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News and Views
Fall 1999 Volume 10, Issue 1
Spotlight on Patricia Hilliard-Nunn
Dr. Hilliard-Nunn earned her B.A. in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University in 1985, her M.F.A. in Film Production from Howard University in 1989, and her Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Florida State University in 1993.
Her
interest in the well being of youth prompted her to design and run the
Sisters of MAAT Rites of Passage Program for pre-teenage girls in 1996.
She spent two and a half years working at the Community Outreach Partnership
Center (COPC) of the University of Florida where she worked as a Community
Organizer. While at COPC she worked on many programs and events including:
the Youth and Crime Summit, the 5th Avenue Back to School Celebration,
Still We Rise: A Celebration of Black History, and the Black Business
explosion/Juneteenth Celebration. One particular program that she designed
at COPC was the Powerful Elder Activity Lunch for senior citizens, which
she still directs.
Dr. Hilliard-Nunn has a strong sense of civic responsibility and is an active member of numerous community organizations. She is currently the president of the Gainesville Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., an organization committed to community service. She is also active with the Gainesville Chapter of the Links Inc., the Florida Media Arts Center, and PACE Academy for Girls. Recently, she served as the chair of the East Gainesville Community Health Summit.
Dr. Hilliard-Nunn devotes a significant part of her time to lecturing and conducting workshops to share information with youth and others about publication skills, African-American history and culture, and interpersonal communication skills. In February of 1999, she and her husband, Kenneth Nunn, were awarded a grant from the Florida Humanities Council to produce several radio spots that addressed the history of African Americans in Gainesville. The SANKOFA Black History Flash radio spots were aired on Magic 101.3.
Art
is another facet in Dr. Hilliard-Nunn's life. She produces mixed-media
paintings which incorporate jewelry, cowry shells, paint, wood and other
items. Her exhibit DUAFE: A Sister in Primary Colors is on display in
the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research at the University of
Florida. In November of 1999, she will partner the opening of the Fifth
Avenue Art Fusion, a community based organization that will exhibit the
work of up-and-coming and established artists.
Dr. Hilliard-Nunn teaches African-American Women & Film as an adjunct instructor in the Center for Women's Studies at UF. Her research interests include African Americans and film (independent and mainstream), film spectator analysis, media effects, media access, and film as a historical text. Her article "Representing African Women in Movies" appears in the book Afrocentric Visions: Studies in Culture and Communication (Sage Publications, 1998).
Currently, Dr. Hilliard-Nunn is working on a short documentary video about the history of African-American people in Gainesville, Florida. She also runs Makare Publishing Company, which distributes the two books that she wrote about her daughters, Foluke: The Afro Queen and Books and Drums Make Dayo Happy, and a scholarly book written by her father. Presently, she is completing two books which will be published by Makare Publishing Company in the year 2000.
Recently, Dr. Hilliard-Nunn received the school volunteer of the year at the A. Quinn Jones Center and the Ida B. Wells Award from the Gainesville Commission on the Status of Women.
