Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia’s February calendar is filled with events to celebrate Black History Month 2006, themed “Celebrating Community: A Tribute to Black Fraternal, Civic and Social Institutions.”
The title nods to the 100th anniversary of the first black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, and the 110th anniversary of the National Association of Negro Women, according to Tracey Ford, assistant dean of students at the African-American Cultural Center and organizer of UGA’s Black History Month events.
Several guests, scheduled to visit UGA, were participants in the civil rights movement. It’s Ford’s hope that the surface-level knowledge most students have of that movement will be deepened by the presence of those who participated in it, she says.
“There is also always the focus of encouraging today’s youth to find their place in the history of that movement and to examine what they can build from it now,” says Ford. “We have a tendency to think of these big groups making a difference, but usually its one or two people who decide to make a change.
“This month is for everybody,” she continues, “for the entire campus to come together to celebrate this aspect of American history.”
Focus on the Permanent Collection: Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence will be on display at the Georgia Museum of Art in the Martha Dinos Gallery through Feb. 28. This display offers a close look at Bearden’s Mecklenberg County, Lamp at Midnight and Lawrence’s Children at Play, works by two of the most renowned African-American artists of the 20th century. The display will come down briefly during the museum’s biannual Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, which is Feb. 17-18. It will go back on display once the symposium closes. On Feb. 22 at 5:30 p.m., there will be a lecture about the works on display in conjunction with Black History Month. For more information, call 706/542-4662, or visit www.uga.edu/gamuseum.
On Feb. 1, the AACC will sponsor three screenings of the documentary February One, which tells the story of the Greensboro Four, the young men who initiated the lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, N.C., on Feb. 1, 1960. The film will play at 12:15, 1:30 and 3 p.m. in Memorial Hall’s Adinkra Hall, in anticipation of Franklin McCain’s, one of the Greensboro Four, visit on Feb. 23. Call 706/542-8468 for more information.
On Feb. 3, Ondra Thomas Krouse and Stacy Wright will deliver the Women’s Studies Speaker Series lecture, “Women, Professionalization and Race: Teaching African-American Literature in the Old South,” at 12:20 p.m. in room 350 of the Student Learning Center. The Black Issues in Higher Education Conference, sponsored by the College of Education, will be held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education on the same day. Registration for the conference is $20. For more information, call 706/542-2134.
The National Pan Hellenic Council’s Face Off Step Show will be at 7 p.m., Feb. 4 at the Classic Center. Advance tickets are $15 and available at the Tate Student Center. Tickets will be $20 at the door.
The Office of Institutional Diversity will sponsor a Rosa Parks Commemorative Event at 3:30 p.m., Feb. 6 in the Tate Student Center’s Reception Hall, where students will reflect on her life and learn more about her role in the civil rights movement.
On Feb. 7, Georgia Supreme Court Justice and UGA alumnus Harold Melton will speak on the subject “Vote to Empower,” sponsored by UGA’s NAACP. For the time and place of the lecture, call 706/542-8468.
On Feb. 8 at 12:20 p.m., Athens physician Farris T. Johnson will be the featured speaker for the Student National Pharmacy Association Black History Month program, held in the pharmacy college’s auditorium. For more information, contact Stuart Feldman, professor and director of UGA’s interdisciplinary toxicology program, feldman@mail.rx.uga.edu.
Also on Feb. 8, Kenneth Kilfara will present “Blacklist: Investigating the Life of Canada Lee,” at the Georgia Museum of Art at 5:30 p.m. Kilfara will screen a 15-minute reel from his documentary work in progress and talk about the ill-fated career of actor and activist Canada Lee, considered the most influential black actor of his time.
The National Council of Negro Women’s second annual hair show will be held on Feb. 10 at 8 p.m. in the Tate Student Center’s Georgia Hall. A specially themed edition of WUOG 90.5 FM’s radio show, “Who Put the Bomp?” will air that night at 8-10 p.m. Tune in for soul and R&B from Georgia musicians in the 1950s and 60s.
On Feb. 11 at 10 a.m., Georgia Museum of Art will host a Family Day in celebration of Black History Month where families can craft collages inspired by the works in the galleries.
The Black History Month keynote address, featuring FBI Special Agent in Charge Cassandra Chandler, will be 6 p.m., Feb. 13 in room 171 of the Student Learning Center. Refreshments will follow.
On Feb. 15, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center and the AACC will co-sponsor a screening of the film Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin at 6 p.m. in room 248 of the Student Learning Center. Rustin, one of the first Freedom Riders and an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, was a key strategist of the civil rights movement, but has seldom been highlighted throughout history because of his homosexuality, according to Ford. For more information, call 706/542-4160.
The14th Annual Darl Snyder lecture will feature the University of Chicago’s Salifoko Mufwene, who will speak on “Myths of Globalization: What African Demolinguistics Reveal.” The lecture, hosted by the African Studies Institute, will take place at 4 p.m. on Feb. 15 in the Georgia Center for Continuing Education’s Masters Hall and is free.
A performance of James Weldon Johnson’s classic verse “God’s Trombones,” embellished by music and dance, will take place at 7 p.m., Feb. 15, in the First AME Church C.D. Wilkerson Education Center, at the corner of Hull and Dougherty streets. Freda Scott Giles, associate professor in UGA’s department of theatre and film studies, is coordinating the event. Call 706/542-2102 for more information.
UGA alumnus Anthony Hyatt, who recited the “I Have a Dream Speech” at the Jan. 13 King Week Freedom Breakfast, will return Feb. 16 at noon to present a one-person show of monologues by African-American playwrights, held in the Memorial Ballroom. Lunch will be served at the event, which is sponsored by the AACC. The AACC also sponsors the Abeneefoo Kuo Honor Society Induction Ceremony at 4 p.m., Feb. 19 in the Tate Student Center. Call 706/542-8468 for more information.
On Feb. 16-17, the “Democracy and Culture: African Perspective” symposium will be held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, hosted by the African Studies Institute and Department of International Affairs. Registration is free before Jan. 31 and $20 after. Visit www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/conferences/2006/Feb/15/african_persp for more information.
Three Atlanta men, the Rev. Joseph Fowler, J.T. Johnson and Gordon Sellers, will be the featured speakers in “Words of Wisdom: Stories of the Movement featuring Civil Rights Veterans,” at 6 p.m., Feb. 21, in Memorial Hall’s Adinkra Hall, sponsored by the AACC and NAACP. Refreshments will be served.
The Black Affairs Council will sponsor its oratorical contest, “Education Disparities,” at 7 p.m., Feb. 21 in room 101 of the Student Learning Center. Call 706/542-5773 for more information.
Franklin McCain, one of the Greensboro Four featured in the documentary scheduled to screen Feb. 1, will give the “Call to Consciousness” lecture of Feb. 23. Call 706/542-8468 for the time and place. UGA’s NAACP, Abeneefoo Kuo Honor Society and AACC sponsor the event.
Students from the East Athens Educational Dance Center will perform 7 p.m., Feb. 25 and 3 p.m., Feb. 26 at the Morton Theatre. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Call 706/613-3624 for more information.
Black History Month concludes with a book club meeting to discuss Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael L. Thurmond’s A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History at noon, Feb. 27 in Memorial Hall’s Adinkra Hall. Copies of the book are available from Multicultural Services and Programs, in room 102 of Memorial Hall. Thurmond will be on hand to answer questions at the event, and refreshments will be served.
More information on UGA’s Black History Month events is available at www.uga.edu/aacc/.
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