Department of English
Africana Lecture Series featuring PhD alumna Dr. Melanie R. Hill
- Tuesday, February 10, 2026 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Max Kade, Room 329-A
3401 Walnut Street
University of Pennsylvania
With a lecture and live violin performance featuring Dr. Melanie R. Hill's new book, Colored Women Sittin' on High: Womanist Sermonic Practice in Literature and Music (UNC Press), this talk shows how literature and music, sound and sermon function wholly through the spiritual geniuses of Black women writers, preachers, artists, and freedom movement activists. From Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison to Ruby Sales and Aretha Franklin, Colored Women Sittin' on High highlights Black women preachers, writers, and artists as the virtuosic alchemists of our time.
Featuring Melanie R. Hill