Javon Johnson (Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies) is the 2019 recipient of the Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpretation and Performance Studies awarded by the . The award is given annually for outstanding published research and creative scholarship in interpretation and performance studies during the previous three-year period. Johnson, who will receive the award Nov 16 at the NCA 105th annual convention in Baltimore, is being honored for the book Killing Poetry: Blackness and Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities (Rutgers University Press, 2017). He is the director of African American & African Diaspora Studies at UNLV. NCA is the largest communication association in the United States. It serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching.
