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The NAAHP Haitian American Leadership Award Scholarship application is open through April 26  Apply Now

Ayanna Legros

History Ph.D. Student, Duke University

Ayanna Legros is an interdisciplinary historian of 20th century Caribbean and Latin America. She is completing at Ph.D. in the Department of History at Duke University. Her dissertation project: “Echoes in Exile: Haitian Radio Activism in New York City (1969-2002)” spans the fields of sound studies, immigration, Black diaspora studies, and histories of technology. Her work uses oral histories, radio show transcripts, cassette tapes, and songs to craft a nuanced history of Haitians peoples’ usage of radio to inform and empower new political visions for the nation. She is the recipient of fellowships from Davis Foundation 100 Projects for Peace (Batey Lechería, Dominican Republic), National Alliance for the Advancement of Haitian Professionals, Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship through Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (Harlem, New York) and teaching residences at Dominican Academy, Loyola School, Success Academy, and City University of New York. During her tenure as a master’s student in Africana Studies at New York University, she co-founded Basquiat: Still Fly @ 55, a yearlong initiative celebrating the life and work of Jean-Michel Basquiat through educational programming at Modern Museum of Art, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and NYU. She also co-edited North American Congress on Latin America’s special edition on the #Blacklivesmatter movement in Latin America alongside Larnies Bowen, Dr. Juliet Hooker, Dr. Tianna Paschel, Geisa Matos, and Kleaver Cruz. Since arriving to Duke University she has contributed to the work of exhibitions such as the Radio Haïti Inter (curated by Laura Wagner, Ph.D.) and Ebony G. Patterson…while the dew is still on the roses… at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Upcoming publications include From the Other Side of the Sea: Rasanblaj/Reassembling Haitian Radio Archives of Exile (UVA Press, 2021) and Haiti and the Hispanophone Caribbean (SUNY Press, 2020).