In the 1950s and 1960s, at the peak of her fame, American pianist Philippa Schuyler performed in concert venues around the world. Her journeys were regularly chronicled in African-American newspapers and mainstream outlets, and became the subject of her travel memoir, Adventures in Black and White. The title played on her mixed-race identity and gestured toward her observations on race in different geographic contexts. This talk will retrace some of Schuylers’ steps and reflect on her influence in the world of women travelers.
Tamara J. Walker is a Tow Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Barnard College of Columbia University. She researches and teaches courses focused on the history of slavery, gender, and racial formation in Latin America, their legacies in the modern era, and the theme of global Black mobility. She is the author, most recently, of Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad (Crown, 2023). She is currently working on a book on whiteness in Latin American visual culture, and another on slavery and piracy in the Southern Pacific.