Black History Month 2011
Mizzou celebrates with music, films, literature and special presentations
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- Clyde Ruffin, chair of the MU Theatre Department, directs “Fences” by August Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a former Negro Baseball League star. The show runs Feb. 24-26 and March 3-6.
- English professor Tom Quirk, a prominent Mark Twain scholar, discusses the controversy surrounding proposed censorship of the novel Huckleberry Finn Feb. 8.
- English professor Anand Prahlad, a poet and musician, reads his literary work Feb. 8 and gives a musical performance and presentation about the mbira, a Zimbabwean thumb piano, Feb. 10.
- Charles Sampson, a professor in the Truman School of Public Affairs, gives a brown bag lunch presentation titled “Revisiting the Pathway to Public Accommodations and Voting Rights” Feb. 14.
- English professor Cornelius Eady, a poet and founder of the black poetry organization Cave Canem, reads his work Feb. 22.
- Wilma King, the Strickland Professor of African American History and Culture, gives the MU Black History Month keynote address, “African American Women Who ‘Feared Neither Shell Nor Shot’ in Civil War America, 1861-1865” Feb. 23.
- Flore Zephir, chair of the MU Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, presents “Haiti from the Perspectives of Two Haitian-American Artists” featuring poet and painter Marilene Phipps-Kettlewell and performance artist Gina Ulysse Feb. 24.
- Sheri-Marie Harrison, an MU English Professor, presents the film “The Harder They Come,” starring reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, as part of her presentation “Music as a Weapon: Jamaican Self Determination and Civil War” Feb. 17.
The 2011 celebration of Black History Month at Mizzou offers entertainment and inspiration for history buffs, music lovers, cinephiles, poets and scholars. Organized by MU's interdisciplinary Black History Month Committee, events feature Mizzou faculty and students as well as Columbia community members and visiting guests.
MU expands on the Association for the Study of African American Life and History's national theme "African Americans and the Civil War" to encompass global and civic struggles for black self-determination in the context of war. Thematic presentations include professor Bea Gallimore's "Rwanda, The True Narrative: From ‘Civil War’ to Genocide" and professor Sheri-Marie Harrison's "Music as a Weapon: Jamaican Self Determination and Civil War," both of which feature film screenings.
Coinciding with the events, art exhibits will be on display all month in Townsend Hall, Ellis Library, the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center and the McDougall Center Gallery in Lee Hills Hall.
Tuesday, Feb. 8
The Sanitizing of Huckleberry Finn
Brown bag lunch presentation by Tom Quirk, MU Department of English
12-1 p.m. in the Walter Daniel Resource Center, 325 Gentry Hall
Anand Prahlad and Open Mic
We Speak Spoken Word Series reading by Anand Prahlad, MU Department of English, plus an open-mic spoken word competition
7-9 p.m. in Stotler Lounge III, Memorial Union
Wednesday, Feb. 9
The Underground Railroad
Film screening and discussion
6:30 p.m. at the Armory Sports Center, 701 E. Ash St.
Thursday, Feb. 10
Invisible and Voiceless: Disenfranchisement Today
Brown bag lunch presentation by S. David Mitchell, MU School of Law
12-1 p.m. in the Black Studies Conference Room, 313A Gentry Hall
The African Mbira
Musical performance and educational presentation about the Zimbabwean thumb piano by Anand Prahlad, Department of English
5:30 p.m. at the State Historical Society of Missouri, Ellis Library
Stories from Missouri's Black History
Storytelling and book signing by master storyteller Gladys Coggswell
4:30-6 p.m. in S304 Memorial Union
Hotel Rwanda
We Watch Film Series screening and presentation "Rwanda, The True Narrative: From ‘Civil War’ to Genocide" by Béa Gallimore, Department of Romance Languages & Literatures
7 p.m. in Ellis Auditorium
Sunday, Feb. 13
African American Art and Artists
Art history educational event for students in grades 1-8 and their families
2-3:30 p.m. at the MU Museum of Art & Archaeology
Ellis Marsalis Quartet
"We Always Swing" Jazz Series performance
7 p.m. in Windsor Ballroom at the Holiday Inn Select
Tuesday, Feb. 15
Civil War Era Symbols: Which Ones Are Still Civil?
Difficult Dialogues brown bag lunch discussion facilitated by Mark Milanick, MU School of Medicine, and Elizabeth Hornbeck, MU Department of Art History & Archaeology
12-1 p.m. in 323 Gentry Hall
Tom Bass: Missouri Horseman
Presentation by Christal Bruner
7 p.m. in the Columbia Public Library Friends Room
John Nieves and Amina Gautier Reading
Hearing Voices literary series reading featuring poet John Nieves, Department of English, and fiction writer Ann Gautier, DePaul University, in conjunction with the We Speak Spoken Word Series
7 p.m. at Orr Street Studios, 106 Orr St.
Wednesday, Feb. 16
The Confederate States of America
We Watch Film Series screening and discussion with filmmaker Kevin Willmott
7-9 p.m. at the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center
Thursday, Feb. 17
Black Men in the Civil War
Brown bag lunch presentation by Joseph Beilein, MU Department of History
12-1 p.m. in 323 Gentry Hall
The Harder They Come
We Watch Film Series screening and presentation "Music as a Weapon: Jamaican Self Determination and Civil War" by Sheri-Marie Harrison, MU Department of English
7-9 p.m. in the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center
Monday, Feb 21
Legion of Black Collegians Gospel Choir
Performance by the LBC choir
7-8:30 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium
Tuesday, Feb. 22
Swab Up and Be the Match
Bone marrow registry drive sponsored by the Mizzou Black Men's Initiative
2-6 p.m. in the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center
Identity Politics Part II: Black is, Black Ain’t
Interactive theater troupe performance and dialogue about affirmative action
4-5:30 p.m. in the Corner Playhouse, University Avenue at Hitt Street
Cave Canem Poets and Open Mic
We Speak Spoken Word Series reading featuring Cornelius Eady, MU Department of English, with special guest Cave Canem poets Natasha Ria El-Scari, Aisha Sharif and Glenn North — plus the final round of the MU student open-mic spoken word competition
7-9 p.m. in Stotler Lounge III, Memorial Union
Wednesday, Feb. 23
African American Women Who 'Feared Neither Shell Nor Shot' in Civil War America, 1861-1865
Black History Month Keynote Address by Wilma King, MU Black Studies
4-5:30 p.m. in 104 Arts & Science Building
Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
We Watch Film Series screening of Faubourg Tremé, discussion and reception, with live music and catering by Jazz
7-9 p.m. in Stotler Lounge, Memorial Union
Thursday, Feb. 24
Lincoln University's Roots in the Civil War
Brown bag lunch presentation by Debra Greene, Professor of History, Lincoln University
12-1 p.m. in 323 Gentry Hall
Haiti from the Perspectives of Two Haitian-American Aritsts
Poetry reading and performance with poet and painter Marilene Phipps-Kettlewell ("In the Company of Heaven") and Wesleyan University anthropology professor, poet and performance artist Gina Ulysse ("I am a Storm"), led by Flore Zephir and Valerie Kaussen, MU Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
3:30-5:30 p.m. in the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center
Summary Justice in Little Dixie
Discussion of the James Scott lynching case by Douglas Hunt, professor emeritus, MU Department of English
7 p.m. in the Columbia Public Library
Monday, Feb. 28
Black Knowledge Bowl
Mizzou Black Men's Initiative event
7 p.m. in the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center
Wednesday, March 2
Self-Determination: Development of Africa on Food Security and Water Scarcity
Panel discussion featuring the African Students Association
7 p.m. in Stotler Lounge, Memorial Union
Tuesday, March 22
Intensely Human
Lecture by Truman State University professor Margaret Humphreys, author of Intensely Human: The Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War
4 p.m. in Jesse Wrench Auditorium, Memorial Union
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