Neil Parsons
Author of Clicko The Wild Dancing Bushman
TGHS invites you to join us for “In Conversation with Neil Parsons.” Dr. Parsons is the author of, Clicko: The Wild Dancing Bushman, which tells the remarkable story of Franz Taibosh. Mr. Taibosh, originally from South Africa, traveled the world as a performer with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Dr. Parsons will discuss how Mr. Taibosh found his way to Glendale during a time racial policies forced him to hide from his white neighbors.
The conversation will be introduced by Francesca Smith. She will describe the 2018 campaign by TGHS to preserve The Clicko House, located at 1442 Montgomery Avene from demolition. The house was the earliest known extant residence of an African American in Glendale who did not live with employers or at his/her workplace.
Saturday, May 29 | 11 AM
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About Neil Parsons
Neil Parsons is the author of Clicko the Wild Dancing Bushman (Jacana Media & University of Chicago Press, 2009). He is a retired professor of history at the University of Botswana, now living in London. Born in England, with a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, he previously held teaching posts at the Universities of Zambia and Swaziland, with shorter visiting and research tenures at the National Museum of Botswana and the Institutes of Commonwealth Studies of the Universities of Oxford and London, as well as at the Universities of Cape Town, Kent (Canterbury), California (Berkeley), Australian National (Canberra), and Leiden (Netherlands). His two most recent books are Black and White Bioscope: Making Movies in Africa 1899-1925 (Intellect Books & University of Chicago Press, 2018), a profusely illustrated volume revealing a missing chapter in world cinema history, and A History of Southern Africa (Macmillan & Bloomsbury/ Red Globe, 2019), co-authored with Alois Mlambo, covering human history in climatic periods from roughly 200,000 years ago up to the present day politics of the region.
About Francesca Smith, M.S.
Francesca Smith, M.S. is a qualified architectural historian with nearly four decades of experience successfully evaluating properties for historic significance, analyzing project-related effects and developing and overseeing mitigation. She cultivated an interest in Black History at an early age in Virginia, and expanded that concentration during the course of her formal education. Known for evaluating "the birthplace of hip-hop" in the Bronx and Jordan Downs in South LA, Mrs. Smith lives in Glendale where she is privileged to serve on the Design Review Board. Her master’s degree is from Columbia University in the City of New York and she graduated from the College of Charleston.
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