AAASRC Presents Xavier Livermon

Black History Month Series

Join us for the first event in the AAASRC Black History Month Series, featuring Xavier Livermon, Associate Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies and Interim Provost of Oakes College at UC Santa Cruz. This talk will examine the cultural politics of the youthful black body in South Africa through the performance, representation, and consumption of kwaito, a style of electronic dance music that emerged following the end of apartheid. Drawing on fieldwork in Johannesburg’s nightclubs and analyses of musical performances and recordings, Livermon applies a black queer and black feminist studies framework to kwaito, and demonstrates how kwaito culture operates as a site for understanding the triumphs, challenges, and politics of post-apartheid South Africa. Light refreshments provided.

February 12th, 2026
3:30 PM
SSB 101