A former University of Kansas professor will give a talk this week on his new book, a biography on the trailblazing Black performer George “Nash” Walker, who spent formative years in Lawrence.
At 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, Daniel Atkinson will discuss his book “The Rediscovery of George ‘Nash’ Walker: The Price of Black Stardom in Jim Crow America.” The event will be held at the Hall Center conference hall, 900 Sunnyside Ave., and online via Crowdcast. It is free and open to the public.
Atkinson is an independent scholar who was previously the assistant director of the Kansas African Studies Center at KU. He has a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology, focused on Afro-American music and culture.
Atkinson’s book on Walker uses archival materials, newspaper articles, memoirs and oral histories to look at the actor, writer and producer’s impact on Black theatre and American popular culture writ large.
“George ‘Nash’ Walker developed his performance skills in Lawrence, Kansas, before leaving the city at age twenty to pursue a career in vaudeville,” the event page reads. “In partnership with comedian Bert Williams, Walker helped challenge the stereotypes of minstrel performance while insisting on carefully curated Black entertainment told from a uniquely Afro-American perspective.”
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