In Conversation: Taylor Bythewood-Porter, Miya C. Carey, & Lynne Hobbs

Black debutante culture was a little-explored subject when Miya C. Carey, Presidential Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow at Binghamton University, began her research. Carey’s dissertation, An Introduction to Polite Society: The Significance of African-American Cotillions in the Mid-Twentieth Century, served as an important text for CAAM Assistant Curator Taylor Bythewood-Porter in developing Rights and Rituals: The Making of African American Debutante Culture. In conjunction with the exhibition, Carey and Bythewood-Porter discuss the development of this rite of passage and its historical and cultural significance with Lynne Hobbs, president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Links, Incorporated, a Black women’s club that carries on the tradition to this day.

Photo courtesy of caamuseum.org