|
The University of Rhode
Island
Black History Month 2006 Celebration |
?hose who have no record of what their
forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching
of biography and history.??Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Founder, Negro History Week
The University of Rhode Island
Multicultural Center, the African and African-American Studies Program, the
Office of the President, the Division of Student Affairs, the URI Feinstein
Providence Campus, the Colleges of Human Sciences and Services and Arts and
Sciences, the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, Uhuru SaSa, the NAACP,
ICON, the Underground Railroad, the Departments of Music and Sociology join
forces to commemorate the nation? 90th annual tribute to history
and heritage of African-Americans. Unless otherwise noted, events are free and
open to the public.
Schedule of Events
Tue,
02/07 | Thur, 02/09 |
Sat, 02/11 | Thur, 02/16
Sun, 02/19 | Tue,
02/21 | Thur, 02/23 | Thur, 03/02
Tuesday, February 7
Who: Dr. Timothy B. Tyson, John Hope Franklin Senior Fellow at the National Humanities
Center, and Professor of Afro-American
Studies at Wisconsin
What: Book Discussion: ?lood Done Sign My Name?
When: 12:15-1:30 PM
Where: Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum
His most recent book, ?lood Done Sign My
Name? recounts the murder of a young black man committed in his hometown of Oxford in eastern North
Carolina in 1970 by the father of one of Tyson?
childhood friends, and the subsequent uprising of the African-American
community in the wake of the murder. The book was chosen as the 2005 Summer
Program selection at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel
Hill and as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
With soft drinks and cookies.
Sponsored by the College of Human
Sciences and Services, (401) 874-2244.
Who: Black
American Society
What: Black
History Month Show
When: 7PM-
10PM
Where: University of Rhode Island Memorial Union Ballroom
This show
is meant to honor as well as enlighten people about African American misic and
literature. There will be singing, dancing, readings, and a slide show.
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Thursday, February 9
Who: Leislie Godo-Solo, Staff Representative, Institute for the
Recruitment of Teachers (IRT), Andover,
MA
What: Informational Talk
When: 2:00 PM
Where: Memorial Union, Room 318
The objective of IRT is to increase the
number of people from underrepresented groups at all levels of the education
pipeline from kindergarten through colleges and universities. Ms. Godo-Solo is
especially interested in contacting motivated third- and fourth-year students
from underrepresented groups who are interested in teaching at any level, and
who are seeking to pursue graduate degrees in the humanities, social sciences,
education, and mathematics. Faculty who are willing to mentor IRT students are
also welcome to attend. To improve the probability of success in graduate study,
the IRT coordinates a four-week summer bridge program, for which participating
students receive a stipend, room and board, and travel costs.
Who:
Led by Bernie Dwyer of Ireland,
a co-producer of the film, and Rev. Geoffrey Bottoms, a parish priest from the United Kingdom
who works with the Cuban Solidarity Campaign
What: Documentary Film Screening and Discussion: ?ission Against
Terror? (2004, 48 minutes)
When: 7:00-10:00 PM
Where: URI Feinstein Providence
Campus, Paff Auditorium.
Co-produced by Dwyer and Cuban TV producer
Roberto Ruiz, the documentary follows the case of the Cuban Five, five Cuban
citizens seeking to infiltrate ultra-right wing organizations based in South
Florida and regarded by Cuba
as anti-government terrorists. Arrested on September 12, 1998 by the FBI, the
Cuban Five were sentenced in Miami Federal Court in December, 2001 to a total
of four life terms and 75 years. Regarded by many as political prisoners, their
appeal is pending in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The
documentary places this incident in the context of the last half-century since
the Cuban Revolution, the U.S.-led embargo, and other acts of interventionism.
Providing an intimate glimpse into the turmoil of the families left behind, and
the tide of sympathy from the people of Cuba, the film features interviews
with President of the Cuban National Assembly Ricardo Alarcon, former CIA agent
Philip Agee, Miami Cuban activist Andres Gomez, attorney Leonard Weinglass, and
family members.
Sponsored by the Rhode Island Community
Coalition for Peace, the Rhode Island Free the Cuban Five Committee, and the
URI Feinstein CCE Center for Urban Studies and
Research.
What
& Who: Open Mic featuring Kwabena Antoine Nixon
and Muhibb Dyer, Spoken Word Poets from Milwaukee,
WI
When: 7:00 PM
Where: Multicultural Center, Rm. 101
Nixon and Dyer are two of the most dynamic
artists, activists and opinion leaders on the Milwaukee spoken word scene. Through
workshops in local schools and colleges, networking, and mentoring young
artists in the community, they have helped to create the Writers Block Circle, a collaborative
which has nurtured and promoted the development of spoken word artists since
the 1990?. In addition, they perform at hip hop conventions, poetry slams, and
open mics, often at Taboo and the Mecca NiteClub and Lounge, on the south side
of Milwaukee.
Along with his sister, Dyer is the co-creator of the Children are Crying Calendar (2003), a social commentary on Black
life in Milwaukee.
Sponsored by Uhuru SaSa and the NAACP.
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Saturday, February 11
Who: Don Braden and the URI Big Bands
What: Open Musical Rehearsal
When: 1:00-5:00PM
Where: URI Fine Arts Center, Concert Hall
Cost: Free
Open Musical Rehearsal with Don Braden and
the URI Big Bands. Committed
to jazz education, Braden teaches at Williams
Paterson University
in New Jersey, and serves as music director
for Litchfield Performing Arts and the New Jersey Performing
Art Center.
As a saxophonist, composer, arranger, and teacher, Don Braden represents the
highest levels of creativity, discipline, and soulfulness, in his embodiment of
a swinging jazz style
Who: Don Braden and the URI Big Bands Sponsored by the URI Music
Department in collaboration with the URI Jazz and World Music Festival
What: Concert
When: 8:00 PM
Where: URI Fine Arts Center, Concert Hall
Cost: $10 General Admission; $5 Students (with ID)
For information, call (401) 874-2627.
Don Braden has been referred to as a jazz
innovator ?hose style pushes at the boundaries of hard bop while preserving
the core of the tradition.?After studying Computer Engineering at Harvard University, he also began exploring the
creative possibilities of digital jazz. Since the mid-1980?, he has toured
throughout Europe, Japan, North and South America while leading his own Organic
Quintet and working with such jazz greats as Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Roy
Haynes, Freddie Hubbard, and Tom Harrell. On the lighter side, his compositions
have been featured for four years of the CBS sitcom ?osby? and on Cosby? two
shows on Nickelodeon ??ittle Bill?and ?atherhood? A member of the music
faculty at William Paterson (NJ) University, he has demonstrated his commitment
to teaching by serving as music teacher at the Litchfield Performing Arts and
the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Jazz aficionados will be interested in
his more recent CD? such as, ?he New Hang? ?he Fire Within? and ?he Voice
of the Saxophone? As a saxophonist, composer, leader, and teacher, Don Braden
represents the epitome of creativity, discipline and soulfulness within a swing
jazz style.
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Thursday, February 16
Who: Dr. Elijah Anderson, the Charles and William Day Distinguished
Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania
What: Lecture: ?oung, Poor, Black, Urban Male: A Case for National Action?/span>
When: 7:00 PM
Where: Chafee Auditorium, Room 271
One of the nation? leading authorities on
the conditions of African-American life in the inner city, he has authored
three groundbreaking studies: A Place on the Corner: A Study of Black Street
Corner Men (1978, 2003); Streetwise: Race, Class and Change in an Urban
Community (1990), for which he received the American Sociological Association?
Robert E. Park Award denoting the year? best book in urban sociology; and the
Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City
(1999), an expanded version of the cover story for The Atlantic Monthly in May,
1994.
In addition, his article, ?f Old Heads and
Young Boys: Notes on the Urban Black Experience?(1986) was commissioned by the
National Research Council? Committee on the Status of Black Americans. A
recipient of the University
of Pennsylvania?
Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, his areas of expertise include field
methods of social research, social psychology of organizations, and social
interaction.
Sponsored by the African and
African-American Studies Program and the Office of the President
What: Open Mic / Poetry Slam
When: 8:00 PM
Where: Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum
Sponsored by Origins
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Sunday, February 19
What:
Concert: ?usic of the Sophisticated Ladies to the Queen of Soul: Jazz, Blues,
Rhythm and Blues?featuring vocalist Kim Trusty
Who: URI Big
Band under the direction of Joe Parillo, Associate Professor, Music, URI
When: 3:00-5:00
PM
Where: URI
Feinstein Providence
Campus, Paff Auditorium
A medley of selections made memorable by
celebrated African-American women singers from the early twentieth-century to
the present from one of Rhode Island?
leading vocalists. With pastries, coffee, and tea
Cost: Tickets: General Admission (Advance)
by February 15 - $10; (At the door) - $15;
URI Students (with ID) - $5. For
information, call (401) 277-5000.
Sponsored by URI Feinstein Providence Campus
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Tuesday, February 21
Who: John Edgar Wideman, Asa Messer Professor and Professor of Africana
Studies and English
What: URI? Twelfth Annual Lecture on Multiculturalism, Reading from ?rothers and
Keepers?/span>
When: 7:30 PM
Where: Chafee Auditorium, Room 271
The objective of the Annual Lectures on
Multiculturalism is to improve the quality of life for society by stimulating
dialogue, reflection and transformative action about the ways in which
knowledge, identity, power, and community are socially constructed. Previous speakers
have included bell hooks (1995), Christopher Edley (1996), Alvin Poussaint
(1997), Cornel West (1998), Lani Guinier (1999), Robin D.G. Kelley (2000),
Patricia Williams (2001), Bob Moses (2002), Paul Gilroy (2003), Miren Uriarte
and Rev. Lucius Walker in tribute to Rev. Raul Suarez (2004), and Howard Fuller
(2005).
The nation? second African-American to
receive a Rhodes Scholarship, John Edgar Wideman has built a career as one of
the nation? foremost creative writers. The third lecturer in the series to
receive a prestigious MacArthur Foundation ?enius grant? he was the first writer to twice earn
the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, winning for the novel Sent for You
Yesterday (1985) and Philadelphia Fire (1991). His novel The Cattle Killing (1996)
garnered for him that year? James Fenimore Cooper Award for historical
fiction. His memoirs Brothers and Keepers (1984), Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and
Sons (1994), and Hoop Roots (2001) remind us that the memoir can still retain
credibility in a time of controversy about the genre. Exploring his
working-class roots in Brothers and Keepers, he provides insights on race,
class, community and identity, while comparing the divergent trajectories of
his own life with that of his brother, convicted and sentenced to life for a
murder committed during a robbery.
Sponsored by the Multicultural Center, the
Office of the President, and the Division of Student Affairs.
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Thursday, February 23
What:
Banquet, ?elebration of Black History: From Past to
Present?
Who:
Featuring keynote address, ?here Do We Go from
Here??by Malia Lazu, National Field Director of Cities for Progress, with
Voter Registration table, slideshow, performances, and dinner
When: 6:30 PM
Where: Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum
Malia Lazu has compiled an enviable record
as a political activist and a youth advocate. As an undergraduate at Emerson
(MA) College, she helped to elect the first Haitian-American to the
Massachusetts House of Representatives. She also functioned as College
Organizer for the Clean Elections project in Massachusetts, successfully promoting a
ballot initiative for campaign finance reform in 1998.
Since her graduation in 1999, she has
focused on the challenges of increasing voter participation among youth while
working as founding Executive Director of Mass Vote; Project Director for the
Democracy Action Project; and National Field Coordinator for the Young Voter
Alliance. During 2001, Boston Magazine included her among the city? most
influential people of color. In her current position with Cities for Progress,
she provides out reach and coordination, linking local officials and grassroots
community activists, and assisting them in collaborating on progressive policy
projects for the improvement of urban areas.
Sponsored by the NAACP
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Thursday, March 2
What: Video Screening and Discussion: ?elected Episodes of the Dave
Chappelle Show?/span>
Who: Sponsored by the College
of Human Sciences and
Services.
When: 6:00 PM,
Where: Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum
Referred to by the late comic great Richard
Pryor as ?y favorite comedian,?Dave Chappelle is host of a self-titled
variety show on Comedy Central that features standup, sketches, and urban
music. In Rolling Stone Magazine, his humor has been described as ?he edgiest
and most racially charged comedy in America? The DVD of the first
season of the Dave Chappelle Show has now become the third best-selling TV DVD
of all time.
With light refreshments.
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