This episode features Dr. Vanessa K. Valdés, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Director of the Black Studies Program at CCNY. The conversation is centered on women writers in the Americas and the influence of African spirituality on the construction of womanhood in their works; and Diasporic Blackness, her book about Arturo Alfonso Schomberg and his efforts to collect and preserve materials pertaining black history and culture in the United States and beyond. The discussion also focuses on CCNY's Black Studies Program and the Black Lives Matter Movement.