Narrating Black Girls' Lives Keynote: "A Serial Biography of the Wayward"

In her new book, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman examines the revolution of black intimate life that unfolded in Philadelphia and New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. Free love, common-law and transient marriages, serial partners, cohabitation outside of wedlock, queer relations, and single motherhood were among the sweeping changes that altered the character of everyday life and challenged traditional Victorian beliefs about courtship, love, and marriage. Hartman narrates the story of this radical social transformation against the grain of the prevailing century-old argument about the crisis of the black family.

This keynote talk is part of the Narrating Black Girls' Lives Conference. Book sales and a reception with Dr. Hartman will be offered in conjunction with the exhibit opening of "she was here, once" in the Lane Hall Gallery, from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. Book sales provided by Bookbound.

Cosponsors: The Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, Center for the Education of Women+, Stamps School of Art & Design, American Culture, English, History, History of Art, Institute for Research on Women & Gender (IRWG), Rackham Graduate School, and Women's Studies.