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Lafayette’s annual celebration of Black History Month will focus on “The Evolution of Blacks in the Media” next month, featuring musical and dance performances, a film and discussion, an African market, an art exhibit, lectures, and a candlelight vigil.
Master drummer Obo Addy will lead his Okropong ensemble of drummers, dancers, and vocalists in a concert 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Williams Center for the Arts. In 1996, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Addy the National Heritage Fellowship Award, the highest honor a traditional artist can receive in this country. He is the first African-born artist to receive the award.
Writer and poet Bryonn Bain, who placed second in the International Poetry Slam, will speak on “The Bill of Rights for Black Men,” an essay published by Harvard Law School and championed by Harvard professor and civil rights professor Lani Guinier, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5.
Easton native and internationally acclaimed jazz pianist Mulgrew Miller, Lafayette’s 2003-04 Alan and Wendy Pesky Artist-in-Residence, will lead his Wingspan quintet in a performance with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company Friday, Feb. 13, and in a concert Saturday, Feb. 14, both at 8 p.m. at the Williams Center for the Arts.
Berrisford Boothe, associate professor of art at Lehigh University and a 1983 Lafayette graduate, will display his art in an exhibition titled Drawings Over Time, give a lecture at 12:15 p.m., and attend a reception at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, at the David A. Portlock Black Cultural Center.
The full schedule of events:
Sunday, Feb. 1, 7 p.m.: Candlelight vigil, Farinon Center steps. Sponsored by Association of Black Collegians.
Monday, Feb. 2, noon: “Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?” brown bag lecture by Experimental Printmaking Institute director Curlee Raven Holton and Leslie Saint ’04 (Dunellen, N.J.), a double major in Africana Studies and psychology, Williams Center for the Arts room 108. They will discuss the images, depictions, and portrayals of blacks in American media.
Tuesday, Feb. 3, 8 p.m.: Obo Addy’s Okropong, Williams Center for the Arts. Tickets for the public cost $18; call the box office at 610-330-5009.
Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m.: “The Bill of Rights for Black Men” talk by writer and poet Bryonn Bain, Gilbert’s coffee house. Sponsored by Lafayette Activities Forum.
Friday, Feb. 13, 8 p.m.: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company with Mulgrew Miller’s Wingspan, Williams Center for the Arts. Tickets cost $20; call the box office at 610-330-5009.
Saturday, Feb. 14, 8 p.m.: Mulgrew Miller and Wingspan, Williams Center for the Arts. Tickets cost $20; call the box office at 610-330-5009.
Thursday, Feb. 19, 12:15 p.m. and 5 p.m.: “Drawings Over Time” brown bag lecture and reception, respectively, with artist-in-residence Berrisford Boothe ’83, David A. Portlock Black Cultural Center. Sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Development, the Experimental Printmaking Institute, and the Williams Visual Arts Building.
Tuesday, Feb. 24, 12:15 p.m.: Luncheon with keynote speaker Tricia Rose, David A. Porltock Black Cultural Center. She is professor of American Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz and author of Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy, scheduled for publication in May.
Tuesday, Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m.: Keynote lecture on “The Evolution of Blacks in the Media” by Tricia Rose, Oechsle Hall room 224, followed by 9 p.m. book signing in the lobby. Sponosored by the Office of Intercultural Development.
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 7 p.m.: The Harder They Come film screening and discussion, Farinon Center Limburg Theater. Sponsored by Office of the Dean of Studies.
Thursday, Feb. 26, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.: African Market, Farinon Center Atrium. Sponsored by Office of Intercultural Development.