Dr. Patricia G. Lespinasse is an associate professor of African American literature in the African, Black, and Caribbean Studies program at Adelphi University. She earned her BA in English from St. John’s University and went on to earn her MA, MPhil, and PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in African American and African Diaspora Literature at Rutgers University where she began work on her latest book, The Drum Is a Wild Woman: Jazz and Gender in African Diaspora Literature. She is also co-director of the film Proud Blood, a documentary examining the United States Food and Drug Administration’s ban on blood donations from Haitians in the 1990s as part of a policy to prevent the spread of AIDS and the present-day ramifications associated with that ban.

This Black History Month event is organized by the Center for Student Involvement & Leadership in Collaboration with
Africana Studies, Alliance, Alumni Affairs, Black Student Union, LGBTQ+ Resource Center, Office of External Affairs and the Psychology Department.

Find additional events celebrating Black History Month here