Lafayette Celebrates Black Heritage Month in February

Lafayette College is celebrating Black Heritage Month with art, music, a research symposium on diversity, discussion forums, and performances.

Marc Lamont Hill 

The celebration’s keynote talk on contemporary politics and African-American leadership will be presented by television host and activist Marc Lamont Hill at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12 in Colton Chapel. It is free and open to the public.

Hill hosts the nationally syndicated television show Our World with Black Enterprise, which airs Sunday mornings on TV One and broadcast markets around the country. His work, which covers topics such as culture, politics, and education, has appeared in numerous journals, magazines, books, and anthologies. He provides regular commentary for National Public Radio, The Washington Post, Essence magazine, The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, where he was a political contributor and regular guest on The O’Reilly Factor. He is an associate professor of education at Teachers College of Columbia University.

The theme of this year’s celebration, “Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow,” captures the spirit and variety of programs that will celebrate the forward movement of blacks in American society, according to John McKnight, dean of intercultural development.

“Black heritage should be celebrated all year long, but we take time out in February to focus our attention on the many accomplishments and contributions of blacks and African Americans to the United States and the world,” he says. “We hope the programming will inspire our campus community to think deeply about a variety of issues, and to find ways to continue to advance racial harmony.”

Highlights include:




Feb. 6, 5:30 p.m., Portlock Black Cultural Center – Bouki Blues: a short film by Portia Cobb on cultural links between tribal music of West Africa and the Mediterranean and the blues and jazz of the Mississippi-Louisiana region

Feb. 7, 4:15 p.m., Gendebein Room in Skillman Library – “Ethnography, History, and Genealogies? Diverse Narratives of a Madagascar Past” by Wendy Wilson-Fall, associate professor of Africana studies

Feb. 8, 4:30 p.m., EPI/Riley Temple Art Gallery – Reception and artists talk for TAFA’s exhibit Memory Fragments

Feb. 10, 5 p.m., Portlock Black Cultural Center, Meet and greet with artist-in-residence Lamar Thomas

Feb. 11, noon, Interfaith Chapel, Hogg Hall – Lunch discussion with artist-in-residence Lamar Thomas
Feb. 11, 7 p.m., Williams Center for the Arts – Film screening and discussion with artist-in-residence Lamar Thomas

Feb. 12, 7 p.m., Colton Chapel – Black Heritage Month keynote talk by Marc Lamont Hill

Feb. 17, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Kirby Hall of Civil Rights – Our Beloved Community Symposium
Feb. 18, 4:10 p.m., Williams Center for the Arts room 108 – Reception for Curlee Raven Holton: A Visit to My House, A Personal and Public Narrative

Feb. 21, 6 p.m., Hugel Science Center room 100 – “A More Concrete World: Real Estate and the Remaking of Jim Crow South Florida” by Nathan Connolly, assistant professor of history at Johns Hopkins University

March 1, time and location TBD – Black Heritage Month finale

The month’s events are coordinated by the Office of Intercultural Development and are sponsored by the Africana studies program, Association of Black Collegians, Experimental Printmaking Institute, the Office of Religious Life, and the Lafayette African and Caribbean Student Association. For more information, contact intercultural development at (610) 330-5580.