Embodying Black Joy

Kourtney Bobb

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Kourtney Bobb

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My name is Kourtney and I am a '25 majoring in Chemistry and AAAS. As a leader in organizations like the Afro-American Society, the Dartmouth Black Student Athlete Alliance, Black Girls are Magic, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., I appreciate having the opportunity to serve and impact my community in a meaningful way. I especially enjoy creating spaces for Black students to feel a sense of belonging, fostering unity across the diaspora, and serving as an advocate for us to define what Black Joy means to us.

Tanaka Chikati

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Tanaka Chikati

I am a Zimbabwean musician, passionate about African music and instruments, especially traditional instruments. With colonization came cultural erasure, and I'm working to reclaim my musical culture and traditions. I do this by playing the mbira, an instrument tied to my ancestors. I was featured on a Google Arts and Culture exhibition, and I hope to release some music in the next couple of months.

John C. Ejiogu

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John C. Ejiogu

John is a member of the class 2023, studying economics, chemistry, and music. As a black student at Dartmouth, he is a part of the Sadie Alexander Association (for minorities studying economics), the Dartmouth African Student Association and the Soyeya African Dance Troupe. A recipient of multiple academic/research grants and awards, John continues to foster black excellence here at the College. He also is very easy to chat to and is keen on creating community for black students here at Dartmouth. In his free time, John enjoys styling fashion outfits and listening to music.

Joy Enaohwo

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Joy Enaohwo

Hi, my name is Joy Enaohwo and I am a sophomore from Union, NJ. My intended major is economics and I am still figuring out what my minor will be. I am apart of the track& field team and specialize in the short sprints. There are two organizations that I am involved with on campus, Women In Business and the NAACP. As a board member of the NAACP, I serve as the associate secretary and am a member of the Associates Program in WIB. I look forward to Black Legacy Month and I am excited to celebrate black culture with my peers.

Micah Green 

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Micah Green

I am a '25 who plays football for Dartmouth who is currently pursuing a B.E in mechanical engineering modified with aeronautics. I am a board member of Dartmouth Black Student Athlete Alliance and I also frequent events for NSBE and the Men of Color Alliance (MOCA). Some of the most memorable experiences I have had at Dartmouth were the SEOUL-FOOD and DBSAA barbecues because of how well it fostered a sense of community and belonging. I am very excited to see what Black Legacy Month brings to Dartmouth this year!

Chara Lyons

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Chara Lyons

​Chara Lyons has thrived to make her voice heard and to encourage others through various collaborations and conversations. She is a researcher, radio show host, equestrian, spoken word artist, mentor, and apart of the Hill Winds Alumni Society. Before Dartmouth started off in collaboration with the nonprofit the YWCA Lead Brooklyn, where she mentors high school students and helps with programming in her local community that supports survivors of domestic violence. 

During the pandemic she co-founded with five other students the scholars of finance dartmouth chapter. Chara hosted her radio show rediscover wonder which focus on navigating college as a person of color. She was seen last fall 2021, at the BUTA showcase poetic healing with the rest of her co-producers, creating an environment where people of color can be themselves and feel black joy radiate. She recently interned this summer with a tech startup that creates opportunities for people of color and women in technology, where she was the first black intern at the company. She just spent an abroad term in Ghana connecting with the land of her ancestors from Grenada and those across the African diaspora. She hopes to deafen the threat of health disparities within her local community Far Rockaway Queen and increase the access to higher education for those within her Clara Barton High School. 

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Denva Nesbeth

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Denva Nesbeth

Denva Nesbeth, Jr. is a '24 studying Mathematical Data Science with an intention to minor in FILM & Media Studies. He is the Vice President of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) chapter on campus. He was previously involved in the Sustainability Action Program and a research assistant with the Augmented Health Lab.

Shania Smith 

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Shania Smith

Hi! I am Shania Smith, a 23' that hails from Brooklyn, NY. At Dartmouth, I study politics, philosophy and economics as a government PPE major, as well as Music and Chinese language minors. Throughout the years, I have especially found joy in cultivating inclusive, uplifting and thought-provoking spaces for underrepresented communities, serving as an executive board member for DACC, a student mentor and summer fellow for FYSEP, a HOP Fellow, an OPAL ambassador, and a musician in Dartmouth's jazz orchestra. Outside of these involvements, I worked for an education tech start-up, conducted independent research with Dartmouth's music and philosophy departments, and took part in the Rockefeller Center's leadership programs.

Brailyn Davis

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Brailyn Davis

Brailyn Davis is the Healthy Relationships Specialist at the Student Wellness Center. Brailyn is from Indianapolis, IN and attended Indiana University studying behavioral, social, and community health. She has been at Dartmouth since August 2019 and has developed and implemented trainings focused on increasing positive relationships and sexual experiences for undergraduates through the Sexual Violence Prevention Project. She has worked with the Greek community, athletics, and student organizations on having intentional facilitated conversations on shifting culture. She also oversees the Student Wellness Center's Safer Sex Bar, a resource that offers free safer sex supplies to campus. It has been her pleasure to work with students in building a campus culture of care.

Jazmine Gittens-Roberts 

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Jazmine Gittens-Roberts, Program Coordinator for the Office of Pluralism & Leadership (OPAL) has been at the Dartmouth institution for 2 years. Jazmine came into higher education with a goal to broaden and strengthen the student experience of marginalized and underrepresented student communities. Jazmine relocated from her home of Queens, NY to the Upper Valley working within academic spaces, but found that she wanted to be more student facing, leading her to work with OPAL. In what seems to be a short amount of time, Jazmine has witnessed so much light and promise in the students that she has interacted with and can't wait to see what her next year in OPAL will bring. At her time in OPAL, Jazmine has provided general support and advocacy for students, she has created programming spaces for students to find resources during Winterim, and has worked with the restructure of OPAL Education, an opportunity for students to educate their peers on conversations of identity, power, and privilege.

Zantasia Johnson

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Zantasia Johnson

I am Zantasia (Zan) Johnson (she/her). I joined the Dartmouth community in 2021 as a Program Coordinator for Community and Leadership Development in the Office of Pluralism and Leadership (OPAL). I work to support the Black and Pan African Student Advising Area. I was born and raised in Wisconsin so I am used to cold winters. In my time at Dartmouth, I have gotten to work with amazing students who show me the meaning of Black Joy daily. Working with the BLM Planning Committee has given me the chance to see all the hard work students put in to making this month happen and be a part of the amazing events they put on.

Kianny N. Antigua 

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Kianny N. Antigua

Kianny N. Antigua. [Dominican Republic] Fiction writer, poet, and translator. She is a Senior Lecturer of Spanish at Dartmouth College, and an independent translator and adapter for Pepsqually VO Sound & Design, Inc. Antigua has published over thirty books in the genres of children's literature, fiction, and poetry. She has won sixteen literary awards and her work has been included in a variety of anthologies, literary journals, and textbooks. Some have been translated into English, French and Italian. Translator of works by Angie Cruz, Elizabeth Acevedo, Ruth Behar, Lilliam Rivera, Lissette J. Norman & Lorgia García Peña.

Trica Keaton

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Trica Keaton

Interdisciplinary social science best describes her research, writings, and courses which focus on the lived experience of racialization-as-black and racism in France, Western Europe, and the U.S. She is currently a member of the Editorial Collective for On Seeing, a new book series "committed to centering underrepresented perspectives in visual culture," launched by the MIT Press and Brown University Library. In addition to articles on these topics, her book publications are: #You Know You're Black in France When...: The Fact of Everyday Antiblackness, (The MIT Press, 2023); Black France: History and the Politics of Blackness, (co-edited, Duke University Press); Black Europe and the African Diaspora, (co-edited, University of Illinois Press); and Muslim Girls and the Other France: Race, Identity Politics, and Social Exclusion (Indiana University Press). Her awards include the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Fellowship, the Ford Foundation, Columbia University's Institute for Scholars Fellowship at Reid Hall in Paris, and the Chateaubriand Fellowship. Professor Keaton also developed and directs the Afro/Black Paris Foreign Study Program at Dartmouth College.

Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch

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Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch

Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch is Associate Professor of African History at Dartmouth College. She also serves as the faculty advisor to the Shabazz Center for Intellectual Inquiry. She specializes in 20th century African history with a focus on Ghana and West Africa.  She is author of The Politics of Chieftaincy:  Authority and Property in Colonial Ghana:  1920-1950 (University of Rochester Press/Boydell and Brewer, 2014). Her work has appeared in edited collections along with articles in several journals including the International Journal of African History Studies, History in Africa, International Review of Social History, and the Journal of West African History.  Questions of decolonization, African internationalism, post-independence nationhood, and transnational/global cultural projects animate her current book manuscript in progress.