Making Art in a Time of War: Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table (1932) in Weimar Germany and Today
In this public event held at Washington University, Dr. Hannah Kosstrin of OSU joined me in a discussion of choreographer Kurt Jooss’ satirical anti-war ballet, The Green Table, my reimagination of it as The Scattered Chairs, and what it means to connect the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany to the contemporary moment of the 2020s.
Photograph by Rain Stippec
December 6, 2024
Brendan Fernandes and Joanna Dee Das: In Two
November 9, 2024
In this conversation at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, I talked with artist Brendan Fernandes about his performance event, In Two, which he created in conjunction with the Pulitzer’s exhibition of Scott Burton’s furniture sculptures. We talked about visibility/invisibility, queer cruising, worldmaking, and the importance of tender, fleeting moments of human connection.
Photograph by Virginia Harold, 2024. Courtesy Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
"When You See Josephine, You See Her Mother": The Africanist Foundations for Jazz Dance and the St. Louis Context
March 15, 2024
The Petit Palais Museum of Fine Arts of the City of Paris invited me and my collaborator, Denise Ward-Brown, to talk at their Josephine Baker Symposium, held in conjunction with the exhibit Modern Paris: 1905-1925. We presented our research on Josephine Baker and the Black cultural worlds that nurtured her talent.
Photograph by Koushik Das
“The Real Deal”: Impersonation and the American Dream in Las Vegas and Branson
November 17, 2023
In this talk as part of the Arnold Shaw Popular Music Research Center Lecture Series at University of Nevada- Las Vegas, I discussed the show Legends in Concert and its importance to the live entertainment industries of both Branson and Las Vegas, allowing us to draw connections between these two tourist destinations.
To find out more about my events and talks, please email me at joanna.d.das@wustl.edu