WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., – Richard Newman, professor, author, and historian of African-American studies, will give a talk on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 8 p.m. in Griffin Hall, room 3 at Williams College. The event is free and open to the public.
Newman is a professor of history at Rochester Institute of Technology. His critically acclaimed book, Freedom’s Prophet: Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers won ForeWord’s Best Biography Prize in 2009. The book has reshaped both African-American history and early American history by showcasing the ways in which revolutionary-era African-Americans, including AME Church founder Richard Allen, served as founding fathers. Newman’s first book, The Transformation of American Abolitionism, examined the nation’s early abolitionists and was a finalist for the Organization of American Historians’ Avery Craven Prize for the most innovative manuscript in Civil War-era studies.
Newman’s scholarly interests include African-American history, Atlantic history, environmental history, and the history of technology. He is dedicated to researching and promoting the legacy of African-American activists and community leaders who played a critical role in our country’s founding. He has written multiple books and essays on the antislavery movement, African-American leadership, and environmental politics.
As an educator, Newman has won a Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award at SUNY-Buffalo, and he was finalist for the Eisenhart Teaching Award at RIT. Furthermore, he serves on the advisory board of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Abolition, and Resistance at Yale and the Black Anti-Slavery Writings Project at the University of Detroit-Mercy.
Richard Newman
The talk is sponsored by Leadership Studies, the Department of History, and Africana Studies.
Talladega, Alabama-In 1955, he began his teaching career on the grounds of the Talladega College campus. In the 1990s, he painted the awe-inspiring stained-glass windows of DeForest Chapel. In just a few days, he will return for another visit to Talladega. Renowned artist Dr. David C. Driskell, will return to the place of his first teaching position to have a conversation with one of his former students, artist and scientist, Dr. Art Bacon.
David C. Driskell, an art historian and prolific writer has authored and edited many books on African American Art and two books have been written about him by others. Among his friends were most of the great African American artists of the 20th Century—including Hale Woodruff who created Talladega College’s famed, Amistad Murals. A great colorist and print maker, Driskell’s vibrant paintings and serigraphs are much sought after around the world. In 2000, he received the National Humanities Medal from Bill Clinton; and in 2004, the High Museum of Atlanta created an annual $25,000 David C. Driskell award in his honor. Driskell has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, and he holds various honorary doctorates from institutions around the globe. His art has been seen and appreciated world-wide; and in the 1990s, his art was viewed by national audiences while on display in the home of the Huxtables on The Cosby Show. As the world’s leading authority on African American Art, Driskell has come to the aide of Camille and Bill Cosby, former President Bill Clinton, as far as Africa, and countless others.
David C. Driskell (Photography by John Woo, courtesy of the David C. Driskell Archives)
Art Bacon was a student of Dr. Driskell when he attended Talladega College. Bacon was educated and trained as a biologist but his passion has always been art. As a young scientist, Bacon discovered a new species of protozoa and was the first African American postdoctoral researcher at the University of Miami. After completing his postdoctorate, he returned to head the sciences department at his alma mater. It was here at Talladega College, he decided that without his art, he and his science would suffer. He has exhibited in New York, Atlanta, DC, and many other places. He is featured in the February 2008 edition of Southern Living Magazine and in several articles in Lakeside Magazine.
The conversation between David Driskell and Art Bacon will be held in beautiful and historic Deforest Chapel which will be illuminated by light from the 65 stained glass windows designed by Driskell.
The conversation will take place on Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
For more information, call the Office of Institutional Advancement at 256-761-8832.
# # #
Talladega College 627 West Battle Street Talladega, AL 35160 256.362.0206 (Main Number) Nicola Lawler Office of Public Relations 256-761-6207
Garth Fagan, "one of the great reformers of modern dance," will launch the 25th anniversary celebrations of the University of Rochester's Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies on Nov. 15 at 4 p.m. with a lecture and demonstration in the Spurrier Dance Studio on the University's River Campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Best known as the founder and artistic director of Garth Fagan Dance, the celebrated choreographer is also Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of the State University of New York and has taught for more than three decades at the State University of New York at Brockport. Fagan is the recipient of several honorary doctorates, including one from the University of Rochester and one from the Juilliard School, and was awarded the University\'s George Eastman Medal in 2003 for \"outstanding achievement and dedicated service.\"
The Fagan lecture demonstration ushers in a year of celebration for the Frederick Douglass Institute as it turns a quarter-century old. Founded in 1986, the institute promotes African and African-American studies at the University through a research oriented undergraduate major, residential scholarships, film series, lecture series, and conferences. The institute also sponsors postdoctoral and predoctoral fellows, many of whom will be invited to return to campus this year to share their scholarly work.
"When it comes to intellectual diversity, the Frederick Douglass Institute, for the past 25 years, has been part of the solution," said Cilas Kemedjio, director of the institute and associate professor of French and Francophone studies. "FDI has contributed to the development of graduate students and young scholars who have gone on to make significant contributions to the scholarship and teaching of African and African-American Studies."
Garth Fagan
The Fagan lecture, which is cosponsored by the University's program of dance and movement and graduate program in visual and cultural studies, continues the institute's tradition of bring emerging and established leaders to campus. Fagan is admired for his original choreography, which weaves together disparate dance traditions: the sense of weight in modern dance; the torso-centered movement and energy of Afro-Caribbean; the speed and precision of ballet; and the rule-breaking experimentation of the post-moderns. Both popularly and critically acclaimed, Fagan has been showered with recognition for his dynamic choreography of Walt Disney's The Lion King, earning the Olivier, the Tony, the Helpmann, and the Ovation awards, among others, for that work. More recently, Fagan's Mudan 175/39 was named the third top dance performance of 2009 by The New York Times.
Earlier speakers for the institute's Frederick Douglas Lecture have included Lani Guinier, civil rights activist and professor of law at Harvard University, Gerald Torres,
a leading figure in critical race theory and professor of law at the University of Texas at Austin, and Deborah Gray White, the Board of Governors Professor of History at Rutgers University and a pioneering scholar in the field of African-American women's history.
About the University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (www.rochester.edu) is one of the nation's leading private universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering is complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, and the Memorial Art Gallery.
Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) recently acquired two major collections related to African American art and art history: the papers of the late internationally recognized artist John Biggers and the late renowned arts patron Paul R. Jones.
Both acquistions will be celebrated at a public event, “Art, Artists, and Archives: A Conversation with Hazel Biggers and Amalia K. Amaki,” at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3 at Emory’s Robert W. Woodruff Library. Moderated by Emory Professor Emeritus Richard A. Long, the event will address the importance of preserving papers related to artists and art history.
Panelists will include Hazel Biggers, through whose generosity Emory received the papers of her late husband. John Biggers traveled widely in Africa and studied African artistic and cultural traditions. This knowledge had a significant impact on his own work as a muralist, printmaker and painter.
Dr. Amalia K. Amaki, professor of modern and contemporary art history at the University of Alabama, also will participate in the symposium. She was instrumental in enabling Emory to acquire the gift of papers of Paul Jones. Jones’ interests and life as a businessman, civil rights activist and collector are documented in more than 75 linear feet of manuscripts, photographs, audio and visual material and books.
The Biggers and Jones papers join the rapidly expanding collection of Emory’s holdings of artists, art historians and art collectors. Among these are the papers of Benny Andrews, Camille Billops, Cedric Dover, Edwin Harleston, Samella Lewis and James A. Porter. Emory is quickly becoming recognized as one of the premier institutions for research related to African American art and art history.
Illustration by J. Biggers for Lorenz Graham's 1966 book I, Momolu.
The Nov. 3 program, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Jones Room on the third floor of Woodruff Library, 540 Asbury Circle on the Emory campus in Atlanta, 30322. Parking is available in the Fishburne Deck.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Five movies directed by critically acclaimed filmmaker Charles Burnett will be featured Nov. 3-6 at the IU Cinema, an event that coincides with the 30th anniversary of IU's Black Film Center/Archive.
Michael Martin, a professor of American Studies and Communication and Culture who is director of the Black Film Center/Archive, will host a public interview with Burnett at 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, at the IU Cinema.
"Consummate cineaste and recipient of a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship and a MacArthur 'genius' award, Charles Burnett is a raconteur of extraordinary sensitivity and among the most discerning cinematic voices in America," Martin said. "Having Burnett on the IU campus and featuring a selection of his more notable and recent films at the IU Cinema offers the Bloomington public and campus community a rare and unique opportunity to engage with this world-class filmmaker."
As part of the "Arriving at the Truth" film series, the IU Cinema will screen Killer of Sheep, My Brother's Wedding, To Sleep with Anger, The Glass Shield and Namibia: the Struggle for Liberation, as well as a series of short films by Burnett. A complete list of dates and times is available at www.cinema.indiana.edu/. As with all visiting filmmakers to the IU Cinema, Burnett will also be visiting film production classes and having informal conversations with faculty and students.
Charles Burnett. Courtesy of Indiana University.
Burnett's first full-length feature film, Killer of Sheep, was written for his master's thesis at UCLA's prestigious film school.
"Subtle and distinctive for its economy, intimacy and understatement, Killer of Sheep dispassionately engaged with the marginality, estrangement and resilience of black life and heralded, in counterpoint to Hollywood's stereotypical depictions, a 'new realism' in black independent filmmaking, earning Killer of Sheep an enviable place in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress," Martin said.
James Naremore, an emeritus professor with IU's Department of Communication and Culture, will speak before the screening of Killer of Sheep, at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, at the IU Cinema.
"One of the standard things said about Burnett is he's the best movie director you've never heard of," he said. "I think what makes him so interesting is the great integrity of his work. He has not ever made a film that you feel is calculated to make big money at the box office. And he's really stayed true to being a filmmaker who makes films for black audiences, but he's also very socially relevant and educational. He's something of a poet."
Burnett has received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the J. P. Getty Foundation. He is also the winner of the American Film Institute's Maya Deren Award and Howard University's Paul Robeson Award for achievement in cinema.
Burnett will also take part in a special screening of Killer of Sheep at the Indianapolis Museum of Art on Thursday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m.
"This is a great opportunity for us to share Mr. Burnett with the Indianapolis community while we have him in Indiana," IU Cinema director Jon Vickers said. "It is also an effective way for us to strengthen our relationship with the museum, support the important work that they are doing and introduce the IU Cinema and Burnett's work to a broader audience."
No ticket is required to attend Burnett's Nov. 3 lecture, which is part of the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture Series made possible through the support of the Ove W. Jorgensen Foundation. All other events are free, but ticketed.
For free tickets to the film series, visit the IU Auditorium Box Office or call 812-855-1103.
The Indiana University Cinema is a world-class facility and program that is dedicated to the scholarly study and highest standards of exhibition of film in its traditional and modern forms. For more information on the facility or programs call 812-856-2503.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oct. 31, 2011 Media Contacts: Jon Vickers IU Cinema jwvicker@indiana.edu 812-855-7632
Dr. Greg Wood, assistant professor of history, will present "Jim Crow and the Making of Pop Culture" on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 6:30 p.m., in Frostburg State University’s Fine Arts Building, Room 132. This event is free and open to the public.
This talk explores the connections between consumer culture and the everyday experience of racism during the early 20th century. It supplements the “Hateful Things” exhibit that is currently on view at the Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery. The gallery will be open from 6 to 6:30 p.m. and for approximately an hour after the talk.
“Hateful Things” is a sampling from Ferris State University museum’s 4,000 pieces and represents nearly 150 years of anti-Black, racist objects and images. It addresses the relationship between Jim Crow segregation and everyday objects that belittle African-Americans. Examples vary from Jim Crow memorabilia to caricatured images of African-Americans on postcards, games, ashtrays and drinking glasses.
The talk is co-sponsored by the Department of History and the African-American Studies Society.
The exhibit runs through Nov. 9, and the gallery hours are Sunday through Wednesday from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information, call the Visual Arts Department at 301-687-4797.
FSU is committed to making all of its programs, services and activities accessible to persons with disabilities. To request accommodations through the ADA Compliance Office, call 301-687-4102 or use a Voice Relay Operator at 1-800-735-2258. -end-
For further information on this release, contact: Office of News and Media Services. Frostburg State University. 101 Braddock Road. Frostburg, MD 21532-2303. Telephone: 301/687-3171. Fax: 301/687-7589. E-mail: news@frostburg.edu
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A major academic conference on gospel music at Indiana University Bloomington on Saturday, Nov. 12, will feature eight musical icons as well as a performance by a large, volunteer-based community choir at a historic Bloomington church.
The public is invited to attend the conference, "Why We Sing: Indianapolis Gospel Music in Church, Community and Industry," from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, 275 N. Jordan Ave. Doors will open at 7 p.m. for a concert at Fairview United Methodist Church, 600 W. Sixth St. The events are free of charge.
The conference will focus on how this uniquely African American music performed and recorded in Indianapolis has served to inform and enrich musical expression both locally and globally. Gospel music has been a distinctive component of religious expression in African American churches since its rise to prominence in the mid-20th century.
"This is really a contribution to expanding the body of knowledge that exists about gospel music nationwide," said Mellonee Burnim, director of IU's Ethnomusicology Institute and a professor of folklore and ethnomusicology in the IU College of Arts and Sciences.
"There's a challenge of doing research within the context of a religious environment, because one of the things that happens when we're looking at religious music is there can be things that are inexplicable that occur and move beyond the dimension of the ordinary," said Burnim, one of three conference organizers.
The Eastern Star Baptist Church Mass Choir Courtesy of Indiana University
In time, ethnomusicologists like Burnim have become more able to look at gospel music's multidimensionality and see it as having both cultural and religious functions. "We have moved well beyond the kind of myopic view of religious music," she added. "We know there is much to be learned about people and who they are from studying all forms of music."
Indianapolis is home to two major independent gospel music labels, Aleho and Tyscot records, which have attracted award-winning, chart-topping recording artists from across the country. It also has been well represented in the leadership of organizations such as the Gospel Music Workshop of America, the Gospel Announcers Guild and the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship.
Conference participants will include Dr. Leonard Scott, co-founder of Tyscot Records and pastor of Rock Community Church; Al "The Bishop" Hobbs, founder of Aleho Records, former general manager of WTLC-Radio and past executive vice chair of the Gospel Music Workshop of America;
Sherri Garrison, minister of music and director of worship at Eastern Star Baptist Church and a former director of the Gospel Music Workshop of America; Rev. A. Thomas Hill, a recording artist and pastor of Healing Streams Word & Worship Center; and Rodnie Bryant, founding director of Christian Community Mass Choir and a Tyscot Recording Artist.
"Why We Sing" will conclude with a concert at Fairview United Methodist Church, which showcases a local volunteer-based community choir, under Garrison's direction; and performances by Bryant and Lamar Campbell, who also has performed with Aaron Neville on the "Today" and "Late Night with David Letterman" shows. They will be accompanied by a four-piece live band, under the musical direction of gospel recording artist Tyron Cooper, former director of the IU Soul Revue.
Cooper, a doctoral student in folklore and ethnomusicology from Bloomington and one of the conference organizers, said the community choir, which will perform at the evening concert, has generated a lot of interest in the conference. "Every day, we hear from new folks, so this choir could be enormous," he said.
"We started this process a year ago now," added Raynetta Wiggins, a master's student in folklore and ethnomusicology from Birmingham, Ala., and another conference organizer. "Initially, I think we envisioned something rather small ... It kind of grew because we wanted to add a sonic dimension to it.
"As far as we know, nothing like this has been done -- being able to break this ground and bring this particular music into an academic setting and to document these artists and their contributions," Wiggins added.
Anyone is welcome to become a part of the community choir and can sign up by sending an e-mail to IndyGospelConference@gmail.com.
"Our plan is to take people higher and higher and higher, starting out in the morning with artists talking about their work in the community and in the church," Burnim said. "We move from that context to looking at the founders of the two largest African American record labels in Indianapolis, and then ending the conference with a third session that is forward looking, talking about directions that gospel music is moving in the 21st century."
Burnim said it is evident that the conference also will strengthen ties between IU and the larger African American community. "It was a conscious choice for us to plan the conference to be on site here at the university, because it is a way of reaching out and showing how scholarship can complement the work of members of the community across the state," she said.
Cooper, who has recorded with gospel artists as a guitarist over the last two decades, noted the multidimensional nature of people involved with the music. For example, Scott founded his music label, is a performer, a pastor, a radio personality and a full-time dentist.
"These are renaissance people," he noted. "This conference will detail the background creators. We've got executives and producers coming in and people in promotions and marketing, people who make things happen in the industry. These are people who have really been overlooked, particularly in the literature and by the lay people who listen to the music ... You don't realize the community of creators and artistic people who come together for multiple agendas, including economic, social and religious intents colliding at the same time."
"We will see, across the board, this entrepreneurial spirit that comes through," Burnim added. "These are people who have a vision of who they are as musicians and what they can do with that music."
Sponsors of the conference are the College Arts and Humanities Institute, Institute for Advanced Study, the Office of the Vice President for Equity, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, Jacobs School of Music, Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Traditional Arts Indiana, the Archive of African American Music and Culture, the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, the African American Arts Institute and Fairview United Methodist Church.
To speak with Burnim, Cooper or Wiggins about their project, please contact George Vlahakis at University Communications, 812-855-0846 or vlahakis@iu.edu, who has additional contact information.
H.R.2447 -- To grant the congressional gold medal to the Montford Point Marines. (Engrossed in House [Passed House] - EH)
HR 2447 EH 112th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2447 AN ACT
To grant the congressional gold medal to the Montford Point Marines.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) On June 25, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 8802 establishing the Fair Employment Practices Commission and opening the doors for the very first African-Americans to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.
(2) The first Black Marine recruits were trained at Camp Montford Point, near the New River in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
(3) On August 26, 1942, Howard P. Perry of Charlotte, North Carolina, was the first Black private to set foot on Montford Point.
(4) During April 1943 the first African-American Marine Drill Instructors took over as the senior Drill Instructors of the eight platoons then in training; the 16th Platoon (Edgar R. Huff), 17th (Thomas Brokaw), 18th (Charles E. Allen), 19th (Gilbert H. Johnson), 20th (Arnold R. Bostic), 21st (Mortimer A. Cox), 22nd (Edgar R. Davis, Jr.), and 23rd (George A. Jackson).
(5) Black Marines of the 8th Ammunition Company and the 36th Depot Company landed on the island of Iwo Jima on D-Day, February 19, 1945.
(6) The largest number of Black Marines to serve in combat during World War II took part in the seizure of Okinawa in the Ryuku Islands with some 2,000 Black Marines seeing action during the campaign.
(7) On November 10, 1945, the first African-American Marine, Frederick C. Branch, was commissioned as a second lieutenant at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia.
(8) Overall 19,168 Blacks served in the Marine Corps in World War II.
(9) An enterprising group of men, including original Montford Pointer Master Sergeant Brooks E. Gray, planned a reunion of the Men of Montford Point, and on September 15, 1965, approximately 400 Montford Point Marines gathered at the Adelphi Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to lay the foundation for the Montford Point Marine Association Inc., 16 years after the closure of Montford Point as a training facility for Black recruits.
(10) Organized as a non-military, nonprofit entity, the Montford Point Marine Association's main mission is to preserve the legacy of the first Black Marines.
(11) Today the Montford Point Marine Association has 36 chapters throughout the United States.
(12) Many of these first Black Marines stayed in the Marine Corps like Sergeant Major Edgar R. Huff.
(13) Sergeant Major Huff was one of the very first recruits aboard Montford Point.
(14) Sergeant Major Huff was also the first African-American Sergeant Major and the first African-American Marine to retire with 30 years of service which included combat in three major wars, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
(15) During the Tet Offensive, Sergeant Major Huff was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with combat `V' for valor for saving the life of his radio operator.
(16) Another original Montford Pointer who saw extensive combat action in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War was Sergeant Major Louis Roundtree.
(17) Sergeant Major Roundtree was awarded the Silver Star Medal, four Bronze Star Medals, three Purple Hearts, and numerous other personal and unit awards for his service during these conflicts.
(18) On April 19, 1974, Montford Point was renamed Camp Johnson after legendary Montford Pointer Sergeant Major Gilbert `Hashmark' Johnson.
(19) The Montford Point Marine Association has several memorials in place to perpetuate the memory of the first African-American Marines and their accomplishments, including--
(A) the Montford Point Marine Association Edgar R. Huff Memorial Scholarship which is offered annually through the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation;
(B) the Montford Point Museum located aboard Camp Johnson (Montford Point) in Jacksonville, North Carolina;
(C) the Brooks Elbert Gray, Jr. Consolidated Academic Instruction Facility named in honor of original Montford Pointer and the Montford Point Marine Corps Association founder Master Gunnery Sergeant Gray. This facility was dedicated on 15 April 2005 aboard Camp Johnson, North Carolina; and
(D) during July of 1997 Branch Hall, a building within the Officers Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia, was named in honor of Captain Frederick Branch.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Award Authorized- The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the award, on behalf of the Congress, of a single gold medal of appropriate design in honor of the Montford Point Marines, collectively, in recognition of their personal sacrifice and service to their country.
(b) Design and Striking- For the purposes of the award referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (hereafter in this Act referred to as the `Secretary') shall strike the gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.
SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck under section 2, at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the medals, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses.
SEC. 4. NATIONAL MEDALS.
Medals struck pursuant to this Act are National medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.
(a) Authorization of Appropriations- There is authorized to be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund, an amount not to exceed $30,000 to pay for the cost of the medals authorized under section 2.
(b) Proceeds of Sale- Amounts received from the sale of duplicate bronze medals under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
Passed the House of Representatives October 25, 2011. Attest: Clerk. 112th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2447
AN ACT
To grant the congressional gold medal to the Montford Point Marines.
What: Eighth annual NOMMO African American Authors Series
Who: Novelist Percival Everett and poet Elizabeth Alexander
When: Wednesday, Nov. 2, (Percival Everett); Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012 (Elizabeth Alexander). Both events begin at 7 p.m.
Where: Cowles Auditorium, Hubert H. Humphrey Center, University of Minnesota West Bank campus, 301 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/24/2011) —Two widely acclaimed contemporary African American writers have been selected for this year's NOMMO African American Authors series, co-sponsored by the Givens Foundation for African American Literature and the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Percival Everett and Elizabeth Alexander will read from and discuss their work with host Alexs Pate, U of M professor and author of the novel "Amistad" on Wednesday, Nov. 2, (Percival Everett) and Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012 (Elizabeth Alexander) at 7 p.m. in Cowles Auditorium, Hubert H. Humphrey Center, 301 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis, on the university’s West Bank.
About Percival Everett Everett is the author of nearly twenty novels, three collections of short fiction and two volumes of poetry, including the recent collection "Swimming Swimmers Swimming". Among his novels are "Assumption" and "I Am Not Sidney Poitier," which won the Believer Book Award. Everett is also the recipient of the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction, the Academy Award from an American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Vallombrosa Von Rezzori Prize, the PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature and a New American Writing Award. His stories have been included in the "Pushcart Prize Anthology" and "Best American Short Stories." He has served as a judge for, among others, the 1997 National Book Award for fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1991. He teaches fiction writing and critical theory and is currently Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.
Best known for composing and delivering President Barack Obama's inaugural poem "Praise Song for the Day," Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright and teacher.
About Elizabeth Alexander Best known for composing and delivering President Barack Obama's inaugural poem "Praise Song for the Day," Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright and teacher. Alexander has published five books of poems, including American Sublime, which was listed on the American Library Association's 2006 "Notable Books of the Year" and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize that same year. Her first young adult collection (co-authored with Marilyn Nelson), "Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color," received the 2008 Connecticut Book Award. Her two collections of essays are "The Black Interior" and "Power and Possibility," and her play "Diva Studies" was produced at the Yale School of Drama. She has also composed words for musical projects with composers Elana Ruehr and Lewis Spratlan.
Tickets are available for $15 per event or $25 for the two-event series. Complimentary tickets available to U of M students and Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Call (612) 624-2345 or visit www.tickets.umn.edu.
About the NOMMO African American Authors series Presented annually since 2004 by the Givens Foundation for African American Literature (givens.org), the series provides rare opportunities to publicly define the state of the art of African American literature and to locate the work and contributions of national as well as Twin Cities African American writers within the present authoring of our literary tradition.
A Dogon word meaning "the magic power of the word," NOMMO has been co-sponsored since 2007 by the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries (lib.umn.edu/friends). This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the state's general fund and its arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on Nov. 4, 2008. Additional sponsors this year are the University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center
Erica Holloman, a doctoral student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and the Greater Southeast Development Corporation, a local non-profit, have received a $100,000 CARE grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to work with community groups and residents in the city of Newport News. Their goal is to identify and reduce risks from toxic pollution in the Southeast Community, a historically African-American and highly industrialized area of the city.
The EPA held a ceremony to honor the winners of these highly competitive grants at its Ronald Reagan Building on October 18th. Only 100 CARE grants have been awarded nationwide since the program launched in 2005.
Dr. Linda Schaffner, Associate Dean of Academic Studies at VIMS, says “Less than 10 percent of all applicants to the CARE program are successful. It speaks very highly of Erica’s talent and moxie that she received one of these awards while still a graduate student.”
The CARE program—Community Action for a Renewed Environment—helps communities across the country better understand and address their environmental problems through local partnerships. Since its launch in 2005, CARE has leveraged EPA grant funding dollar-for-dollar with in-kind donations to 87 communities in 40 states and territories with more than 1,700 partners.
In Newport News, Holloman will collaborate with the Greater Southeast Development Corporation and its Moton Community House to better inform Southeast residents about how toxic pollutants may be affecting the local environment and their own health.
Erica Holloman
Holloman then plans to partner with the informed citizenry on projects to improve local environmental quality and reduce associated health risks.
“Our project will provide a framework and a scientific process that addresses environmental quality and associated impacts from a community perspective,” says Holloman. “It will empower the community to take action to reduce exposure and risk as soon as possible.”
Holloman’s CARE project builds on her dissertation research at VIMS, in which she used “community-based participatory research” to study fish and shellfish consumption and its possible relation to mercury exposure among African-American women in the same Newport News neighborhood. Mercury is a toxic metal that tends to accumulate up the marine food chain—reaching dangerous levels in some predatory fish.
Holloman says her dissertation shows that “even though women in Southeast Newport News aren’t subsistence anglers, they consume fish and shellfish at a subsistence-angler rate, and that the amount consumed plays a significant role in their dietary mercury exposure.”
TEXT and IMAGE CREDIT: Virginia Institute of Marine Science. School of Marine Science. College of William and Mary. Gloucester Point, VA 23062. (804) 684-7000.
Two Penn State faculty members are co-editors of a newly released book that addresses multicultural issues in children's and adolescent literature, particularly as it relates to African and African American cultures.
Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, associate professor of language and literacy education at University Park, and Mary Napoli, associate professor of education and reading at Penn State Harrisburg, have assembled African and African American Children's and Adolescent Literature in the Classroom: A Critical Guide (Peter Lang Publishers, 2011).
The book is a comprehensive collection of essays that challenge current understanding of what multicultural texts really are in an age of globalization. These essays illustrate multicultural literature's power to educate young readers about the numerous and varied perspectives on their own cultures and roles in society, as well as those of other cultures. The scholarship presented in the book suggests that not only should multicultural literature be integrated within the school curriculum, but that it can be examined to reveal subtle cultural nuances that show how cultures, customs, and people may be at once similar and different.
Yenika-Agbaw and Napoli both contributed chapters to the book. Yenika-Agbaw’s chapter, “Disability in Africana Adolescent Literature,” discusses representations of children with disabilities in African and African American adolescent novels. Napoli, in her chapter titled “Powerful Words: Celebrating Poetry with Young Children,” looks at how African and African American poetry can enrich the lives of young children.
Dr. Vivian Yenika-Agbaw
The book is part of Peter Lang’s Black Studies and Critical Thinking interdisciplinary series, which examines the intellectual traditions of and cultural contributions made by people of African descent throughout the world.
###
The Penn State College of Education serves approximately 2,800 undergraduate and 1,200 graduate students each year. The College prepares administrators, counselors, psychologists and researchers, as well as K-12 teachers in 21 different specialty areas.
All of the College of Education graduate programs that are ranked by the U.S. News & World Report appear at least in the top 15, with six programs in the top 10.
The College is known nationally for its education research and outreach, housing such centers as the Center for the Study of Higher Education, the Center for Science and the Schools, the Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning, and the Regional Education Laboratory Mid-Atlantic.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's African American Arts Institute will present its annual "A Potpourri of Arts in the African American Tradition" concert on Saturday, Nov. 5, at 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave. in downtown Bloomington.
Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children and students (limit two per IU I.D.). Tickets are available at the Buskirk-Chumley Box Office, phone 812-323-3020.
"A Potpourri of the Arts" was created to bring together, in a single program, the diverse range of styles of the institute's ensembles: the African American Dance Company, African American Choral Ensemble and IU Soul Revue. This year's Potpourri encompasses music and dance from slavery to the present. The grand finale is a special arrangement of Earth Wind and Fire's "Celebrate," performed by the three ensembles.
The African American Dance Company will depict a story of black diaspora, illustrating an evolution of styles from African dance to hip-hop. The company will highlight circular configurations and circular movements, an African dance characteristic that has been carried over to the new world, including the "ring shout," one of the early African American religious musical traditions. The company will dance to African Bamayaa music from Ghana, Hubert Laws' "Amazing Grace," and Sweet Honey in the Rock's "When I Rise and Lean on Me."
African American Dance Company by Mark McCullough. "Courtesy of Indiana University."
The African American Choral Ensemble's program will draw from a rich and varied array from black sacred genres, ranging from the spiritual to contemporary gospel. An opening medley of spirituals, arranged by Gary Hines for Sounds of Blackness, takes the audience to director Keith McCutchen's special arrangement of "Ole Time Religion" coupled with ragtime version of "When the Saints Go Marching In." Contemporary gospel selections like "Free," recorded by Natalie Wilson and the S.O.P. Chorale, and Ricky Dillard's "Strange" merge sacred themes and gospel style with jazz, hop-hop and other styles of music representing the African American traditions.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the IU Soul Revue will perform an encapsulation of music from the early soul sound of Ray Charles ("I've Got A Woman") to the more recent sounds of Janelle Monáe ("Tightrope") and Beyoncé ("1 1").
Selections recorded by Diana Ross, Luther Vandross, Bell Biv Devoe, and Sly and the Family Stone will fill in the Revue's diverse range of black popular music styles set for this program.
The African American Arts Institute is committed to promoting and preserving African American culture through performance, education, creative activity, research and outreach. For more information and a calendar of AAAI events, visit the African American Arts Institute website at www.indiana.edu/~aaai or call 812-855-5427.
The institute's current executive director is Charles E. Sykes. The African American Arts Institute is a unit of the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs. The ensembles are credit-bearing courses offered through the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contacts Krista Wilhelmsen African American Arts Institute kriwilhe@umail.iu.edu 812-855-5427
Alexandra V. Koelle, a postdoctoral scholar at the Bill Lane Center for the American West, has won the 2011 Oscar O. Winther Award from the Western History Association for the best article published in the Western Historical Quarterly in the past year. Her article, "Pedaling on the Periphery: The African American Twenty-fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps and the Roads of American Expansion," tells the story of a corps of African American soldiers stationed in Montana who tested the bicycle for military use in the 1890s.
The soldiers' lieutenant, a white southerner, believed that the bicycle might be a viable replacement for the horse--after all, he reasoned, bicycles did not need food or rest. After several training rides, 20 volunteers from the Twenty-fifth Infantry Division biked a grueling 1,900 miles from Montana to St. Louis.
Koelle studied the black bicycle corps in her dissertation, which she is working on revising as a book during her postdoctoral fellowship at the Center. Her research provides a unique insight into the history of race relations in the American West, illustrating both similarities to and differences from the East.
Koelle's award-winning article examines the ways that immgrant and settler whites, Indians, and African Americans along the route responded to the bicycle corps. As Koelle explains, the black cyclists experienced a range of reactions throughout their journey. At some towns, white residents greeted them as American patriots, feting the group with bands and parades. In other places, they were met with suspicion—a western Missouri farmer warned the group that “you can pile right off a this land.”
In general, though, Koelle’s research reveals that the black soldiers became gradually less popular as they traveled farther East. In the West, racism against Native Americans may have mitigated racism against the African American soldiers. Several regiments of the Twenty-fifth had fought alongside whites at Wounded Knee, and they continued to be used against Native Americans throughout the 1890s. But “the farther east they went,” says Koelle, “the stricter the segregation, the longer the history of slavery, and the further the memory of Indian Wars.”
TEXT and IMAGE CREDIT: The Bill Lane Center for the American West Jerry Yang & Akiko Yamazaki Environment & Energy Building 473 Via Ortega, Third Floor Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-4225
The African-American Caucus at Northwestern State University is hosting a community forum, Thursday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m. in the Friedman Student Union Ballroom. Admission is free and open to the public, according to Kenneth Brown, president of the African-American Caucus.
A panel will discuss topics including: sex in media, the high costs of education, animal cruelty, the war on drugs and unemployment in the community. Panelists are Natchitoches Parish Sheriff Victor Jones, Northwestern State faculty Jody Biscoe and Richard Hughbank, Chief Deputy Assessor Dollie Mahoney, Rev. Al Harris and NSU students Christalyn Whitaker and Tiffany Thomas. Marcus Jones, vice president of university affairs and the Ben D. Johnson Sr. Endowed Professor at Northwestern State, will moderate the panel.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu) News Bureau Northwestern State University Natchitoches, LA 71497 (318) 357-6466
The News Bureau works with print, broadcast and Internet media outlets to publicize all aspects of the university, including faculty programs, research, initiatives and accomplishments. Working with you, we can develop a strategy to give your story the best possible chance of receiving coverage. The News Bureau also assists media who are covering stories involving higher education, current topics or human interest stories involving NSU students, faculty, staff and alumni.
Leading & Energizing African American Students through Research and Knowledge
West Los Angeles College recently received a four-year, $2.4 million grant from the Department of Education HBCU Division / Office of Postsecondary Education. The funds come from a Title III Predominately Black Institution (PBI) grant.
The new grant funds an on campus program called LEARN (Leading & Energizing African American Students through Research and Knowledge). LEARN was established by a group of West faculty and staff who believed specifically targeted efforts could be implemented to improve the college success rates for a number of African American students who enter the college underprepared. The program was establish last year under a oneyear grant The receipt of the four-year PBI grant will allow the program to continue its good work.
The student population at West is approximately 44% African American. LEARN, in conjunction with other college services, provides academic support, mentoring, exposure to career paths, leadership development and instruction in life skills. Students from target high schools and middle schools will also participate in LEARN programs.
“Students succeed at identifying, persisting in pursuing, and achieving their goals when we can create learning experiences that account for their specific needs and degrees of readiness to engage in college. I applaud the efforts of the creative faculty, staff and administrative leaders who established LEARN and worked diligently to secure the resources to implement the project,” said West President, Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh.
West Los Angeles College, an accredited community college located just south of Overland and Jefferson, has been providing excellent university transfer and career training programs to the community for over 40 years. For more information on “West,” visit www.wlac.edu. ###
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: October 12, 2011 CONTACT: Michelle Long-Coffee, Dir. PR & Advertising (310) 287-4597 | longcofm@wlac.edu 9000 Overland Ave. - Culver City, CA 90230
October 15. 1966 Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
Title: Black Panther Convention, Lincoln Memorial Related Names: O'Halloran, Thomas J. , photographer. Leffler, Warren K. , photographer. Date Created / Published: 1970 Jun. 19. Medium: 1 negative : film.
Summary: Photograph showing a man on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial holding a banner for the Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention; statue of Lincoln in the background.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-04304 (digital file from original negative)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: LC-U9- 22860-6 [P&P] Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.
Notes: Title from contact sheet folder caption. U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection. Contact sheet available for reference purposes: USN&WR COLL - Job no. 22860, frame 6.
Subjects: Black Panther Party--Riots & demonstations--Washington (D.C.)--1970.
The Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery at Frostburg State University will present an exhibit titled “Hateful Things,” a 39-piece traveling exhibition that represents nearly 150 years of anti-black/racist material. The objects and images within the exhibit portray the cruel reality that the African-American culture endured during the Jim Crow era, and silently voices African-Americans’ struggles for racial equality.
The exhibition will be open to the public from Oct. 21 to Nov. 9. The opening reception will be on Friday, Oct. 21, from 7 to 9 p.m. The Roper Gallery is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays through Wednesdays, with expanded hours for Leadership and Homecoming Weekend from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 22.
The “Hateful Things” exhibit is a sampling from a museum at Ferris State University College of Arts and Sciences. The exhibit was created by Dr. David Pilgrim, a Ferris sociology professor and museum curator, as well as Carrie Weis-Taylor, coordinator of Ferris’ Rankin Center Art Gallery.
Pilgrim attended, and experienced first-hand, segregated schools in his hometown of Mobile, Ala. Pilgrim’s awareness of racism began at a young age, and his exposure prompted him to become emotionally attached to the idea of eliminating such racism. An inspiring story marked the beginning of his vision to tackle this issue head-on: One day, while out shopping, he saw a small “Mammy” figurine (a common archetype of an African-American woman) for sale. Pilgrim was disgusted by this figurine and recalls, “I bought it and destroyed it in front of the man who sold it to me.”
A photo of one of the items that will be part of the “Hateful Things” exhibit at the Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery from Oct. 21 to Nov. 9. The image is courtesy of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University.
For the years that followed, Pilgrim continued to purchase such figurines and destroy them, simply for the purpose of proving a point. As time passed, he began to see the historical significance of these figurines, and instead changed his tactic to collecting them, rather than destroying them.
Pilgrim then got the idea to use this collection to create a museum exhibit, but of a different type. “I have a goal to create a room that when people come into that room, it changes the way they talk about race,” he said. He wants to bring peoples’ attention to the world in which African-Americans lived, and to raise awareness of the historical importance of that time period.
For more information on the exhibit at FSU, contact Dr. Amy Branam at abranam@frostburg.edu.
FSU is committed to making all of its programs, services and activities accessible to persons with disabilities. To request accommodations through the ADA Compliance Office, call 301-687-4102 or use a Voice Relay Operator at 1-800-735-2258. -end-
For further information on this release, contact: Office of News and Media Services. Frostburg State University. 101 Braddock Road. Frostburg, MD 21532-2303. Telephone: 301/687-3171. Fax: 301/687-7589. E-mail: news@frostburg.edu.
Community welcome to help celebrate UNL program's 40th anniversary Released on 10/10/2011, at 2:00 AM. Office of University Communications. University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 19, through Oct. 22. WHERE: Various locations
Lincoln, Neb., October 10th, 2011 —
Civil rights scholars, acclaimed writers and community organizers will make their way to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Oct. 19-22 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of UNL’s African American and African Studies Program. Film screenings, performances and panel discussions are among the many other free events planned, with the community welcome to attend and participate.
The program, established in 1971 as part of UNL’s Institute for Ethnic Studies, promotes interdisciplinary research, teaching and outreach activities that explore, explain and support the experiences of the people of the African Diaspora, while bridging scholarly and community interests. Its work contributes to a growing body of knowledge that lies at the intersections of ethnicity, race, gender, class, sexual orientation and social justice.
The anniversary celebration will explore the theme "Reflecting the Past … Minding the Future." It kicks off Oct. 19 with a day of service organized by student groups.
Reflecting the Past Minding the Future
Four featured speakers have been planned during the week, beginning with Mark Mathabane, author of the national best-selling autobiography "Kaffir Boy," among other works. He will present "Our Common Humanity" at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20 in the Nebraska Union, 14th and R streets.
In "Kaffir Boy," Mathabane shares the hardships of coming of age under apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s. He grew up in a one-square-mile ghetto amid poverty, late-night police raids, and everyday humiliation. He escaped to the United States after earning a tennis scholarship.
Acclaimed playwright, author and literary critic Lisa Thompson will present "Black Studies in the Age of Post-Blackness," at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 in Bailey Library on the second floor of Andrews Hall, 14th and T streets.
She will examine the challenges facing black studies in an age that some critics have pronounced as post-racial and considers the ways contemporary black theater challenges the notion of post-blackness.
Thompson, an associate professor of English at the University of Albany, SUNY, is the author of "Beyond the Black Lady: Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class," which explores the representation of black, middle-class, female sexuality by African-American women authors in narrative literature, drama, film and popular culture. The book received an honorable mention for the National Women’s Studies Association's Gloria E. Anzaldua Book Prize, which recognizes "groundbreaking scholarship in women's studies that makes significant multicultural feminist contributions to women of color/transnational scholarship."
Michael Honey, professor of humanities at the University of Washington-Tacoma who has done extensive research on Martin Luther King Jr., will present "Martin Luther King, Labor and the Long Civil Rights Movement," at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 22 in the Nebraska Union. Honey's address is the highlight of a daylong symposium on civil rights legacies. He also will perform "Links on the Chain," featuring the labor and civil rights songs of Pete Seeger, Bettie Mae Fikes and other freedom singers. Honey is the author of several books, including his most recent, "All Labor Has Dignity: The Labor and Economic Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
A fourth featured speaker, also on Oct. 22, will discuss the vanguard of the southern civil rights movement during the mid-1960s, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Martha Prescod Norman Noonan will present "Hands on the Freedom Plow: The Women of SNCC," beginning at 3:30 p.m. in the Nebraska Union.
Noonan, a community organizer, activist, homemaker and history teacher specializing in the civil rights movement, worked for the SNCC in Alabama and Mississippi in the 1960s. Recently, Noonan helped organize and edit the landmark collection, "Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts By Women in SNCC," a book in which 52 women from diverse backgrounds share their personal stories of working for SNCC on the front lines of the southern civil rights movement.
For a complete schedule of events, visit the program's Facebook page, go.unl.edu/be0, or call 402-472-1663.
Writer: Jean Ortiz Jones, University Communications, (402) 472-8320
LAWRENCE — On Thursday, Oct. 6, The Project on the History of Black Writing at the University of Kansas presented selections from its 100 Novels project that highlight the significance of “place” for African-American writers.
This one-day walk-through exhibit, called the Black Literary Suite, was open to the public from noon to 4 p.m. in the Kansas Union Governor’s Room.
The 100 Novels Project explores and celebrates the political, social, cultural and historical significance of 100 works of black literature. The project is a relatively new research initiative that utilizes quantitative research to enhance understandings of black literary history. The temporal scope of the works is wide-ranging, spanning from the late 19th century to the 21st century. Many of the works have been transformed into film and were staples on The New York Times’ best-seller list.
As part of this initiative, The Black Literary Suite was designed to engage the public, shed new light on the Project on the History of Black Writing’s holdings and stimulate discourse about the value of studying African-American literature as an entire body of work. The exhibit will focus on the significance of New York City, specifically Harlem, in relationship to the novels and authors in the collection.
The Project on the History of Black Writing has been in the forefront of research and inclusion efforts in higher education for 25 years.
Silent protest parade in New York City against the East St. Louis riots, 1917
Founded in 1983 at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, the Project on the History of Black Writing has more than 900 novels in its collection published by African-American authors since William Wells Brown’s “Clotel; or, the President’s Daughter” (1853). The project is dedicated to archiving every novel ever published by an African-American.
For more information about the Project on the History of Black Writing and its resources, visit its webpage, blog or Facebook fan page, or follow @ProjectHBW on Twitter.
The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.
