A Celebration of Black History

Lafayette will celebrate Black Heritage Month in February with guest speakers, poetry, an award-winning movie and community discussions.

Lynn Nottage

This year’s theme is “Black Agency, Black Expression,” and events will focus on forms of media relating to how black people create and shape their lives and the lives of others in their communities, says Danialie Fertile ’16, intercultural program fellow.  All events are free and open to the public.

Highlights include:

Playwright Lynn Nottage will give the John L. Hatfield ’67 lecture at 4:30 p.m., Feb. 1 in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104. Nottage won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2009 for her play Ruined, which explores the lives of women in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. Her talk will focus on her latest play, Sweat, which looks at the social effects of industrial decline in the U.S. Presented by the Friends of Skillman Library.

Yolanda Wisher ’98

Yolanda Wisher ’98, the poet laureate of Philadelphia, will read from her book Monk Eats an Afro at 4:30 p.m., Feb. 2 in the Gendebien Room of Skillman Library. Wisher is the co-editor of the poetry anthology Peace is a Haiku Song, and she previously served as the inaugural Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Poet Laureate. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Fence, Chain, MELUS, PUBLICPOOL, Hanging Loose, and GOOD Magazine and the anthologies Gathering Ground and The Ringing Ear. Wisher founded and directed the Germantown Poetry Festival, served as director of art education for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, and was a founding cultural agent for the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture.

Media activist, educator, and filmmaker Nuala Cabral is the keynote speaker for Black Heritage Month and Lafayette’s Social Justice Series. Her talk will be 7 p.m., Tues., Feb. 21 in the Gendebien Room of Skillman Library. She will discuss efforts spearheaded by artists, organizers and educators to change the current media landscape and highlight some of the challenges, opportunities and lessons learned.

Black Heritage Month is organized by the Office of Intercultural Development and sponsored by the anthropology and sociology, English, and religious studies departments; the film & media studies and women’s & gender studies programs; the Association of Black Collegians, the Center for Community Engagement, and NIA multicultural women’s support group.

Complete Black Heritage Month Schedule

• Feb. 1, 4:30-5:30 p.m. – Pulitzer Prize-winning Playwright Lynn Nottage Presents the John L. Hatfield ’67 lecture, Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104
• Feb. 2, 4:30-5:30 p.m. – Poetry Reading with Yolanda Wisher ’98, Skillman Library, Gendebien Room
• Feb. 7, 7 p.m. Film and Media Studies Presents: Moonlight, Landis Cinema, Buck Hall, Williams Arts Campus, 219 N. Third Street, Easton
• Feb. 8, 7 p.m. – “Black Joy: The Ecstatics of Middle Passage” by J. Kameron Carter of Duke Divinity School, Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104
• Feb. 16, 4:10 p.m. – Discussion Panel on The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Skillman Library, Gendebien Room
• Feb. 16, 7 p.m. – “Twitter Talks Back: Communities of Color and Catalysts for Conversation” with Meredith Clark, professor of journalism at University of North Texas, Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104
• Feb. 21, 7 p.m. – “Talking Back: Challenging Stereotypes and Oppression in Media,” keynote address by activist Nuala Cabral, Skillman Library, Gendebien Room

Check the Lafayette calendar for latest info and updates.