In Panama in Black, Kaysha Corinealdi traces the multigenerational activism of Afro-Caribbean Panamanians as they forged diasporic communities in Panama and the United States throughout the twentieth century. Drawing on a rich array of sources including speeches, yearbooks, photographs, government reports, radio broadcasts, newspaper editorials, and oral histories, Corinealdi presents the Panamanian isthmus as a crucial site in the making of an Afro-diasporic world that linked cities and towns like Colón, Kingston, Panam City, Brooklyn, Bridgetown, and La Boca. In Panama, Afro-Caribbean Panamanians created a diasporic worldview of the Caribbean that privileged the potential of Black innovation. Corinealdi maps this innovation by examining the longest-running Black newspaper in Central America, the rise of civic associations created to counter policies that stripped Afro-Caribbean Panamanians of citizenship, the creation of scholarship-granting organizations that supported the education of Black students, and the emergence of national conferences and organizations that linked anti-imperialism and Black liberation. By showing how Afro-Caribbean Panamanians used these methods to navigate anti-Blackness, xenophobia, and white supremacy, Corinealdi offers a new mode of understanding activism, community, and diaspora formation.

Kaysha Corinealdi is an Assistant Professor of History at Emerson College. Her research and teaching interests include twentieth century histories of empire, migration, feminism, and Afro-diasporic activism in the Americas. Her book Panama in Black: Afro-Caribbean World Making in the Twentieth Century centers the activism of Afro-Caribbean migrants and their descendants as they navigated practices and policies of anti-Blackness, xenophobia, denationalization, and white supremacy in Panama and the United States. Her research and writing can also be found in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Public Books, Black Perspectives, the Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, the International Journal of Africana Studies, and the Global South. Corinealdi’s research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, and the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

Dr. Ariana A. Curtis is dedicated to building inclusive frameworks that disrupt systemic misrepresentation and erasure. She is the first curator of Latinx Studies at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and has held leadership roles in major Smithsonian initiatives including Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past and the American Women’s History Initiative. Ariana has appeared in national media outlets including Refinery29, LatinoUSA, and The Root. Her TED talk has over 3 million views. She is a Fulbright scholar, a founding member of the Black Latinas Know Collective, and board member of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures.

Panama In Black | Kaysha Corinealdi in conversation with Ariana A. Curtis