Hayward and Juanita Oubre came from Dillard University in New Orleans to earn their MFAs at the University of Iowa. They then taught at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The Oubres are only one example of the HBCU/UI pipeline in the mid-twentieth century.

This program invites alumni from creative fields and scholars to discuss Iowa’s impact on the education and professional lives of Black alumni, and the education of Black artists in general. It features Dr. Raul Ferrera-Balanquet (UI alumnus and co-executive director of Howard University Gallery of Art), Dr. Dr. Danille Taylor (director of the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum), and Dr. Richard Breaux (alumnus and associate professor of race, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse).

Dr. Ashley Howard will moderate the conversation.

Panelists:

• Dr. Danille Taylor
  Director, Clark Atlanta University Art Museum

  Dr. Taylor become the director of Clark Atlanta University Art Museum in 2023 after serving as the interim director and Dean of the School of Arts & Science at Clark Atlanta University. Under her leadership, the museum hosted one of its most successful exhibitions, Our Friend Jean, the Early Works of Jean Michele Basquiat. It also began to digitize its permanent collection for the HBCU History and Cultural Access Consortium and received an IMLS grant to expand the museum’s staff. Dr. Taylor is the editor of Conversations with Toni Morrison and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Writing. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for The Order of New Arts, a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia.
  

• Dr. Raul Ferrera-Balanquet
  Co-executive director, Howard University Gallery of Art
  

  Dr. Ferrera-Balanquet is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator, Fullbright scholar, and University of Iowa alumnus. He was born in Havana, Cuba and came to the United States in 1980 via the Mariel Boatlift. He has organized exhibitions across the country, including Genesis: The African American Experience in Art. The Ronald W. and Patricia Turner African American Collection at Howard University Gallery of Art and Africana Hemispheric Performance, Actions, Socially Public Participations, Rituals, and Ceremonies at the Center for Afrofuturist Studies in Iowa City. He wrote Aestesis Decolonial Transmoderna Latinx_MX (2019) and edited Andar Erotico Decolonial (2015). Dr. Ferrera-Balanquet’s artwork has been exhibited across the United States and internationally.

• Dr. Richard Breaux
  Associate Professor of Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse
  

  Dr. Breaux earned his doctorate and master’s degree from the University of Iowa. He specializes in African American History, and teaches a variety of courses such as Race, Gender, & Sport; 20th Century Civil Rights Movement; and History of Black Music. His recent publications include "Mahjari Musicians: The Recorded Sounds of Arab Americans in the Early Twentieth Century, 1912-1936," in Mariam F. Alkazemi and Claudia E. Youakim, Arab Worlds Beyond the Middle East and North Africa; “Songs of Nostalgia in New York City’s Long-Lost ‘Little Syria” in Syria Untold; and “The Greater Syrian Diaspora at 78 RPM" series in Arab America. Additionally, he contributed the chapter “Tireless Partners and Skilled Competitors: Seeing UI’s Black Male Athletes, 1934-1960” to Invisible Hawkeyes: Iowa, Integration & the Long Civil Rights Movement, edited by Michael D. and Lena M. Hill.

^{Photo: Professor Hayward L. Oubre with color wheel, about 1968, photonegative, Winston-Salem State University, © C.G. O'Kelly Library}