Dani Gagnon
A&E Editor
Although lately everyone has been finding their heads stuck in the fall-break-is-so-close clouds, the office of Diversity Affairs and Campus Climate at The College of Wooster is already looking ahead to the return from fall break. Once we drag ourselves back from our foliage-filled vacations, we will immediately find ourselves looking forward to a two day visit from damali ayo, a speaker, an author, a radio essayist and a visual artist, who prefers her name to be written in lower lowercase.
Damali ayo will visit the C.O.W. campus on Wednesday Oct. 9 through Thursday Oct. 10 and is scheduled to speak at several events, expanding on her examination of multiracial identity. Her visit will begin at 7 p.m. in Gault Recital Hall with a public lecture titled “Becoming Multiracial: A Personal Journey in Facing Race.” There will be a reception afterwards.
On Thursday, ayo plans to sit in on a few classes and will tentatively attend and lead the Lunch and Learn on the Lawn event “Flesh Tones,” a creative and collaborative art piece that will be held in the Oak Grove from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Lilly House will host an “Internalized & Beyond” themed tea party, where students will have an informal opportunity to meet and chat with ayo.
“The purpose of bringing damali ayo to campus is to call attention to one aspect of racism that we do not normally discuss, and that is the complexity of multiracial people’s lives,” said Susan Lee, Special Assistant to the President for diversity affairs and campus climate.
Ayo’s writing mostly centers on understanding her racial identity. As a child and into her early twenties, ayo solely identified as African American. However, when her family history suddenly revealed that she was actually of African-American, English, Italian and Native American descent, her professional work and personal understanding of her identity was fundamentally questioned. Since then, ayo has examined the multiple conflicting responsibilities and demands she began to feel upon this realization. Her work with her identity has led her to a place where she no longer feels the need to apologize for her identity and her process of expelling internalized racism over the years.
Her study of multiracial identity has proved itself so compelling that this is the second time the College is inviting ayo to campus. ayo came to campus in 2007 to talk with students and performed a rendition of her piece “The Living Flag” with 30 students on Beall Avenue and around campus. However, Lee says that this visit’s art piece will be different as it is intended to be a conversation and a “community endeavor, not a controversial performance.” This visit’s art piece will be produced during the Lunch and Learn event on Thursday; it serves to aid the exploration of “colorism” within the spectrum of human flesh tones that can be even found on Wooster campus.
All in all, don’t look too disappointed when fall break is over and it’s time to return to classes. There will be a new face and events ready to engage us in discussions that will extend very much outside of the Wooster bubble. ayo’s presentations are sure to be fresh, insightful and accessible on multiple levels and promises to be a memorable return to campus after fall break.