Professors Sabia McCoy-Torress and Z’étoile Imma will chat with Violet Bryan, Professor Emerita of English at Xavier University, about her new book exploring the work of two women writers who emphasize Jamaica through a local perspective.

Violet Harrington Bryan is professor emerita of English at Xavier University of Louisiana. She is the author of The Myth of New Orleans in Literature: Dialogues of Race and Gender, and her work has appeared in such journals as American Scholar, College Language Association Journal, and Louisiana Literature. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Sabia McCoy-Torres is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Africana Studies at Tulane University. She earned a Ph.D. in social and cultural anthropology from Cornell University. McCoy-Torres’ research focuses on the English and Spanish speaking African Diaspora, race, gender, sexuality, transnationalism, and Black popular performance. Her first book project uses reggae culture as a lens to examine these dynamics among Afro-Caribbeans in Limón, Costa Rica and Brooklyn, New York, looking also at migration between the two locales.  Her continuing research examines sex work in Jacó, Costa Rica and its comparisons to millennial dating culture in the United States, considering the stakes of comparability. Dr. McCoy-Torres has articles published in Transforming Anthropology, Black Music Research Journal, Popular Music & Society, and The Global South, and an essay in Queer Nightlife.  

Z’étoile Imma, Ph.D. is Michael S. Field Assistant Professor of English and Africana Studies at Tulane University, where she is also affiliated with the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. Her research explores the politics of gender, sexuality, feminism, and decolonization in contemporary African cultural production. Her scholarship has been published in Research in African Literatures, The Journal of Lesbian Studies, Callaloo, Agenda, and The Journal of African Cultural Studies. Dr. Imma is also a writer of fiction and poetry. She studied creative writing with Sonia Sanchez, Cheryl Clarke, Elizabeth Nunez, and June Jordan. Her creative work has been published in venues such as The Brooklyn Review, African Voices, Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, and most recently, Je Transporte Des Explosifs On Les Appelle Des Mots: Poesie Et Feminismes Aux Etats-Unis.

Fridays at Newcomb is a free lunch and lecture series featuring speakers across disciplines. Please note that non-Tulane guests must provide either proof of vaccination OR a negative PCR COVID-19 test that was taken within the past 72 hours.