Awotunde Judyie Ella Al-Bilali, professor of performance and theater for social change at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, passed away on January 16. She was 72 years old.
Professor Al-Bilali was affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Amherst for five decades, beginning in the 1970s as an undergraduate student in the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies and the department of theater. In 2001, she returned to the university to earn her master of fine arts degree in directing.
Early in her career, Professor Al-Bilali worked with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in Chicago. In the early 2000s, the Augusta Savage Gallery awarded Professor Al-Bilali a grant to travel to the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa, where she founded Brown Paper Studio. She went on to teach theater courses at New York University, the City University of New York, Amherst College, and Hampshire College.
Professor Al-Bilali returned to the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2013, where she became the first Black woman to hold the title of full professor in the department of theater. She held a joint appointment with the Commonwealth Honors College and served several years as the Honors Program Director for theater. Later, she received an affiliate appointment in Afro-American studies. Throughout her tenure, Professor Al-Bilali produced numerous plays and led several initiatives, including Art, Legacy, & Community, a two-year project that used artistic process and production as a way for students to examine race, racial representation, and racial justice on campus and across the country.
As a scholar, Professor Al-Bilali focused on applied theater, theatre for social transformation, directing, performance, and dramaturgy. She authored several publications throughout her career, including her 2012 book For the Feeling: Love & Transformation From New York to Cape Town.