Schedule

REGISTRATION & CHECK IN

WELCOME | Sheena Wilson, African American History Research Center, Gregory Campus

PANEL & POEM | More than Just a Game

Alexis Doaks & Agibola Korfeh, Yes Prep Southwest; Festus Amoye & Olayinka Shorunke, Laddering Your Success

Moderator | Ugochi Emenha, Rice Education, Rice University

PANEL | Under Pressure: Sports and the Management of Black Mental Health

When the buzzer sounds: Choosing Selfhood Outside of the Black Sports Pipeline | Chali Taylor, Undergraduate Scholar/Athlete, Rice University

Royce White & Cameron Burrell: How mental health becomes visible, contested, and eventually institutionalized by Houston Pro & College Athletes | Dr Emmett Gill, Jr., Director of Mental Health - Athletics, University of Houston

Performance Without Care: Black Embodiment, Emotional Labor, and Leadership Development | Khadyajah Jenkins, M.A.T Doctoral Candidate, The Pennsylvania State University

PAPER | Mental Performance in Black American Football Players: An Attribute Clustering Approach | Adebisi Akinyemi, PhD, HITE EQ

Moderator | Hassan Henderson-Lott, Department of Religion PhD Program, Rice University

PANEL | Our Bodies Keep the Score: Movement & Collective Memory in the Diaspora

Bodies in Motion, Voices in Memory: Genealogy, Sport, and Sound in the Post-Antebellum Black Gulf Coast Diaspora | Alex D. Lee, Sr., Alex Genealogy, LLC

Ball Til We Fall: Worlds We Made On Hardwood Floors | Raymond Burgos Jr., Words to Seeds Bookclub, Noname Bookclub; Taryn Stevenson, DAPS, Texas Southern University

Moderator | Dori Brackens, Texas Southern University Alumna

PANEL | Food Systems, Nutrition, and Athletics: PVAMU CAFNR’s Role in Houston Foodways | Tekedra Pierre, PhD, “Agletics” Founder and Director of the Information, Impact, and Sustainability Center; Peter Ampim, PhD, Associate Professor of Agronomy; Ashley Aborisade, BA, Program Coordinator-Food Security Research Center | College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University

Moderator | Jenelle Robinson, PhD, Associate Professor of Nutrition, College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University

PANEL | Houston's Legendary Black Rodeo Cowboys/girls: An Enduring Legacy That Must Be Maintained | Myrtis Dightman, Harold Cash, Freddie “Skeet” Gordon, James Boone | Retired Rodeo Cowboys

Moderator | Dr. Demetrius W. Pearson, University of Houston

PANEL & DRAMATIC READING | Swinging for the Fences: Baseball, Black Community, and August Wilson's Fences | Whitney Brantley, Public Historian, Dope, It’s History; M. Clay Hooper, Associate Professor of English, PVAMU; Eileen Morris, Artistic Director, Ensemble Theatre

PERFORMANCE | Brave Bodies: Breaking Barriers and Bearing the Burden of Becoming
First Down. First Base. First Position | Harrison Guy, Founder, Urban Souls Dance Company

This performance lecture explores the history of Black “firsts” across sport, dance, and public life through the lens of the body. Moving between the languages of football, baseball, and dance, the work reflects on the courage required of those who were the first Black athletes, dancers, and cultural leaders to enter spaces where they were not expected or welcomed. Drawing from the legacy of the Prairie View Interscholastic League, the Negro Leagues in Texas, Houston’s own sporting history, and the lineage of Black dance pioneers, the piece examines how Black bodies have carried both the promise and the pressure of progress.

Through poetic narration accompanied by live movement, Brave Bodies considers what it means to break barriers while also bearing the burden of becoming. The work highlights the physical, emotional, and historical weight placed on those who go first while celebrating the resilience, beauty, and brilliance of Black embodiment. Ultimately, the piece asks how acts of movement whether on the field, the diamond, or the stage become pathways not only toward recognition, but toward home.

NETWORKING LUNCH

PANEL | Freedom Fields: HBCU Sports Histories

Training Grounds: PVIL and Black Athletic Life in Houston | Evelyn Davis, Houston Public Library

The Turkey Day Classic: A Celebration of Black Community, Pride & Sportsmanship | Edward "Bert" Evans, Jack Yates High School Alumni; Dr. Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, Jack Yates High School Alumna; Dr. Voris Glasper, Phillis Wheatley High School Alumni; Thurman Robins, Author "Turkey Day Classic"; Atty. Algenita Scott Davis, Phillis Wheatley High School Alumna; Bishop Thomas Wallace, Phillis Wheatley High School Alumni

Moderators | Debra Blacklock-Sloan, Phillis Wheatley High School Alumna; Debbie Harwell, Editor, Houston History/UH Instructional Assistant Professor

BREAK

PANEL | DOMEafterDOME: Student Perspectives on the Astrodome | Mili Kyropoulou, Assistant Professor, Director of BASE Lab, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design, University of Houston; Linzhen “Lin” Chew, Taylor E. Henderson, Poorva R. Kondalkar, Gissele Yanez | Undergraduate and graduate students from University of Houston's DOMEafterDOME design studio

Moderator | Rose Oyoo, Department of Psychological Sciences, Rice University, '26

BREAK

CURATED SESSION | Redefining the Field: Women in the World of College Sports

Amanda Perkins Ball, Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Kinesiology, Rice University; Jenna Byrd, Kinesiology/Psychology '26 Rice University; Genessee Puntigam, Assistant Coach, Rice Womens Soccer Team; Dayo Tennyson, Rice Soccer team, Sports Medicine '28 Rice University

Moderator | Chaundra Frank, President, Association of Rice University Black Alumni

CURATED SESSION | Black Sports Moms

Andrew Anderson, Manager, Digital Strategy & Operations at the Houston Rockets; Lachauna Edwards, Attorney, NIL consultant, and sports mom; Andrea Odom, PR Media/Crisis Comms Manager Co-Founder of @blacksportsmoms

EXHIBITION | BOOK SALE

BLACK HOUSTON(S) AWARDS

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD | Zina Garrison

LEGACY AWARD | Martellus Bennett/Mr. TOMONOSHi

PACESETTER AWARD | Maya Moise

Presenters | Portia Hopkins & Maya Reine

KEYNOTE | Sports: Leveling the Playing Field | Dr. Damion L. Thomas, Supervisory Museum Curator, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture