Black Creatives
meet up
We tell our own stories of now and then.
The Bottom partnered with the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s Division of Diversity and Engagement to offer a short term community fellowship.
We believe that the work of scholars and other professional staff can enrich civic and community life, and by pursuing such work in dialogue with the public, university research, teaching, and creative expression is elevated. In a semester-long fellowship, Black faculty/staff will serve as a resource and collaborator on a public facing, community identified or agreed upon project. The fellow will work directly with The Bottom’s team to develop a project moving it from ideation to completion.
​
Each semester one fellow will be chosen.
Meet Our Spring 2021
Fellow, Dr. El-Ra Radney
Our spring 2021 fellow, El-Ra Adair Radney, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Africana Studies Program at UTK. His training and doctoral degree is in African American and African Studies (AAAS) and his specialized niche includes four main topics of intersection: Black Political Theory, Cultural Studies, Urban Study and Africana Philosophy.
Dr. Radney's passion is to teach and use Africana Studies as a way to empower and encourage students and the world alike to foster positive development in the interests of the African Diaspora. He currently teaches the AFST 202 and 236 courses. As a native of Detroit, his work focuses on Detroit's long history of Pan African cultural agency and the African World Festival tradition. Dr. Radney's forthcoming book will focus on his dissertation research and is tentatively titled: Black Redemption in the Pan African Metropolis of Detroit.
​
​
