CVK
Katherine Dunham, the famed dancer and choreographer, passed away a few weeks ago. From The Associated Press:

Born in Chicago, Dunham studied Caribbean and African cultures and dance at the University of Chicago, where she earned an anthropology degree. That led her to Haiti as a researcher in 1935 and to pioneering work as a dancer and choreographer who injected African and Caribbean influences into the European-dominated dance world.

Dunham went on to perform at theaters, opera houses, nightclubs and hotels all over the world. She usually traveled with the dance troupe that bore her name.

She starred in movies and choreographed “Aida” for the Metropolitan Opera and musicals such as “Cabin in the Sky” for Broadway.

A daughter of mixed-race parents, Dunham also often fought racism, at times insisting on staying in “white” hotels and refusing to perform at segregated theaters. Her activism included a 47-day hunger strike in 1992, when at age 82 she protested U.S. policy in Haiti.