Black History Month events
Yale's Afro-American Cultural Center will kick off its celebration of February as Black History Month with a "Reopening Reception and Art Exhibition" showcasing the newly renovated facility.
Other highlights of the center's month-long program will include a talk by Julian Bond, chair of the NAACP; a discussion on "Black Responsibility" featuring Harvard legal scholar Lani Guinier and news correspondent Juan Williams; performances of two works -- one about soul musician Donny Hathaway, the other about black gay men of the South; and a discussion by legal scholar Kathleen Cleaver about her book on her late husband, Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver.
For further information on these or other events at the center, call (203) 432-4132 or visit the website at www.yale.edu/afam.
Reopening reception
Over the past six months, the Afro-American Cultural Center has undergone a $3 million renovation to its facility at 211 Park St.
The center will celebrate these changes on Friday, Feb. 2, with a program that will begin with an African drum and dance processional from Old Campus to the center at 4:30 p.m. and a reopening reception and art exhibition at 5:30 p.m. The event, which is free and open to the public, will include tours of the facility, musical entertainment and refreshments. It is co-sponsored by Café Adulis.
NAACP chair
Julian Bond, chair of the NAACP, will be the featured guest at the annual Black History Month Dinner, which will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15, in the Calhoun College dining hall, 189 Elm St.
Bond, who has headed the NAACP since 1998, has been an active participant in the movements for civil rights and economic justice for over 40 years. As a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped found the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. He served in the Georgia legislature as both a representative and as a senator, and is a member of the faculties of both the University of Virginia and American University. An award-winning writer, he is a commentator on "America's Black Forum," the oldest black-owned show in television syndication.
The annual Black History Month Dinner is co-sponsored by the Calhoun College master's office, the Office of the Secretary, the President's Office and the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale. Seating is limited. Tickets are $15 for those without a meal plan or a personal invitation. To reserve a ticket, call the Calhoun College master's office at (203) 432-0740.
"Black Responsibility"
"Black Responsibility: By Whom and for What?" will be the topic of a debate between Lani Guinier of the Harvard Law School and NPR news correspondent Juan Williams.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 20, in the Yale Law School's Levinson auditorium, 127 Wall St.
Considered one of the foremost American civil rights scholars in the United States, Guinier was the first black woman tenured professor at Harvard Law School. Her work spans a range of topics, including professional responsibilities of public lawyers, the relationship between democracy and the law, the role of race and gender in the political process, equity in college admissions and affirmative action.
Williams, NPR's senior correspondent, received an Emmy Award for television documentary writing and won acclaim for a series of documentaries, including "Politics -- The New Black Power." He is the author of the bestseller "Eyes on The Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965." His most recent book is titled "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America -- And What We Can Do About It."
"Black Responsibility" is sponsored by the Ogilvie, Robinson, DeChabert Leadership Forum of the Afro-American Cultural Center.
"The Donny Hathaway Story"
The Yale Cabaret will present the world premiere of the musical "Donny: The Donny Hathaway Story" Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 22-24.
Written by Ken Robinson, a student at the Yale School of Drama, "Donny" tells the story of the life of the legendary soul musician -- including his complex friendship with Roberta Flack, struggle with his sexuality and his suicide at age 33. Among the songs by Hathaway featured in the show are such soul classics as "The Ghetto," "Someday We'll All Be Free" and "A Song for You."
For information on tickets and showtimes, visit the Yale Cabaret website at www.yale.edu/cabaret. The production is co-sponsored by the Afro-American Cultural Center, the Calhoun College master's office and African American Studies Department at Yale.
"Black Gay Men of the South"
A performance piece titled "Pouring Tea: Narratives of Black Gay Men of the South" will be presented at 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 26, in Nick Chapel of Trumbull College, located at 87 Trumbull St.
The work is based on interviews conducted by Professor E. Patrick Johnson of Northwestern University with 75 African-American gay and transgendered Southerners.
The event, which is free and open to the public, was organized by the Yale Research Initiative on the History of Sexualities. It is co-sponsored by African American Studies and the World Performance Program.
Cleaver book
The Afro-American Cultural Center and Labyrinth Books will co-sponsor a discussion by Kathleen Cleaver.
Cleaver will discuss her new book "Target Zero: A Life in Writing by Eldridge Cleaver" at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 1, at Labyrinth Books, 290 York St. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Afro-American Cultural Center, Labyrinth Books and the African American Studies Program.
An alumna of both Yale College and the Yale Law School, Cleaver is currently a senior lecturer at the latter and at Emory Law School. She married Eldridge Cleaver, then information minister for the Black Panther Party, in 1967. "Target Zero" charts the activist's life through his writings -- from his childhood, through his youth spent in prison, his emergence as a Black Panther leader who became a "fugitive from justice," his seven-year exile, and his religious and political conversion following his return to the United States.
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