I enjoy sharing my work on African and African diaspora arts with broad and diverse audiences. Since 1970 I have given many presentations on a wide range of topics in both academic and non-academic settings. Many of these are multi-media, multi-sensory — I show films/videos, play music, or demonstrate carving techniques learned from my Yorùbá masters, sculptors Ṣanusi and Ogundipe in Nigeria. Please contact me for more information.
Beads, Body, and Soul: Art and Light in the Yorùbá Universe
Excerpts from the exhibition and programs for Beads, Body and Soul: Art and Light in the Yorùbá Universe at the Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Highlights from the Faisal Abdu’Allah Spring 2013 Interdisciplinary Arts Residency
The Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program brings innovative artists to campus to teach semester-long, interdepartmental courses and to publicly present their work for campus and community audiences.
Embodied Knowledge: Sensory Studies in the 21st Century
Features a series of short, pithy “soud bytes” and multi-sensory presentations that explored the senses in Interdisciplinary research and practice.
Textiles Talk: Honoring Ancestors
A 10-minute conversation about two Egungun ensembles in the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, SoHE-UW-Madison.
Come to your Senses! Understanding Arts Everywhere… and the Arts of Yorùbá People in Particular
This 2019 Ruth Ketterer Harris Lecture presents my theory/method termed Sensiotics and the crucial importance of the senses in understandings of cultures, histories, and the arts everywhere, using a Yorùbá seeensorium as one example.
Come to your Senses!: Sensiotics and Understandings of Arts, Cultures, and Histories
This presentation discusses and explains my theory/method called "Sensiotics" which focuses in the crucial role of our multi-sensory body-minds in understandings of life experiences.
Honoring Ancestors in Africa and Beyond
2018 African Studies Program Symposium called "Honoring Ancestors in Africa and Beyond, Arts and Actions"
Whirling Returns Exhibition (opening)
Excerpts of the welcome and opening remarks at the exhibition
Whirling Returns Exhibition (recap)
Excerpts from a tour of the exhibition by the curator, Henry John Drewal.
Whirling Return of the Ancestors
A summary of the major themes of the exhibition and public programs from January - May 2018
Arts Agôn: A Forum Where Arts Researchers Connect
an exhibition on Yoruba Masquerade Arts, an electro-acoustic music and sound work, a study of the otherwordliness of painting on woven brocade fabric, the uses of drawing in teaching and research
Radio Chipstone: Bound Together by Cloth
Radio interview/conversation between Gionofer Fields and Henry John Drewal discussing the major ideas and arts in the exhibition "Whirling Return of the Ancestors" at UW-Madison in the spring 2018.
Africa's Vibrant Arts: Past and Present
Henry Drewal joins Norman Gilliland to discuss ancient through present-day African art. Drewal introduces sensiotics, the study of art and the senses as a means for understanding the African cultures
Flash of the Spirit Conference
Thirty Years of Meaning and Influence - Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy' was a conference presented on December 11 and 12, 2014