Dr. Laurie Woodard, Associate Professor of African American History at The City College of New York, will deliver the C. Mildred Thompson Lecture, “Beyond the Footlights and Back Again: Fredi Washington in One Mile from Heaven.”

The talk focuses on Washington’s career as a “triple threat,” a performing artist, writer, and civil and human rights activist, and examines the complexities of New Negro womanhood. Drawing from her forthcoming book, A Real Negro Girl: Fredi Washington and the New Negro Renaissance, Woodard explores Washington’s artistic work and political commitments within the broader cultural landscape of the Harlem Renaissance.

Woodard began her professional life as a dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She earned a BA in History from Columbia University and a PhD in African American Studies and History from Yale University. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Journal of African American History, and American Quarterly. A Real Negro Girl will be released by Oxford University Press in fall 2026.

This endowed lecture is part of the C. Mildred Thompson Lecture series.

Sponsored by the History Department, the Film Department, the Dance Department, the Africana Studies Program, and the Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Program.

The lecture is free and open to the public.