Today’s conversation is with RA Judy, who teaches in the Department of English at University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of a number of important articles on aesthetics, language, and knowledge production in the broad Black intellectual tradition as well as two books, (Dis)forming the American Canon: The Vernacular of African Arabic American Slave Narrative (1992) and Sentient Flesh: Thinking in Disorder, Poiēsis in Black (2020). In this conversation, we explore the place of diverse languages in Black Studies research, Black study as geographically adventurous, and the importance of thinking and practicing community work inside critical theoretical study.