Oral history of Kanita Tavares

Abstract

Kanita Tavares is Academic Program Coordinator for Africana Studies and International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Tavares discusses growing up in Prince George’s County and Savage, Maryland in Howard County. Tavares talks about her high school experience (with a special focus on teachers and a principal who left impressions) in Savage and her experience with racism in Savage. She also discusses her experience working at Hopkins, first as a “temp” in marketing and communications for the School of Medicine, and later as Academic Program Coordinator for Africana Studies, a position she held at the time of her interview. Tavares also talks in detail about her family, especially her mother, father, and stepfather.