Black History Month at a Glance

Dickinson celebrates Black History Month with educational and cultural events

The Dickinson community marks the 40th-annual Black History Month with a full program of free, public events. Sponsored by several departments and organizations, the events present a multidimensional view of African Americans’ meaningful contributions to American history and culture.

• Monthlong: Student Activism at Dickinson, first floor, Waidner-Spahr Library
• Feb. 8 – Poetry reading by Aja Monet, Allison Hall, 7 p.m.
• Feb. 11 – How to Survive a Plague screening and discussion, Althouse 106, 6:30 p.m.
• Feb. 16 – Youth Protest in the Francophone World From the 1960s to Today by Burleigh Hendrickson, Weiss 235, 5 p.m.
• Feb. 17 – Dream: An American Story screening and discussion, Stern Center Great Room, 6:30 p.m.
• Feb. 20 – The Hair Journals, Asbell Center for Jewish Life, noon
• Feb. 21 – Spoken Word and Poetry by Elizabeth Acevedo, Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

The centerpiece is the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity’s Radical Youth Film Series, presenting three award-winning movies about the history and experience of the African disaspora.

The series kicked off Feb. 1 with Freedom Riders, which depicts Civil Rights advocates’ journey through the Deep South in 1961; and continues with a Feb. 11 screening of How to Survive a Plague, a 2012 documentary about two coalitions’ work to destigmatize and fight AIDS during the 1980s and '90s; a group discussion, led by Assistant Professor of Political Science Kathleen Marchetti, will accompany the screening. The third film in the series, Dream: An American Story (Feb. 17) follows an undocumented young man, brought to America as a child, who is about to graduate from college in the wake of the immigration debate. A group discussion will follow, led by Associate Professor of Spanish Margaret Frolich, Assistant Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies Katie Oliviero, Assistant Professor of Spanish Hector Reyes-Zaga and Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies Eric Vazquez.

The month also features two high-profile poetry readings—the first, sponsored the Dickinson Review, Belles Lettres and the Exiled Poetry Society, and the second, by the Popel Shaw Center—that bring fresh, accomplished young voices to the Dickinson stage. Aja Monet (Feb. 8) came to national attention when she was dubbed the youngest poet to seize the grand-slam title at New York’s famed Nuyorican Poets Café; she went on to perform at President Obama’s inauguration and at the Apollo Theatre, Town Hall Theatre and the United Nations. Elizabeth Acevedo (Feb. 21) is a featured performer on BET and Mun2 and has appeared at the Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center and the Ted Talks stage, among others.

Two other events bring into focus special topics in the discussion of activism, culture and history—Youth Protest in the Francophone World From the 1960s to Today, a Feb. 16 lecture by Boston College history professor Burleigh Hendrickson, sponsored by the French Club and Department of French, and The Hair Journals luncheon, held at the Asbell Center for Jewish Life Feb. 20 and sponsored by the Popel Shaw Center, Hillel and the Women’s & Gender Resource Center.

A monthlong interactive exhibit highlights student-activist efforts in civil rights, antiwar, antirape and divestment advocacy. Multimedia viewing stations bring key events in Dickinson student activism to life, including artifacts from the campus visit of Nobel Peace Prize winner and activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who spoke at Dickinson in 1961.

Dickinson’s African American Society (AAS) also hosts a series of events this month, with Unsung Heroes series events on Feb. 10 and 17, a Black History Month Showcase (Feb. 20), a movie night (Basquiat, Feb. 24) and the Black History Festival/Hope Station Community Event on Feb. 27, cosponsored by the Department of Africana Studies.

Held at 10 a.m. at the Stuart Community Center in downtown Carlisle, the Black History Festival features storytelling and information sessions, food by local vendors and music by the Dickinson College Gospel Choir, bringing Dickinson students into the local community to help raise awareness of Black History Month and support leadership opportunities for local youth. A youth dance will follow at 7 p.m., and an on-campus dinner discussion on the future of the black community is slated for March 2.

Learn more

• “Reclaiming the Radical”
• Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity
• "Witnessing History" (Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a preview of his 'I Have a Dream' speech at Dickinson)
• Department of Africana Studies
• "Sustaining What Matters"
• Latest News

Published February 8, 2016