events in the community and around the country

 iDBI is a place to find information on events, both local and national, related to African and African American Studies.

To post an event, please send an email to iDBI@fas.harvard.edu

For Events Sponsored by the Du Bois Institue, visit our calendar.

Call for Papers: 36th Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association

"Generation to Generation"

Boston, Massachusetts 17-20 November 2011
Submission Deadline: 15 February 2011

MORE INFORMATION

previous events

Friday, February 5, 2010, 3-5pm
South African Justice Albie Sachs: The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law
Harvard Law School

Saturday, February 6, 2010, 6-8pm
Albie Sachs: Art and Justice, The Art of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Harvard Graduate School of Design

Saturday, February 6, 2010, 8pm
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Sanders Theater, Harvard University

Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 4-6pm
Racial Profilling: A National and Local Crises
UMass Boston Africana Studies Department

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 6-8pm
African Scholars Night
A benefit dinner establishing academic scholarships for disadvantaged high-achieving students in Ghana.
Harvard African Students Association

 Monday, February 22, 4-6pm
Joshua Guild: "Shadows of the Metropolis: Urban Space and the Transformation of Black Communities in Postwar New York and London"
Charles Warren Center, Harvard University

Thursday, February 25, 5-7pm

Aliyyah Abdur-Rahman: "Black Sexual Politics and the Dilemma of Black Families in 'Post-racial'
America"

The Gender and Sexuality Seminar of the Harvard Humanities Center

 

 

Monday, March 8, 4-6pm
Cynthia Young (Boston College; Warren Fellow)
* "Black Ops and Sleeper Cells: Race, the War on Terror and Popular Culture from Above and Below"
A presentation of the Warren Center's 2009-10 Workshop on "Empire, Sovereignty, Migration, Diaspora: Transnational America from Above and Below."
History Library, First Floor Level, Robinson Hall
Sponsored by the Charles Warren Center

Friday and Saturday, March 12, 13
"International Society and its Discontents."
The tenth annual graduate student conference on international history, presented with support from the Warren Center.
Information at: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~conih/

Monday, March 22, 4-6pm
Marcus Rediker (University of Pittsburgh; Workshop Guest)
"Representing Slave Revolt in a Slave Society: Images of the Amistad Rebellion"
A presentation of the Warren Center's 2009-10 Workshop on "Empire, Sovereignty, Migration, Diaspora: Transnational America from Above and Below."
History Library, First Floor Level, Robinson Hall
Sponsored by the Charles Warren Center

Monday, March 29, 3-5 pm
Alex Lubin (University of New Mexico; Workshop Guest)
"Liberation Geography: Reconstructing Black, Arab, and Jewish Identities"
Note non-standard location: Robinson Hall Basement Seminar Room
Sponsored by the Charles Warren Center

Monday, March 29, 4-6pm
Lauren Coyle (University of Chicago)
* "Refiguring the Anthropology and Sociology of Money, Post-Financial Crisis: Beyond Performativity and Discursivity to Money as Capital"
Presented by the Workshop on the Political Economy of Modern Capitalism, with support from the Warren Center.
History Library, First Floor, Robinson Hall
Sponsored by the Charles Warren Center

 Monday April 5, 4:00pm
Jeffrey Alexander and William Julius Wilson
The Political Power of Metaphor: Obama Fights the "Celebrity" Label in Campaign 2008
Harvard Culture and Social Analysis Workshop
Weiner Auditorium, Taubman Ground floor
Harvard Kennedy School, 15 Eliot St

Cambridge, Massachusetts

May Events at the Harvard Book Store

Tuesday, May 18th, 12:30pm Harvard AIDS Initiative Program on International Health & Human Rights Unity Dow is a novelist, human rights activist, and judge on the Interim Constitutional Court of Kenya.  A native of Botswana, Dow served for ten years as the first woman justice on Botswana's High Court. LOCATION: Harvard School of Public Health, FXB Building, 651 Huntington Avenue, Room 301, Boston. INFORMATION: Lunch will be provided.  For more information, please e-mail Martha Henry at mshenry@hsph.harvard.edu.

Tuesday, May 18th, 7:00pm Harvard AIDS Initiative Harvard's Lasker Professor of Health Sciences Max Essex and activist and judge Unity Dow discuss their new book, which explores the impact of HIV/AIDS on Botswana. In the year 2000, the World Health Organization estimated that 85 percent of the 15 year-olds in Botswana would eventually die of AIDS. In Saturday Is for Funerals, the authors explain why that won't happen. "A remarkable account of the human effect of a pandemic, written by two people with an intimate knowledge of Botswana and its struggle to deal with AIDS."          - Alexander McCall Smith "The authors offer an empathetic account of everyday life in a country where the disease infects one of every four adults."        - Publishers Weekly   LOCATION: Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. INFORMATION: For more information, please e-mail Martha Henry at mshenry@hsph.harvard.edu, or visit http://bit.ly/9oNXg7.

Museum of African American History Museum of African American History     Boston  46 Joy Street Boston, MA 02114 617-720-2991 Hours of Operation Monday to Saturday 10:00am to 4:00 pm   Nantucket  PO Box 2637 Nantucket, MA  02584 508-228-9833 Hours of Operation June to October Monday to Friday 11:00am to 3:00pm Saturday 11:00am to 1:00pm Sunday 1:00pm to 3:00pm   Administrative Offices 14 Beacon Street Suite 719 Boston, MA 02108 617-725-0022 www.maah.org     The Museum of African American History Presents Profiles In Color         An Interview and Discussion With  Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and Chair, African and African American Studies, Harvard University Thursday, May 20, 2010 Abiel Smith School 46 Joy Street Beacon Hill, Boston Interview By Carole A.Simpson Journalist-In-Residence  Museum of African American History And Leader-In-Residence Emerson College, Journalism Department           Carole Simpson will interview Professor Higginbotham who will discuss her recently completed contemporized version of John Hope Franklin's classic African American survey, From Slavery to Freedom.   RSVP at (617) 725-0022 X 14 or rsvp@maah.org   Parking is available for $5 at the Charles River Plaza parking garage under the Holiday Inn on Cambridge Street.  Bring your parking ticket for validation.    For more information, visit  www.maah.org

May 21-23: "France Noire" Film Festival

Organized by Fellows Trica Danielle Keaton and Arlette Frund

 

 

You are cordially invited to the Program on Human Rights and Global Economy, Human Rights Caucus, and the Northeastern Law Forum: Discussions on Contemporary Issues presentation of  
The Law Forum: Discussions on Contemporary Legal Issues present
Coming Home   The Dry Storm
New England Premiere!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
5:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Northeastern University School of Law
65 Forsyth Street, 240 Dockser Hall

 
A documentary film about the struggle of local activists in the face of the demolition of nearly all public housing in New Orleans.  

Remarks by Executive Producer Catherine Albisa (NESRI) and Professor Hope Lewis of Northeastern University School of Law.  
 
There will be a reception and post-film discussion.

Anchor Books Price: $15.95

Wednesday, August 4th   COLSON WHITEHEAD

reads from

Sag Harbor

 

Harvard Book Store is excited to welcome former MacArthur Fellowship recipient and award-winning author COLSON WHITEHEAD for a reading from Sag Harbor, which is newly released in paperback.

Benji Cooper is one of the few black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of African American professionals have built a world of their own.
 
The summer of ’85 won’t be without its usual trials and tribulations, of course. There will be complicated new handshakes to fumble through and state-of-the-art profanity to master. Benji will be tested by contests big and small, by his misshapen haircut (which seems to have a will of its own), by the New Coke Tragedy, and by his secret Lite FM addiction. But maybe, just maybe, this summer might be one for the ages.

"[Sag Harbor] is Whitehead′s most enjoyable book—warm and funny, carefully observed, and beautifully written, studded with small moments of pain and epiphany. It is sometimes possible to tell that a writer is enjoying himself, or that he isn′t. Here, finally, Whitehead seems to be having the time of his life; one can almost feel him relaxing into this book as if it actually were the summer home of his youth: pulling into the driveway after a grueling drive from the city, breathing the sea air deep into his lungs, pouring himself a cocktail." —The Boston Globe

Note: This event was originally scheduled for July 22, but had to be rescheduled due to illness.

CONTACT:

General Info:
617.661.1515

Media:
617.661.1424 ex.1

Email:

rbcass@harvard.com

Event Information

DATE:	Wednesday, August 4th
TIME:	7:00 PM
LOCATION:	Harvard Book Store 1256 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge
TICKETS:	This event is free; no tickets are required

Colson Whitehead was born in New York City. His first novel, The Intuitionist, won the QPB New Voices Award and was an Ernest Hemingway/PEN Award finalist. His second novel, John Henry Days, was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. He is also the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award. Whitehead lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Photo Credit: Erin Patrice O’Brien

 

 

Configurations Paintings by Clarence Major curator Andrea Kalinowski   August 6- September 3, 2010 Opening Reception Friday, August 6 6:00 pm The artist will be present For additional information about the exhibit or opening reception, please contact: PIERRE MENARD GALLERY 12 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 pierre@pierremenardgallery.com www.pierremenardgallery.com 617.868.2033 Sunday Afternoon, acrylic and collage, 44 x 65 in

       

June 15th - August 27th, 2010

September 7, 5pm
CAS Annual Welcome Reception
Harvard University Committee on African Studies
Cambridge, Massachusetts

September 15, 4-6pm
Andrew Preston
“Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy”
1730 Cambridge Street (CGIS-South), Room S-050.
Charles Warren Center
Cambridge, Massachusetts

September 20, 4pm
Christopher Fennell
"African Atlantic Archaeology, Cultural Complexities and Multiscalar Dynamics"
Harvard University Committee on African Studies
Cambridge, Massachusetts

September 20, 6:30pm

Come to the Cabaret

A panel discussion at the A.R.T.

Humanities Center at Harvard

Oberon, 2 Arrow Street

Cambridge, Massachusetts

September 23, 5:30pm
Lorenz J. Finison
"Boston’s Black Bicyclists of the 1890s"
Museum of African American History
46 Joy Street, Boston, MA  02114

September 24, 2-4pm
Charles Postel
“Populism and the State: A Neo-Progressive Assessment”
1737 Cambridge Street (CGIS-North), Room K-262.
Charles Warren Center
Cambridge, Massachusetts

"Subversive, seriously funny..." - New York Magazine "Lee confirms herself as one of the best experimental playwrights in America." - Time Out New York Young Jean Lee's The Shipment September 24 - 25, 7:30 pm September 26, 2 pm “When starting a play, I ask myself, "What's the last play in the world I would ever want to write?" Then I force myself to write it."For The Shipment, Korean-American playwright Young Jean Lee challenged herself to write about black American identity. What results is a sharp, funny, and irreverent piece of theater that challenges audiences to confront their own preconceived notions of race. more>> Discussion with the playwright will follow each performance. Click here to find out more>> Watch the Trailer Go Further: Artist Statement and Bio>> Reading List>> Review: "By the Skin of Our Teeth," Hilton Als, The New Yorker Please note: there will be no late seating for this performance so please show up on time.

September 28, 4-6pm
Thomas Bender
“Rethinking American History in a Global Age: The Final La Pietra Report, Ten Years Later.”
Robinson Hall Lower Library
Charles Warren Center
Cambridge, Massachusetts

September 28, 4pm
Noel Twagiramungu
"Rwanda 1994-2010: Some Keys to Understanding Post-Genocide Trends and Challenges"
Harvard University Committee on African Studies
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Now Showing Until September 20th The Life and Times of Congressman Robert Smalls, 1839-1915 Museum of African American History 46 Joy Street, Boston, MA  02114

 Monday, October 4th, 12:00pm
African Studies Center, Boston University
Walter Rodney Lecture Series
"THE YORUBA BATA AND DUNDUN MUSIC/DANCE IN NIGERIA: THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES"
ELEEL OLASUNKANMI OJUADE
University of Ilorin
LOCATION: Boston University, African Studies Center, 232 Bay State Road, Room 505, Boston.
INFORMATION: For more information, please e-mail abellows@bu.edu.

Monday, October 4th, 6:00pm
Committee on African Studies
OPENING RECEPTION FOR "CHILDREN OF KAKUMA": AN EXHIBIT BY ALEX PALMER
Join Alex Palmer and the Committee on African Studies for the opening of his exhibit "Children of Kakuma."  Taken during his summer internship in Kenya, these photos capture the spirit of childhood in the Turkana District in the northwestern region of the country.
LOCATION: CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street. Fisher Family Commons, Cambridge.
INFORMATION: For more information, please contact cafrica@fas.harvard.edu.

Wednesday, October 6, 4-6pm
Charles Warren Center
Jessica Gienow-Hecht (University of Köln)
"How to Sell the State: Nation Branding, Civil Society and Cultural Diplomacy since 1850"
Presented by Harvard's International and Global History Seminar
LOCATION: 1730 Cambridge Street (CGIS-South), Room S-050
For the precirculated paper please contact Kate Brady (kbrady@wcfia.harvard.edu)
INFORMATION: Warren Center Website

Wednesday, October 6th, 7:30pm
Johnny D's Uptown Restaurant & Music Club
KHAIRA ARBY
Malian singer Khaira Arby, the "Nightingale of North Mali", will perform her signature music for the Cambridge community.
LOCATION: Johnny D's Uptown Restaurant & Music Club, Davis Square, 17 Holland St. Somerville.
INFORMATION: For more information, please visit www.johnnyds.com.
 

Thursday, October 7th, 1:30pm
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health
Dissertation Defense Series
"MALNUTRITION, INFECTION, AND IMMUNITY IN TANZANIA"
KOSUKE KAWAI
Harvard School of Public Health
LOCATION: Kresge Building, 677 Huntington Ave, Building 3, Room 708, Boston.
INFORMATION: For more information, please e-mail registrar@hsph.harvard.edu or call (617) 432-1032.

Friday, October 8th, 12:30pm
Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Work in Progress Lunch Series
"BELIEF IN YOURSELF: A FIELD EXPERIMENT ON BELIEFS AND SAVINGS IN GHANA"
MARGARET MCCONNELL
Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
The Work in Progress Lunch Series focuses on salient issues in population health, demography, and economics. These informal gatherings serve as opportunities for researchers to garner important feedback from others working in similar areas.
LOCATION: Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge.
INFORMATION: For more information, please contact Sue Gilbert at sgilbert@hsph.harvard.edu.

Saturday, October 9th, 10am and 5pm:

Tuesday, October 12, 4-6pm
Charles Warren Center
David Kinkela (Warren Fellow, State University of New York at Fredonia)
"Images of Health and Development: Depicting the Battle against Disease and Communists in Italy, 1943-53"
Presented by the Warren Center's Workshop on the History of North America in Global Perspective
LOCATION: History Library, First Floor, Robinson Hall
INFORMATION: Warren Center Website

Wednesday, October 13th, 6:00pm
Humanities Center at Harvard Presents
Master Class: Richard Tuck on Jeremy Bentham
LOCATION: Thompson Room, Barker Center
INFORMATION: Humanities Center Website

Thursday, October 14th, 6:30pm
Humanities Center at Harvard Presents
Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies: Consequences of Skepticism
Opening event. Two day conference to follow.
LOCATION: Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall
INFORMATION: Humanities Center Website

Monday, October 18, 4-6pm
Charles Warren Center
Perry Mehrling (Barnard College)
"The New Lombard Street: How the Fed Became the Dealer of Last Resort"
Presented by the Workshop on the Political Economy of Modern Capitalism, with support from the Warren Center
LOCATION: History Library, First Floor, Robinson Hall
INFORMATION: Warren Center Website

Monday, October 25th, 6:00pm
Humanities Center at Harvard Presents
Alan Riding on his book, And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris
LOCATION: Thompson Room, Barker Center
INFORMATION: Humanities Center Website

Tuesday, October 26, 4-6pm
Charles Warren Center
John Munro (Warren Fellow, Simon Fraser University)
Excerpt of work-in-progress, "The Anticolonial Front: Cold War Imperialism and the Struggle against Global White Supremacy, 1945-1960"
Presented by the Warren Center's Workshop on the History of North America in Global Perspective
LOCATION: History Library, First Floor, Robinson Hall
INFORMATION: Warren Center Website

Wednesday, October 27, 4-6pm
Charles Warren Center
Fredrik Logevall (Cornell University)
"International History of the Franco-Vietminh War"
Presented by Harvard's International and Global History Seminar
LOCATION: 1730 Cambridge Street (CGIS-South), Room S-050
For the precirculated paper please contact Kate Brady (kbrady@wcfia.harvard.edu)
INFORMATION: Warren Center Website

Wednesday, October 27, 4:30pm
Charles Warren Center
Jill Lepore (David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard, and staff writer for The New Yorker)
"The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History"
LOCATION: History Library, First Floor, Robinson Hall
INFORMATION: Warren Center Website

Join Us! Sunday 10.10.10 4:00 pm Converse Hall 88 Tremont Street Boston, MA   Free for Museum members   Adults $10  Children 10¢       Mrs. Thurgood Marshall at the Museum of African American History 2004   Honorary Co-Chairs: The Honorable John Kerry The Honorable Deval L. Patrick and First Lady Diane Patrick The Honorable Byron Rushing The Honorable Thomas Menino    Special Guests: Mrs. Thurgood Marshall     Mr. Charles Dutton   Featuring readings of historic passages by prominent local and national leaders, and musical selections.   Presenters include: Dr. Lois Brown Wayne and Jacqui Budd Vivian Cooley-Collier Lydia Diamond Lloyd Garrison Charles and Pamela Ogletree      To RSVP for this event, please email:     rsvp@maah.org or call:  617-725-0022 ext. 25.

November 13, 2010
The Skin Quilt Project: Uplifting Our Culture, Celebrating Tradition
Towne Art Gallery/Wheelock College: 180 The Riverway, Boston, MA
www.wheelock.edu/townegallery

Please join us in the Towne Art Gallery this Saturday (11/13) from 2:00-3:30 pm for a reception to celebrate the current, exhibition: The Skin Quilt Project: Uplifting Our Culture, Celebrating Tradition

From 3:30-4:30 we will watch a screening of the film The Skin Quilt Project in the Alumni room, followed by a question and answer period with the director and creator of the film, Lauren Cross. The Q&A will be facilitated by Susan Owusu.

The Skin Quilt Project is a documentary film that explores skin color, cultural pride, and the art of fellowship among African-American quilters. We are thrilled that Ms. Cross has chosen Wheelock College and the Towne Art Gallery as the inaugural venue for this very beautiful and thought provoking exhibition.

The Skin Quilt Project has been designated as an official selection of the International Black Women’s Film Festival for 2010.

The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College cordially invites you to join us for our 40^th Annual Dr. S Allen Counter Christmas Concert, “Only By His Grace,” on Friday and Saturday, December 3^rd and 4^th. The concert will be held at Memorial Church in Harvard Yard and admission is FREE! Tickets will be available as of November 17^th . Come join us as we celebrate season of love, joy, and holiday cheer. This is a concert you don’t want to miss!

The 40th Annual Dr. S. Allen Counter Christmas Concert

Friday and Saturday, December 3rd and 4th, 2010

8pm to 10pm

Memorial Church

Tickets are free, and will be available at the Harvard Box Office 

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2010 • 1:30 p.m.

 The Humanities Center presents
 AFTER BROWN, WHAT NEXT?
 A Conference to Celebrate Martha Minow's recent book
 In Brown’s Wake: Legacies of America’s Educational Landmark

 Participants include:
 Homi Bhabha
Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities and Director
 of the Humanities Center at Harvard
 
 Ronald Dworkin
Professor of Philosophy and Frank Henry Sommer Professor
 of Law, New York University
 
 Noah Feldman
Bemis Professor of International Law, Harvard
 
 Lani Guinier
Bennett Boskey Professor of Law, Harvard
 
 Evelynn Hammonds
Barbara Gutman Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and
 of African and African American Studies and Dean of Harvard College
 
 Randall Kennedy
Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard
 
 Joel Klein
Chancellor of New York City Schools
 
 Martha Minow
Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law and Dean of the Faculty of Law, Harvard
 
 Robert Post
Sol and Lillian Goldman Professor of Law and Dean of the Law School, Yale
 
 Reva Siegel
Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law, Yale
 
 Made possible with the generous support of Catherine C. Marron
 
 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2010 • 1:30 p.m.
 Thompson Room, Barker Center 110, 12 Quincy Street
 open to the public, seating is limited
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Humanities Center at Harvard ~ 12 Quincy Street ~ Cambridge, MA  02138 ~ 617.495.0738 ~ www.fas.harvard.edu/~humcentr

Opening Invitation

The Honorable Michael A. Nutter, Mayor, City of Philadelphia and Superintendent Cynthia MacLeod, Independence National Historical Park, National Park Service

Invite you to the ribbon cutting ceremony of
President's House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation

December 15, 2010, 12pm -- 6th & Market Streets, Philadelphia, PA

RSVP by December 6, 2010
(215) 564-6151 or presidentshouse@phila.gov

President's House Overview

President's House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation is a commemorative site situated at the location where both George Washington and John Adams served their terms as Presidents of the United States of America. The site gives voice to the long-obscured story of at least nine enslaved Africans who toiled at the house during George Washington's presidency. The site embodies a profound contradiction during the infancy of the United States - the same home that witnessed the birth of a free nation and its first steps toward democracy also sustained the indefensible enslavement of individuals. The names of the nine documented enslaved individuals are: Austin, Christopher, Giles, Joe, Moll, Oney, Paris and Richmond.