Chillin with Legends

As many of you may or may not know (based either on knowing me or peeping one of my more recent posts) I'm spending this summer doing a research fellowship out here at Northwestern. Thus far it has been nothing short of amazing, and I have been moved beyond words by the sheer brilliance of the folks I'm meeting out here. There's about 20 of us (in my cohort) from schools all across the country doing research in fields ranging from Queer Studies to biochemistry to music cognition. In other words, this group of kids is uber-dope. My particular research project this summer is in the field of Performance Studies, and I will have the pleasure of working with arguably the foremost Performance Studies scholar in the country right now, E. Patrick Johnson. I've included a clip of his recent performance at Penn of a section of his critically acclaimed one-man show/ethnography "Sweet Tea".

In my honest opinion, Dr. Johnson is a scholar-artist without peer, and probably the best present model in academia for what I hope to do one day with my craft. It is my dream to find a way to combine my passion for education with my love for performing in a way that is politically powerful and thoroughly enjoyable. Videos like this assure me that such a future is not only possible, but within arm's reach if I stay hard at work. With that said, I need to get back to my weekly reading assignments. Paz!