2016 Black History Month Events Scheduled
JONESBORO — An exciting calendar of events including lectures, dinner and other activities, is underway as Arkansas State University celebrates Black History Month, Feb. 1-29.
During the Tuesday evenings of Feb. 2, 9 and 16, from 5-6:30 p.m., the ASU Museum is hosting hands-on activities based on African-American inventions. These free learning experiences will appeal to children of most ages.
Tinkering with principles of Train-to-Station Communication—a creation of African American inventor, Granville T. Woods, 1885. The ASU Museum hosts hands-on 'tinkering' activities based on African-American inventions as part of Black History Month. For more information, contact Jill Kary at jkary@astate.edu.
A presentation of the film “Love, Solidarity and the Black Freedom Song” begins at 4 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 4, on the third floor auditorium in the Carl R. Reng Student Union. Dr. Michael Honey and Errol Webber produced the film that grew out of their interest in labor issues, "Love & Solidarity: Rev. James Lawson and Nonviolence in the Search for Workers' Rights."
Honey will discuss this film as part of A-State's Black History Month observance. Lawson, a Methodist minister, worked with Rev. Martin Luther King on the Memphis sanitation strike in 1968 and later was prominent in a similar movement in California.
Honey also will present the Greenfield Lecture that evening at 7 p.m. in the same location as part of the Lecture-Concert Series with “Sharecropper’s Troubadour: John L. Handcox, The Southern Tenant Farmer’s Union and the African American Song Tradition.” He will also have a book signing at 4 p.m., Friday, Feb. 5, at the Southern Tenant Farmers Union Museum at Tyronza, an Arkansas State University Heritage Site located at 117 S. Main Street.
The third annual International Fashion Show auditions are Thursday-Friday, Feb. 4-5, from 4-5 p.m. in the Spring River room in the Student Union. The event, sponsored by the National Association of Black Social Workers, is seeking male and female models of all shapes, sizes, heights, cultures and ethnicities. Vocalists and dancers are also welcome. To learn more, email immanuel. morris@smail.astate.edu, charmanie.cook@smail.astate.edu or marchell.agnew@smail.astate.edu.
A-State’s Multicultural Center is presenting a three-day series titled “Tracing Your Roots” in collaboration with the Northeast Arkansas Genealogical Society. Part one, “How to Start Your Family Tree Research,” begins Tuesday, Feb. 9, from 5-7 p.m., in the Multicultural Center, Suite 3003, on the third floor of the Reng Student Union.
“Tracing Your Roots Part 2: Using Online Resources to Assist with Your Research” is Tuesday, Feb. 16, from 5-7 p.m. in the Dean B. Ellis Library computer lab 149, 320 University Loop. The series concludes Tuesday, Feb. 23, from 5-8 p.m., with “Overcoming Barriers: How to Use Slave Narratives and Ellis Island Records,” also in the library computer lab 149. For additional information, email the Multicultural Center at AStateMC@AState.edu.
Also, on Tuesday, Feb. 9, Frangela will be on hand at 6 p.m. in the Reng Student Union auditorium. Sponsored by the A-State Student Activities Board, the two comedians Frances Callier and Angela V. Shelton, starred on VH1” “Best Week Ever” and “He’s Just Not That Into You.” For more information, call the SAB office at (870) 972-2055.
The 11th annual Soul Food Dinner, sponsored by the Strong-Turner Chapter of the A-State Alumni Association, the Delta Studies Center and the Multicultural Center, is set for Thursday, Feb. 11, from 6-8 p.m., in the A-State Military Science Building, 1921 Aggie Road.
The “2016 Resolution to Revolution Forum: Moving Dreams to Reality” is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 13, from 8 a.m.-1 p.m., in the Spring River Room on the third floor in the Reng Student Union. Register online at www.visionforum2016.eventbrite.com.
The Arkansas Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission and the Arkansas Department of Human Services will host “Nonviolence Youth Summit XVI: Remember Hoxie” Monday, Feb. 22, from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Carl R. Reng Student Union, 101 N. Caraway Road. The confirmed keynote speaker will be Ethel Tompkins, the first African-American to graduate from Hoxie Public Schools. The event will include workshops and breakout sessions in addition to a community vendor showcase. For more information, see http://www.astate.edu/news/mlk-commission-to-present-nonviolence-youth-summit-featuring-keynote-speaker-ethel-tompkins?
Dr. Lillie M. Fears, professor of multimedia journalism, will present a talk on the black press in Arkansas and the power of the printed word in African-American-owned newspapers, Tuesday, Feb. 23, from 5-7 p.m., at the ASU Museum auditorium, Room 156. Following the speech, guests are invited to share thoughts over food prepared by recipes from African-American traditions.
As part of Black History Month and March’s Women’s History Month, the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum (STFU) is hosting a lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 2 p.m. in the Mockingbird Room at the Carl R. Reng Student Union on the Arkansas State University campus. Dr. Jarod Roll, associate professor of history at the University of Mississippi, will speak on the 1939 Missouri Bootheel demonstration focusing on the Southern Tenant Farmers Union’s involvement and the role women played in the demonstration. The title of his lecture is “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks: The STFU and the 1939 Roadside Demonstration in Southeast Missouri.”
This event is sponsored by the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum, an Arkansas State University Heritage Site, located at 117 S. Main Street, Tyronza. For further information, contact Linda Hinton, director, at (870) 487-2909 or email at lhinton@astate.edu.
Closing out the month’s activities is an address by Black History Month keynote speaker Dr. Steve Perry, Monday, Feb. 29, at 6 p.m. in the Reng Student Union Centennial Hall on the third floor. Dr. Perry, educator, speaker and author, is featured on CNN’s Black in America series. His speech is “All Eyes on Me.” For additional information, contact the Leadership Center at (870) 972-2055.
