https://diversity.unc.edu/programs-and-initiatives/black-history-month/
Black History Month
Each year the theme for Black History Month is announced by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in Washington DC. This year they have chosen Civil Rights in America to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
February is Black History Month at UNC
20% Off African American Authors
All Month
Bulls Head Bookshop, UNC Student Stores
To celebrate Black History Month, Bull’s Head Bookshop is offering 20% off of all books in our African American Studies section, as well as 20% off all works of fiction and poetry by African American authors. Sale applies only to regularly priced, in-stock merchandise. Sale cannot be combined with any other discount, coupon, etc.
Sponsor: Bull’s Head Bookshop
On View at the Ackland Art Museum: Works by Hale Woodruff and Aaron Douglas
All Month
Ackland Art Museum
This special installation presents new arrivals to the Ackland by two renowned African American artists: an expressionistic 1940s Mississippi landscape by Hale Woodruff and a previously unknown gouache version of one of Aaron Douglas’ most important compositions from the same decade. On view throughout the month of February. Free admission.
Sponsor: Ackland Art Museum
Black History Month Dinner Stations
Wednesdays, All Month
12:00 Noon | Top of Lenior and Rams Head Dining Halls
Carolina Dining Services will feature special food selections celebrating Black History Month each Wednesday throughout February.
Sponsor: Carolina Dining Services
Black History Month (BHM) Kickoff
February 3
12:00 Noon | The Pit
Join members of the Black Student Movement (BSM) in the Pit for cake and performances by Harmonyx and EROT (Ebony Readers/Onyx Theatre.
Sponsor: BSM
African American History Month Lecture: Hasan Kwame Jeffries
February 5
7:00 pm | Sonja Haynes Stone Center Theater
Award-winning author of Bloody Lowndes: Civil rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt, Hasan Kwame Jeffries, will be the speaker for University’s ninth annual African American History Month Lecture. He will speak on “Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs: North Carolina and the Struggle for Justice and Equality.”
Sponsor: The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
Curator’s Seminar: 1930s Prints by African American Artists
February 6
6:00 pm | Ackland Art Museum | Ackland members: $25, All others: $35, RSVP to Allison Portnow for reservation (919) 843-3687
Led by Ackland Art Museum Chief Curator Peter Nisbet, this seminar offers an intimate look at prints by African American artists from the Museum’s permanent collection that are not currently on view, as well as an exploration of their connections to the Ackland’s spring exhibitions.
Sponsor: Ackland Art Museum
Discussion with Stone Center Scholar-in-Residence Joel Zito Araújo and Haile Germina
February 6
7:00 pm | Stone Center Hitchcock Multi-Purpose Room
Brazilian filmmaker Joel Zito Araújo and Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Germina discuss documentary and feature filmmaking and the convergences and divergences of their respective styles of storytelling.
Sponsor: The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
Lift Every Voice
February 9
3:00 pm | Friday Center for Continuing Education
In celebration of Black History Month, the Friday Center for Continuing Education proudly presents a concert and lecture presented by soprano and UNC-Chapel Hill professor of music Louise Toppin.
Sponsor: The William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education
Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film: RAÇA
February 11
7:00 pm | Nelson Mandela Auditorium, FedEx Global Education Building
The feature documentary RAÇA (Race), from Brazilian filmmaker Joel Zito Araújo and American Megan Mylan, tackles racial inequality in Brazil, via the lives of three black Brazilians: Paulo Paim, the only black senator of the republic; Netinho Paula, singer and TV presenter, and Tiny dos Santos, Maroon activist and granddaughter of slaves. A discussion with director Joel Zito Araújo will follow the screening.
Sponsors: The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History and The Institute for the Study of the Americas
NAACP Founders Day
February 12
11:00 am – 2:00 pm | The Pit
Come for cake, celebrate 105 years of fighting for social justice, and become part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Sponsor: NAACP
UNC Faculty Speaker: Dr. Renee Alexander Craft
February 12
5:30 pm | Upendo Lounge, SASB North
Sponsor: Black Student Movement
Union Art Gallery Reception
February 12
7:00 pm | Union Art Gallery
This event will honor local artist William Paul Thomas and winners of BSM’s first Black History Month photo contest will be announced.
Sponsor: Black Student Movement
Film: The Butler
February 14
9:30 pm | Student Union Auditorium
February 15
7:00 pm & 12:00 Midnight | Student Union Auditorium
Directed by Lee Daniels, this historical fiction follows Cecil Gaines as he serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler at the White House, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other major events affect this man’s life, family, and American society.
Sponsor: Carolina Union Activities Board
African American English: Thinking about Dialect and Education
February 17
4:00 pm | Pleasants Family Room, Wilson Library
The Institute of African American Research (IAAR) hosts a panel discussion with Lisa Green, Professor of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; J. Michael Terry, Associate Professor of Linguistics, UNC-Chapel Hill; and Walt Wolfram, William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics, North Carolina State University.
Sponsor: BSM
“Defining Our Culture”
February 18
5:30 pm | Upendo Lounge, SASB North
A forum on how minorities in America define their culture in a society constructed for their marginalization. The discussion will take an innovative approach on the celebration of Black History Month by focusing on what our actions now will do for the future.
Sponsor: BSM
Generation to Generation: A Personal Perspective on Black Experience from 1930-2014
February 19
5:30 pm | Upendo Lounge, SASB North
Members of generations from 1930-2014 will give personal insights and experiences of growing up black in the United States.
Sponsor: BSM
Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film: Daughters of the Wind
February 20
7:00 pm | Stone Center Hitchcock room
With an impressive cast of the best Afro-Brazilian actors, Daughters of the Wind chronicles the lives of a family from Northeastern Brazil. The story follows the complex relationship between a set of sisters, mothers, and daughters. Though general sexism and gender stereotyping are among the causes for the tension between them, the social and political remnants of slavery present an even more insidious conflict to be dealt with. A discussion with director Joel Zito Araújo will follow the screening.
Sponsor: The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
Black and Blue Priceless Gem Tour
February 21
3:00 pm | UNC Visitors’ Center
Tim McMillian, a highly regarded historian, award-winning teaching professor, and senior lecturer in the Department of African-American and Diaspora Studies, will lead this tour of UNC’s historical landmarks in context of UNC’s racial history.
Sponsor: UNC Visitors’ Center
Film: 12 Years a Slave
February 21
6:30 pm & 12:00 Midnight | Student Union Auditorium
February 22
9:00 pm | Student Union Auditorium
Director Steve McQueen’s adaptation of the 1853 memoir of the same name by Solomon Northup, a New York State-born free negro who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. in 1841 and sold into slavery.
Sponsor: Carolina Union Activities Board
Conference on Race, Class, Gender and Ethnicity (CRCGE)
February 22
8:30 am | Rotunda of Van Hecke-Wettach Hall
“Captive Audience: Incarceration and the Family” will explore the myriad social dynamics implicated by incarceration’s destabilized families, including both causes of the destabilization and their results. Free for all area students, $20 for community members/non-area students/non-CLE attorneys (although no one will be turned away for lack of funds), and $100 for CLE applicants. Register here.
Sponsor: UNC School of Law
Star Families: African Skies
February 22
3:30 pm | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
Explore astronomy themes as a family! This edition of the engaging Star Families series is designed for children (ages 7-12) accompanied by their families as you learn about Anansi, the Spider, one of the characters you’ll meet through this retelling of African sky legends under a planetarium dome filled with stars.
Sponsor: Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
Black History Month Theme Dinner
February 26
4:30 pm | Rams Head Dining Hall
Carolina Dining Services will devote the entire Rams Head dining hall into an African and African American dining experience.
Sponsors: Carolina Dining Services
The African Diaspora Lecture
February 27
7:00 pm | Stone Center Hitchcock Multi-Purpose Room
Former Fulbright Scholar to Brazil, Dr. Antonio Tillis will deliver the Spring 2014 African Diaspora lecture. Dr. Tillis is a specialist in Latin American, Afro-Latin American, and African Diaspora literatures at Dartmouth college. His subspecialties include Black transnational migration in the Americas and in the Caribbean basin from slavery to contemporary times and US Afro-Latino studies. The lecture will also feature a discussion with Stone Center Scholar-in-Residence, Brazilian filmmaker Joel Zito Araújo.
Sponsor: The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
35th Annual Minority Health Conference “Innovative Approaches to Youth Health: Engaging Youth in Creating Healthy Communities”
February 28
8:00 am | William and Ida Friday Center | Register to attend by February 14 at minorityhealth.web.unc.edu
This year’s theme will focus on research and practice-based interventions that actively engage minority youth to improve their health and the health of their communities.
Sponsor: UNC Minority Student Caucus
MLK and Black History Month Bridge Keynote: Dr. Cornel West
February 28
7:00 pm | Memorial Hall
Join us for a lecture by American philosopher, academic, activist, political commentator, and author Dr. Cornel West.
Sponsors: Campus Y, BSM, Mu Zeta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and Xi Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
UNC Process Series: “Gathering Honey”
February 28 and March 1
8:00 pm | Stone Center Auditorium
The Stone Center will host a new play that explores the unique and complex stories of black Southern women who identify as “lesbian,” “queer,” or “same-gender-loving,” whose oral histories are chronicled in E. Patrick Johnson’s forthcoming book, Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women to be published by UNC Press.
Sponsors: UNC Process Series, Southern Oral History Project, and Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, Northwestern University