Gloria Lewis '18

January 2017

In Search of the African Diaspora from Tamil Nadu to Senegambia

Gloria Lewis ’18 will travel to Madurai, India with Dance Diaspora, Oberlin’s West African dance ensemble. In Madurai, Lewis and the other group members will be connected with Lady Doak College and assisted byVanessa Champagne, Shansi’s current Fellow. Lewis will engage in a cultural exchange of folk dances from West Africa and southern India. Afterwards, Dance Diaspora will travel to Bajul, Gambia where Lewis will learn Mandinka dance and drumming, and study about the transatlantic slave trade. Lewis hopes to deepen her understanding of the Africana diaspora through art and dance, which she will incorporate in her capstone project.