The Black History Celebration at Oberlin College has been a mechanism by which many of its community members have become enlightened on history, politics, and economics. Black history has extended even further into art, literature, and performance aesthetics that make the “Oberlin Experience” much more enriched than many other colleges and universities. The African-American Studies Department and the Multicultural Resource Center have worked together for years to make this celebration a reality for all of us. We want to cultivate the Oberlin community with academic, cultural, and social events that celebrate the history and legacy of the African Diaspora. We hope to stimulate dialogue about, and increase awareness of, issues facing Black people throughout the world. The Black History Celebration at Oberlin College has been widely attended by faculty, students, and staff throughout the years.
Black History Celebration 2007-2008 Schedule:
OPENING CEREMONY AND DINNER
Public Event: Afrikan Heritage House Dining Hall on February 6, 2008 in at 5:30 p.m.
*This event is open to anyone with campus dining options
JOHN HARPER’S SENIOR RECITAL
Public Performance: Kulas Auditorium at the Oberlin Conservatory on February 9, 2008 at 8:30 p.m.
RECEPTION FOR THE UNVEILING OF THE YASMIN HERNANDEZ MURAL
Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People on February 12, 2008 at 7 p.m.
*This event is co-sponsored by the EdmoniaLewisCenter for Women and Transgender People and the MRC My Name is My Own Series.
BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA
Public Performance: Finney Chapel on February 12, 2008 at 8 p.m.
$6 Students, $10 staff/seniors, $15 General Admission
Sponsored by the Assemblies Committee
BLACK HISTORY CELEBRATION SOCIAL
Public Event: Multicultural Resource Center (Wilder 208) on February 13, 2008 at 4:30 p.m.
SUZAN-LORI PARKS
Convocation Lecture: “Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers” on February 13, 2008 in Finney Chapel at 8 p.m.
Named one of Time magazine's "100 innovators for the next new wave" Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most exciting and acclaimed playwrights in America today. The first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Drama for the Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog, Ms. Parks will sign copies of her books in Peters Hall following the lecture.
THE WELFARE POETS
Public Performance: Afrikan Heritage House Lord Lounge on February 15, 2008 at 8 p.m.
The Welfare Poets are a collective of activists, educators, and artists together since 1990. Through teaching residencies and workshops, through activism around community struggles and through sharp-edged performances of music that incorporates Hip Hop, Bomba y Plena, Latin Jazz and other rhythms, the Welfare Poets bring information and inspiration to those facing oppression and those fighting for liberation.
OBERLIN PROFESSOR JAMES MILLETTE’S BOOK RELEASE
Public Event: Mindfair Books at Ben Franklin on February 16, 2008 at 2 p.m.
ALUMNI RECITAL BY ALYSON CAMBRIDGE, OC’02
Public Performance: Kulas Auditorium at the Oberlin Conservatory on February 17, 2008 at 4:30 p.m.
Sponsored by Oberlin Conservatory of Music
SISTERS OF THE YAM/THE BROTHERHOOD DINNER
Location TBA on February 19, 2008 at 5:30 p.m.
FAT KINE
Public Screening: Afrikan Heritage House Lord Lounge on February 20, 2008 at 7 p.m.
BLACK THOUGHT DISCUSSION
Follows the Film Series on February 20, 2008 in Afrikan Heritage House Lord Lounge—film starts at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be served
MICHAEL DATCHER
Public Lecture: “A Beautiful Struggle” on February 22, 2008 in Afrikan Heritage House Lord Lounge at 4:30 p.m.
Michael Datcher is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Loyola Marymount University and is a poet and critically acclaimed journalist who has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The Baltimore Sun, and has appeared as a guest analyst on numerous television and radio shows, including Nightline and Dateline. He is the director of literary programs at the World Stage Writers' Workshop. In Raising Fences, Michael Datcher offers a view of young black men seldom seen in the media-men who long for loving, stable marriages, fatherhood, and homes in safe neighborhoods. In this emotionally raw and intimate narrative, Datcher reflects on his fatherless childhood in inner-city Los Angeles, his attraction to local gangs, his promiscuity, and, at times, his lack of faith. But he also writes of his deep desire-and the desires of other black men he knows-to escape a cycle that deprives children of what they need most and creates empty shells of grown men. Here is the story of one man's success in overcoming the obstacles thrown at him from birth. It is a powerful case for fathers, for family, for racial communication and understanding. And it is also a love story, a story of courage and faith. Its message is one we need to hear now more than ever before.
SOUL SESSION
Public Event: Afrikan Heritage House on February 23, 2008 at 10 p.m.
Afrikan Heritage House's signature open mic session. Open to everyone, especially artists of any kind: poets, actors, musicians, dancers, and vocalists.
THE AGGRESSIVES
Public Screening: Afrikan Heritage House Lord Lounge on February 26, 2008 at 7 p.m.
MIGNON MOORE
Public Lecture: title TBA on February 28, 2008 in Afrikan Heritage House Lord Lounge at 7 p.m.
Mignon Moore is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at UCLA. Moore is a family sociologist whose research examines within-group variation in processes and outcomes among disadvantaged groups. She is finishing a manuscript based on her intensive ethnographic, survey and interview study of racial minority same-sex couples. The book will be titled Invisible Families: Gay Relationships and Motherhood among Black and Latina Women. This work explores how initial self-understandings based on race influence subsequent practice of same-sex desire, processes of union formation, routes to motherhood, and the enactment of gendered power relations in families headed by two women. The practice of lesbian sexuality is also explored through a context of racial group membership and involvement in racially similar communities. Other on-going projects include a comparative study of family process and relationship quality among interracial and same-race couples in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Survey, and a three-city study analyzing the effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit on low-income and working-class saving patterns and asset accumulation.
CLOSING DINNER CEREMONY AND DANCE DIASPORA PERFORMANCE
Dinner catered from Quick and Delicious and Lorenzo’s on February 29, 2008 in Afrikan Heritage House Lord Lounge at 5 p.m. Invitation Only
