier Journal announcement)

 

Middle Passage:105 Days–Directed and Performed by Dr. Lundeana Thomas as a special feature at the African Literature Association’s 28th Annual Conference, University of  California, San Diego, California, April 3-7, 2002.

(See conference catalogue)
                — Performed by Dr. Lundeana Thomas at the 6th Juneteenth Festival at the University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, 2002. (See playbill)
                —Performed by Majozo at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina,  March 2003.  (See USC News)

 

Purgatory–Directed by Majozo; choreography by Robin Wilson (Urban Bush Women), set design and digital graphics by artist Houston Conwill (Guggenheim and Pris de Rome Awards) at the Kentucky Theater, Louisville, Kentucky.  (Kentucky Foundation for Women Grant and Kentucky Arts Council Grant).
                — Staged Reading (of script) with workshop at Next Stage, Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Ringshout the Route: A National Rite of Initiation into African American Culture–Taught as a graduate course and performed at Xavier University’s Institute of Black Catholic Studies at Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana, Summer, 2006.  (And in being scheduled for performance in various venues throughout the nation.) 
                —Ringshout the Route–taught as an undergraduate course which included script and literary companion text  in the English Department at the University of Louisville, July, 2003.

__By invitation of The United Nations Liaison Office /Femme Afria Solidarite, Ringshout Rite of Initiation was discussed at “Conference on Gender, Peace and Security: Ten Years of Practice”, in Africa, in Bamako, Mali, Africa , June 20006.

                —Ringshout the Route–Performed at the African American Theater Program’s 5th Juneteenth Festival, University of Louisville, 2000.

 

Steps to the City: Rite of Peace–Performed with Priscilla Hancock Cooper and others at the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, Alabama, September, 2002.

 

This is My Body--Directed by Majozo, set design by Houston Conwill, with music by  Merbecke. Performed by the drama society of Christ and St. Stephens Church at Christ and St. Stephens Church, New York City.

(See New York Times, Archives,”Oratorio, Cantatas, and Other Long Works” announcement)

 

Libation: A Literary Pilgrimage Through The African American Soul-- the drama component of The Cakewalk Exposition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
(See Museum Catalogue and The New York Times article)

 

 

SELECTED PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS: Collaborative Team of Interdisciplinary Artists (with sculptor Houston Conwill and architect Joseph De Pace)

  The New Ring Shout:  Memorial Tribute to African Burial Ground.  New Federal    

   Building, New York City.

This work is a tribute to the 20,000 thousands buried in the 18th century African Burial Ground in New York City partially excavated in 1992 and now designated a National Historic Landmark.  The work features a forty-foot diameter illuminated terrazzo and polished brass dance floor cosmogram that presents a contemplative journey of transformation.  It is sited in the central rotunda of the New Federal Office Building.  1995.

 

 Freedom Ring.  Community College of Philadelphia, Public Art Committee and   

 Philadelphia Re-Development Authority.  1994.

 

The New Calypso.  Metro Mover Park West Station, Miami, Miami, FL.  1993.

 

   The Stations Project.  The Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University in

    Lewiston, New York on the Niagara River. 

This work is a tribute to the Underground Railroad Freedom Movement.  A multi-layered installation consisting of seven copper-sheathed wood structures built on concrete cellars with cast bronze doors and attic bearing recessed mirrors, embossed maps with symbols, ideographic marking, song lines and the names of several local families who participated in the Underground Railroad Movement.  Structures now ceremoniously and permanently placed throughout the Niagara community.  The National Endowment for the Arts selected "Stations" as one of the best projects in the nation in 1993.

 

The New Charleston.  Avery Research Center for African American History & Culture, Charleston College, South Carolina.

A site specific public art installation and memorial tribute to the people of South Carolina and Charleston as part of the Spoleto Music Festival USA 1991.

 

Places with a Past: Site Specific Art in Charleston. 1991.

 

Revelation:  Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.  Yerba Garden, San Francisco, CA.

Behind the 22 foot high, 50 foot wide waterfall, the multi-layered work holds an illuminated wall of twelve transparent Pyrex glass tablets sandblasted with twelve quotations by Dr. King in English and in African and Arabic languages as well as in twelve languages spoken by San Francisco’s international sister cities – signifying the call and response and the twelve bars of the traditional blues form.  Cited by Ebony Magazine as the most unique of all the King monuments.

 

Rivers.  Langston Hughes Auditorium Lobby, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City. 1989.

The cosmological design pays homage to both Langston Hughes and Arthur Schomburg, the bibliophile for whom the building is named.  The center of the mandala design marks the spot where the poet, Langston Hughes’, ashes lie beneath the floor.

 

SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY

“Litany for the Gulf”  --Recorded CD for survivors of Katrina Hurricane.

 It was also used in “El dia de los muertos” (The Day of the Dead)

 A Celebration of Hispanic Heritage  November 2, 2005.

 

“Ringshout the Route” (student production) for the National Black Family Conference, March, 2004.

 

“Undoing Racism:  Application of the New Mysteries of Light.” Epiphany Catholic Church, Louisville, Kentucky, January 27, 2003.

 

                “Nia:  The Examination of Purpose.” The Unitarian Church, Louisville, Kentucky,

                December 2002.   

 

Women Affirming Their Faith, Their Works, Their Futures: A Keynote Address

Archdiocese of New York’s Office of Black Ministries, New  York City, March 19, 2001.

 

                Come Out the Wilderness.  Reading Discussion of the Sponsorship of the

                Schomburg Center, 100 Black Women of New York and the Feminist Press, 1999.

 

                Think Tank Discussion.  The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center,

                Fall 2000.

 

                Workshop for Women Who Write.  Ohio Wesleyan, March 2, 2000.

 

                Dream Keepers.  From Come Out the Wilderness.  African American Women’s

                Literary Series.  Louisville, KY April 9, 1999.

 

                Ringshout Libation.  Middle Passage Conference.  Smithsonian Institute,

                February, 1999.

 

                Vision Quest at Leni-Lenape.  Philadelphia Community College. November 1994.

 

                Wailing Wall of Water.  Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.  San Francisco, CA

                (Ground Breaking Ceremony) August 1992; (Opening Ceremony of Revelations

                at Yerba Buena Gardens) November 1993.

 

                Underground Railroad Praise Song.  Performed at historically important

Underground Railroad sites in twelve cities from Atlanta, GA to Canada as part of a cultural pilgrimage through the Harriet Tubman Trail.  (Sponsored by the Underground Committee of Niagara Falls and the Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Falls, NY.) July 1993

 

The (K)No(W) Me theory of Transformation.  H. Keith Williams HIV Primary Care

Program, Brooklyn NY. March 1992.

 

The New Merengue.  Exhibition Opening at The Brooklyn Museum.  Brooklyn,

NY. January, 1002

 

A Con/fusion of Light.  Conflict and Unification in Black Literature, Language and

Self Conference.  Radford University, Virginia.  April, 1990.

 

Libation:  A Literary Pilgrimage Through the African American Soul.  Presented as part of the THE NEW CAKEWALK Exhibition by Houston Conwill, at several venues, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, (January, 1990),

The Chrysler Museum, Richmond, VA (February 1990), and The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH (February, 1990); Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA.

 

And the Dance Goes ON.  Co-written and performed South African poet Amelia Blossom House.  Patrice Sales – choreographer and dancer; Erbie Johnson musician.  (Sponsored by Kentucky Arts Council Grant) Performed at several cities including Ohio State University; University of Kentucky; University of Louisville; and Glen Miller Theater, Fort Know, KY, February-May 1987.

 

Purgatory.  (Choreographer – Robin Wilson of Urban Bush Women; Visual Artist Houston Conwill; dancers and musicians from the Kentucky/Indiana Community) Sponsored by Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Kentucky Theatre. August, 1987.

 

SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION

Mentor, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation/Fall Retreat, Princeton, New Jersey, October, 15-17, 2003.

      

             Poetry Reading, University of South Carolina, April 3, 2003.

                           Chaired session at the Twentieth Century Literature Conference, February 27,

                           2003.

 

Panelist, Writing Across Borders/Just As We Thought: U.S. and International Women’s Writers Conference, Graduate Center, (CUNY) April 5, 2000.

 

Panelist, In Pursuit of Justice: Women’s Global Struggle for Human Rights

Lehman College, March 24, 1994.

 

Panelist, Toni Morrison and the American South, First Biennial Conference of the Toni Morrison Society, Atlanta, GA, 1998.

 

Panelist, Emulation vs. Appropriation: New Uses of Art Historical Sources,

College Art Association, New York City, 1994.

 

Panelist, Public Art Symposium, City College of Philadelphia, 1994.

 

Panelist, National Conference of Artists, African Identity Conference, Toronto,

Canada, 1992.

 

Public Symposium at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art, San Francisco, 1991.

 

The Robert Lehman Lectures, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 1991.

 

SELECTED ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL HONORS:

 Salute to Seven Sisters Pleiades Award, The Pleiades Theatre Company, 2006.

 

 Kentucky Heritage Council/Kentucky African American Heritage Commission   

 Grant, 2000-2002.   To write a Docu-drama on the Underground Railroad in Kentucky.

 

                                J. T. Stewart Literary Award at Hedgebrook, 2000.

               

                                 Distinguished Alumni Fellow. University of Louisville, 1999.

               

Excellence in Design Award, Art Commission of New York, presented by Mayor David Dinkins, for “Rivers Langston Hughes Memorial” at Schomburg Center for Research, City of New York. October 1992.

               

Ford Postdoctoral Fellowship at Center for the Study of Black Literature and Culture, University of Pennsylvania. Summer 1991.

 

SELECTED CRITICAL AND CREATIVE RESPONSES TO MY WORK:

Spirituality as Ideology in Black Women’s Film and Literature (University of Virginia Press 2005) by Judylyn S. Ryan, Ph.D.   My memoir, Come out the Wilderness, was critically examined along with the work of Maya Angelou in this book.

           

Callaloo (Volume 28, Number 3, 2005), “Yusef Komanyakaa’s New Blues” by Hermine Pinson, Ph.D.  My poem, “Malcolm Calling Blues” from Jiva Telling Rites was examined in this text, and my song by the same title was recorded along with the work of Pulitzer Prize winner, Komanyakaa on a CD entitled “Changing the Change” (2005). 

                                                  

The Western Journal of Black Studies, (3/22/2004), “Dancing the “Clearing” in Academia” by Ingrid M. Reneau, Ph. D. The basic principles in my article, "To Search for the Good and Make It Matter” in Suzanne Lacy’s book, Mapping the Terrain: New Public Art Genre (Seattle: Bay Press, 1995) were used to help develop a “Ringshout Aesthetic” approach to creating intellectual life in academia.

             

The Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work (U of L) adopted my memoir, Come Out        the Wilderness, (Feminist Press) as a standard text for all its first year students in the “Foundation Practice for Social Work” course, 2005 (also used in literature and psychology classes in other universities),

                              _______________________________________________________

Booklist, American Library Association, April, 1991 (Review of Come out the Wilderness)

 

Kirkus Reviews, 1999, Kirkus Associates, Review of Come Out the Wilderness).

 

Library Journal, 1999, (Review of Come Out the Wilderness).

 

 The Amsterdam News, “Untangling the Jungle”, 1998.

 The Courier Journal, 1999.Estella Conwill Majozo’s ‘Wilderness” Blazes Trails to           

  Strength”

 

 The African Burial Ground

 http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/afb/shell.html

 

 Commemorating the African Burial Ground in New York City: Spirituality of   

 Space in Contemporary Art Works

 http://www.africaresource.com/ijele/vol1.1/frohne.html