Guest Lectures: The Conjure Woman in Black Horror and Beyond (Kinitra Brooks) | Contemporary Indigenous Art and the Colonial Gaze (Gregg Deal) | January 29

The Cultural Politics of Resistance

GUEST LECTURE DOUBLE FEATURE
January 29, 2025
W48.004

Rootwork as Resistance: The Conjure Woman in Black Horror and Beyond

Kinitra Brooks (Michigan State University)
16:40-18:10

Contemporary Indigenous Art and the Colonial Gaze

Gregg Deal (Independent Artist, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe)
18:30-20:00

***
Kinitra Brooks is Associate Professor of English, Dean of Graduate Studies, and holder of
the Audrey and John Leslie Endowed Chair of Literary Studies at Michigan State
University. A leading voice on Black Horror and Afrofuturism with a focus on Black
women, genre fiction, and popular culture, her work includes fiction writing (e.g., a
graphic novel in process) and award-winning scholarship. She is the series editor of New
Suns: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Speculative (Ohio State University Press), the
author of Searching for Sycorax: Black Women's Hauntings of Contemporary Horror (Rutgers
University Press, 2017), and the co-editor of The Lemonade Reader: Beyoncé, Black
Feminism, and Spirituality and Sycorax Daughters, an anthology of dark fiction and poetry
by Black women writers (nominated for Bram Stoker Award 2017).

Gregg Deal (Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe) is a bold voice within contemporary art; a multi-
disciplinary artist, activist, and cultural disruptor who uses his platform to speak out on
issues of Native identity, racial injustice, colonialism, and the erasure of Indigenous
histories. Rooted in his lived experience as a Native person, Deal’s work unapologetically
confronts the uncomfortable truths of American society, politics, and pop culture.
Through a wide range of mediums, including painting, mural work, performance art,
filmmaking, music and spoken word, Deal challenges deeply embedded stereotypes and
forces viewers to question false narratives about Indigenous peoples. His work is not
only artistic expression but an act of resistance and reclamation, using visual language
to confront historical amnesia and ongoing systems of oppression. Gregg Deal’s band
Dead Pioneers harnesses the raw energy of punk and alternative influences to
challenge prevailing narratives, and—like his art—confronts the legacies of colonization
and systemic marginalization. Completed by co-writers and bandmates Josh Rivera and
Abe Brennan on guitars, bassist Lee Tesche (Algiers) and drummer Shane Zweygardt,
Dead Pioneers engages audiences in a visceral dialogue about survival, resilience, and
reclamation of voice. Deal’s work has been exhibited locally, nationally, and
internationally at institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, the Denver Art
Museum, and RedLine Gallery, among others.

This event is co-hosted by the TUD Chair of North American Literature and Future Studies and the DFG Network The Cultural Politics of Reconciliation.

It is linked to the seminars Black Horror Cinema and We Were Punk First: The Cultural Politics of Contemporary Indigenous Popular Music.