Congratulations to Sarata Toriola, AFAM’s newest MA graduate. The AFAM convocation ceremony took place on Saturday, May 19th at 4 :00pm at the African American Studies Program Building, 138 Mountfort St. Brookline,MA 02446.
Professor Allsion Blakely’s remarks entitled, “The Future of African American Studies“ at the 2012 African American Studies Convocation.
Come and view a powerful film about the struggles women faced to have their voices heard during the Civil Rights era and about the bonds they built because of those collective struggles. To join the facebook group, click here. To view a trailer of the film, click here.
Jazz Criticism and American Politics
April 12 and 13, 2012
Keynote Speaker: Lewis Porter (Rutgers University)
The Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at Boston University in collaboration with the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center will host an international conference, “Jazz, Criticism, and American Politics,” on April 12 and 13, 2012. The Gotlieb Archival Research Center houses several important collections spanning the history of American jazz in the twentieth century, from bandleaders Don Ellis and Cab Calloway, songwriters Sylvia Dee, Abel Meeropol, and Johnny Mercer, singer Ella Fitzgerald, to the writings of jazz historians and critics Andre Hodeir, Winthrop Sergeant, Henry Pleasants, Nat Hentoff, and Charles Keil.
The conference will be held in the Roosevelt Room of the Mugar Memorial Library on the Boston University campus, and will feature a special concert of music from the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center on Thursday, April 12 at the Tsai Performance Center.
Both the conference and the concert are free and open to the public.
Program Committee: Steven Cornelius, Thomas Peattie, Andrew Shenton, Jeremy Yudkin.
The Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University is hosting its Fourth Annual Conference on April 7 & 8, 2012, entitled “Expressions of Islam in Contemporary African-American Communities.” Speakers will explore and highlight the varied experiences of African American Muslims in the United States. The conference will not only showcase research on African American Muslims by leading academics, but will also feature contemporary artists and community activists who speak directly to the subject through their work.
Panels include talks on African-American converts to Shia Islam (minorities within minorities), the role of Hip Hop and “Muslim Cool,” Leadership and Community Activism and relationship between/among African-American Muslims and African Muslim immigrants. There is also a short film, Mustafa Davis’ The Wayward Son. http://muzlimbuzz.sg/2011/09/07/wayward-son-the-jordan-richter-story/
The conference is sponsored by the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University, an interfaculty and interdisciplinary initiative seeking to improve understanding about Islam and Muslim communities in diverse national and transnational contexts, the W.E.B. Dubois Institute at Harvard, the Department of African American Studies, and the Committee on the Study of Religion.
The conference website is: http://harvardafricanamericanmuslims.wordpress.com/
“Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975″ mob…ilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish filmmakers, after languishing in a basement of a TV station for 30 years, into an irresistible mosaic of images, music, and narration chronicling the evolution of one of our nation’s most indelible turning points, the Black Power movement.
Featuring candid interviews with the movement’s most explosive revolutionary minds, most of them young people, the film also includes commentary by Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Elaine Brown, Talib Kweli, John Forte, and Melvin Van Peebles, which gives the historical footage a fresh sound and an exhilarating, unprecedented account of an American revolution.
After the film screening, JoNina Abron-Ervin ( former Black Panther and author of “Driven by the Movement, Western Michigan University), Ruha Benjamin ( Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Boston University), Phillipe Copeland ( Clinical Social Worker and award winning blogger, Simmons College), Walter Earl Fluker ( Martin Luther King Professor of Ethical Leadership, Boston University), and Joycelyn Wilson ( Educational Anthropologist and Hip-Hop Archive Fellow, Harvard University) will kick-off a lively discussion centered on the role of young people in social transformation. ARRIVE EARLY FOR SEATS! We will start the film PROMPTLY at 6pm.
More about Speakers
Ruha Benjamin click here
Phillipe Copeland click here
Walter Fluker click here
Joycelyn Wilson click here
African Americans and the Abrahamic Religions Symposium-Save the Date
On April 19 and 20, 2012, BU Professors Linda Heywood and John Thornton have assembled a stellar lineup of national and inetrnational scholars to explore the topic of African Americans and the Abrahamic Religions. Click here for more details.
The Daily Free Press interviewed BU Professors Linda Heywood and Ruha Benjamin about the program’s activities in honor of Black History Month. Both Boston University and the Boston Public Library will highlight the history and culture of African Americans with presentations and performances. Many experts on black history will visit the city to offer their insights to Boston students and residents.
“[The African American Studies department] is very active in sponsoring . . . lectures with other units at BU,” said Professor Linda Heywood, director of BU’s African American Studies program.
BU will also host a Black History Month Film Festival on Feb. 28. “Black Power Mixtape 1967-75” will screen in the Howard Thurman Center, followed by a discussion led by BU Professor of Sociology and African American Studies Ruha Benjamin. Benjamin will discuss the “impact of the civil rights movement on social transformations around the world and about the relevance of black history for the black present,” according to BU’s African American Studies’ website.
Click here for the full interview.
Dr. Linda Heywood and Dr. John Thornton were interviewed recently by Fox News about new research that identifies the origins of African American ancestry as stemming from 46 ethnic groups located in three major regions in Africa. See interview here Fox Interview with Profs Heywood and Thornton.
Dr. John Thornton and Dr. Linda Heywood recently published “A Forgotten African Catholic Kingdom: A year before Columbus discovered America, the king of Kongo led his people to Christianity,” on The Root. To read the article, click here.
Dr. Linda Heywood and Dr. John Thornton appear on Australian Broadcasting Company Radio to discuss St. James the Greater and the history of religion in the Kongo. Listen to the segment here.