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There used to be a time that fat bodies were celebrated in art, newspapers, magazines and medical journals, but all that changed in the 18th century, when fatness got associated with the idea that people with coloured skin were racially inferior savages. During this event, which is part of the Black History Month Belgium program, you will learn and experience how that shift continues to haunt black bodies till this day. With Sabrina Strings (author of fearing the black body), Lisette Ma Neza (Slam Poetry Champion), Brunette Matinda (Afroyoga), Heleen Debeuckelaere (Writer) and Rachael Moore (coördinator RainbowHouse)

This event is a collaboration between VUB-Crosstalks, VUB RHEA and Black History Month Belgium

Program:
17:30-18:30: Yoga session with Brunette Matinda (AfroYoga)
18:30-19:00: Break with drinks, sandwiches and fingerfood
19:00-20:00: Lecture by Sabrina Strings: ‘Fearing the Black Body: the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia.’
20:00-20:10: Performance by Lisette Ma Neza and Neil Akenzua
20:10-21:00: Conversation with Sabrina Strings, Heleen Debeuckelaere and Rachael Moore
21:00-21:10: Performance by Lisette Ma Neza and Neil Akenzua
21:10-…: DJ and open bar

Sabrina Strings is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, and a recipient of the Berkeley Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, where she held appointments in the Department of Sociology and the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work has appeared in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, The Feminist Wire, and Feminist Media Studies.

Heleen Debeuckelaere is a historian and writer from Brussels. She regularly contributes to Belgian media and was the co-founder of the video channel “Black speak Back”.

Brunette Matinda is the founder of Afroyoga Belgium. She studied yoga practice across the globe and explored various schools of yoga (Hatha yoga, Vinyasa, Bikram yoga) before settling down and training intensively in the techniques of Babacar Khane, a world specialist in Egyptian yoga. Inspired by the African tradition and Egyptian yoga, she has created her own original style. It is in this new lifestyle and through meditation that she finds her balance.