News Release

Stone Center announces fall season;
includes art, film, dialogue on culture

CHAPEL HILL – An exploration of black popular culture, a Diaspora Film Festival and a performance by poet, actress and activist, Sarah Jones are part of the fall schedule at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.

The season will also include an African-American art exhibit by local collectors, a four-day residency by Palestinian-American poet Suheir Hammad and a lecture by human rights and youth activist Malika Sanders.

The Stone Center was founded in 1988 and is dedicated to broadening the range of intellectual discourse about African Diaspora cultures. The center moved to a new facility in August of 2004 and is now located at 150 South Road just west of the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower.

For more information, please visit http://www.unc.edu/depts/stonecenter or call (919) 962-9001. The events in the Stone Center are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Spanish translation is available upon request.

Aug. 29, 6 p.m. Tim Tyson will give a lecture and book signing in the Great Hall of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union. Tyson, author of the summer reading selection, "Blood Done Sign My Name," will speak on "Martin Luther King Jr., Black Power and the Southern Dream of Freedom." The event is co-sponsored by the Carolina Summer Reading Program and the Stone Center. For more information, contact the New Student & Carolina Parent Programs at 962-8521.

Sept. 12, 7:30 p.m. Beneath the Underground Film Screening is an alternative venue for grassroots moviegoers held in the basement of the Stone Center. This opening session will feature "Girl Beat: The Power of the Drum" by Suzanne Girot. The film is a profile of Banda Dida, an all-girl drumming and vocal group from Brazil.

Sept. 20, noon. A Human Rights Brown Bag Lunch will be held in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room of the center. Reserve a lunch and hear from Afro-Peruvian human rights advocates Monica Carillo and Milagritos de la Rosa. This event is co-sponsored by the University Center for International Studies. To reserve a lunch, call the center at 962-9001.

Sept. 21, 7 p.m. Bradley Simmons teaches the art of Afro-Cuban drumming. Simmons is a musical director and professor of West African music and history at Duke University. The drumming classes will be held each Wednesday in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room at the center, and a limited number of musical instruments will be provided at no charge. Call the Stone Center at 962-9001 for more information or to register for the class. The one-time registration fee is $5.

Sept. 22, noon. Bakari Kitwana, the noted social critic and author of "The Hip Hop Generation," will present and sign his latest release, "Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes and the New Reality of Race in America."

The signing will be in the Pleasants Family Reading Room in Wilson Library.

Sept. 22, 7 p.m. A Black Popular Cultures/Black Popular Struggles symposium will open the center’s yearlong examination of the social and political context of black popular cultures. The symposium in the Stone Center Theatre will feature a discussion with Dr. Raquel Rivera, a freelance journalist, sociologist and author of "New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone," an examination of the New York Puerto Rican influence on hip hop culture, and Bakari Kitwana, author, former executive editor of The Source magazine, and a co-founder of the National Hip Hop Political Convention.

Sept. 28, 7:30 p.m. The Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Films will open in the Stone Center Theatre with the screening of "Boricua" by Marisol Torres. The film tells the intertwined stories of four young Puerto Ricans in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Sept. 29, 5 p.m. Lawrence Blum will discuss his book, "I’m not a Racist, but…" in the Stone Center’s Hitchcock Multipurpose Room. The book discussion is co-sponsored by the Parr Center for Ethics. For more information, contact the Parr Center at 843-5640.

Sept. 30 An African-American art collectors exhibit will open in the center’s Robert and Sallie Brown Gallery and Museum. The exhibit features pieces from local collectors of African American art and AfriCobra, a program based in the civil rights movement designed to promote black art.

Oct. 4, noon. Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Films presents an hour of film, food and discussion with director Tameka Wilson and her film short, "I Know What You Did Last Semester." This event in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room is co-sponsored by Saladelia Café & Catering. Call the Stone Center at 962-9001 to reserve a lunch.

Oct. 4-7, Suheir Hammad, an award-winning performance poet and HBO Def Poetry regular, will be a Stone Center artist-in-residence. The Palestinian-American writer and author of three collections including "Born Palestinian, Born Black," will visit select classes and student organizations, and conduct readings and writing workshops.

Oct. 5, 7 p.m. A Hekima Reading Circle in the Stone Center Library will feature a discussion with poet Suheir Hammad and her book "Born Palestinian, Born Black." The event is co-sponsored by the Carolina Women’s Center. The first 15 registrants will receive a free copy of the book.

Oct. 6, noon. Hammad will sign her new release, "Zaatardiva," in the Pleasants Family Reading Room in Wilson Library. "Zaatardiva" is a collection of poetry about love, politics and art.

Oct. 10, noon. A Human Rights Brown Bag Lunch will be held in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room of the Stone Center. Reserve a lunch and hear from Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli, an attorney, activist and the US representative for Peace Brigades International. The event is co-sponsored by UNC’s University Center for International Studies. To reserve a lunch, call the center at 962-9001.

Oct. 13, 8 p.m. Sarah Jones, the multi-talented poet, actress, activist and playwright will perform "A Right to Care," a one-woman piece commissioned by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. For more information, call the Stone Center at 962-9001. Tickets are $20 for the public, $10 for students and $15 per person in a group of at least 10. To reserve tickets for the Stone Center Theatre, call 962-1449.

Oct. 17, 7 p.m. A Black Popular Cultures/Black Popular Struggles symposium will examine the significance and sociopolitical context of Rhythm & Blues and Soul. This multi-media assisted discussion will take place in the Stone Center Theatre.

Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m. Beneath the Underground Film Screening will show "Crossover" by Kip and Kern Konwiser. The film, showing in the Stone Center basement, uses basketball as a window into other worlds and as a celebration of culture and identity. It captures the game’s transcendence of borders and nationalities to become a reflection of how we live our lives, regardless of where we play the game or what language we speak.

Nov. 2, 7 p.m. A Hekima Reading Circle in the Stone Center Library will feature a discussion of "Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond," written by Essie Mae Washington-Williams. The book discussion is co-sponsored by the Carolina Women’s Center and the Kappa Omicron Chapel of Delta Sigma Theta. The first 15 registrants will receive a free copy of the book.

Nov. 8, 7 p.m. Malika Sanders, a human rights activist and the executive director of the 21^st Century Youth Movement, will deliver the Twelfth Annual Sonja Haynes Stone Memorial Lecture in the Stone Center Theatre.

Nov. 14, 7 p.m. Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Films will present "Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power." The documentary explores the life of Williams, an early civil rights activist who urged blacks to arm themselves for protection. The film will be shown in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room.

Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m. Beneath the Underground Film Screening will show "Julia, All in Me" by Ivonne Belén, and "Nelly’s Bodega" by Omonike Akinyemi. Both films will play in the Stone Center basement. The former explores the life and body of work of Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos. The latter is a film about the supportive bond between a 12-year-old African-American girl and a twenty-something Latina woman.

Nov. 18, 7 p.m. A Black Popular Cultures/Black Popular Struggles performance will feature the Welfare Poets, a Hip Hop and Spoken Word ensemble. The concert will take place in the Stone Center Theatre.

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Stone Center contact: Damien Jackson, (919) 962-7265 or dtjack@email.unc.edu

News Services contacts: Print, L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589; broadcast, Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595