News Release

Poets, scholars, artists, others to speak
at UNC’s Stone Center this semester

By DAMIEN JACKSON
Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History

CHAPEL HILL — An exhibit of photographs on Afro-Mexicano culture, an open-mike poetry series and a reading by author Thulani Davis will be among upcoming events at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.

The center, part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also will continue its yearlong examination of black popular cultures and struggles. The popular Afro-Cuban drumming classes with Bradley Simmons will be offered again during the spring 2006 semester.

Founded in 1988, the center works to broaden the range of intellectual discourse about African Diaspora cultures. Center events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Spanish translation is available upon request.

For more information, visit http://www.unc.edu/depts/stonecenter, call (919) 962-9001 or visit the center, at 150 South Road just west of the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower. Building hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays.

Spring semester events in the center, free to the public unless otherwise noted, will be:

Jan. 13-March 10, "Fleeting Memory, Enduring Legacy: The People of La Costa Chica, Oaxaca, Mexico," an exhibit in the center’s Robert and Sallie Brown Gallery and Museum and Hitchcock Multipurpose Room, opening at 7 p.m. Friday (Jan. 13).

The exhibit features photographs by Dr. Wendy Phillips, an independent researcher, visual artist and documentary photographer whose work has been shown in galleries and museums in the United States and abroad. Black-and-white photographs highlight the African-descended community in La Costa Chica, in the Oaxaca state of Mexico.

Sometimes referred to as "Afro-Mexicanos," residents of this area have endured for more than 200 years. The exhibit is cosponsored by the African American/Latino Alliance, a North Carolina organization of workers, students and community members, UNC’s Institute for Latin American Studies and Friends of the Brown Gallery and Museum.

Jan. 17, 7 p.m., "He was a Poem: An Evening of Poetry Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," the second annual reading of poems inspired by King’s life and work, Brown Gallery and Museum. Part of UNC’s annual MLK Week, sponsored by the center, the University Library and the UNC chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

Many poets and scholars have honored King using the same media he found to be so empowering: the written and spoken word. Faculty, staff and students will read the poems. For more information, contact Stone Center librarian Raquel Cogell at cogell@email.unc.edu or 843-5808.

Jan. 18 – March 29, Wednesdays, 7 p.m. Afro-Cuban Drumming Class with Bradley Simmons, Hitchcock Multipurpose Room. Simmons is musical director of the West African ensemble Djembe at Duke University. A limited number of instruments will be provided at no charge. Call the center at 962-9001 for more information or to register. The fee is $5.

Jan. 23, 5:45 p.m. Novelist and playwright Thulani Davis presenting her latest book, "My Confederate Kinfolk," Hitchcock Multipurpose Room, after a 5 p.m. reception. Sponsored by Friends of the Library at UNC.

Davis journeys through her diverse familial past in this intersection of genealogy, memoir, and Reconstruction history. "My Confederate Kinfolk" examines the origins of deeply ingrained notions about what makes a family black or white while offering an intellectually challenging alternative.

Feb. 9-March 9, Author Willie Perdomo, artist in residence at the center for the third time. Considered the Langston Hughes of Latino writers, the East Harlem native wrote three collections of poetry including "Smoking Lovely," which won the 2004 Beyond Margins Award from the PEN American Center. He also wrote the picture book "Visiting Langston." Perdomo has been featured on PBS documentaries and HBO’S Def Poetry.

Feb. 14 to March 7, Tuesdays, 7 p.m., Perdomo will conduct writers’ workshops. Registration forms can be downloaded at www.unc.edu/depts/stonecenter.

Feb. 16, 7 p.m. "Sport and the Black Athlete," a panel discussion in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room. Hanif Omar, host of WNCU’s weekly sports show "Fast Break," former UNC basketball All-American Pam Leake, former UNC and NFL football standout Jimmy Hitchcock and UNC philosophy professor and sports analyst Dr. Jan Boxill will explore ways that black athletes have operated within the sociopolitical contexts of their times.

The discussion, cosponsored by the UNC chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., will be part of the center’s yearlong examination of the social and political context of black popular cultures.

Feb. 22, 7 p.m., a reading and discussion of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "The Piano Lesson," the center’s library. Participants will examine how narrative unfolds between genres and the play’s adaptation as a Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for-television movie. Free and open to the public, but registration is required (962-9001).

The library and the Hekima Reading Circle, a regular discussion group at the center, will present this event. The play’s author, the late August Wilson (1945-2005) is regarded as one of America’s greatest playwrights and a seminal figure in African American drama.

Set in 1930s Pittsburgh, "The Piano Lesson" delves into issues of memory, family legacies and tensions between siblings. For the Charles Family, the upright piano in the living room establishes a link to a painful past while simultaneously representing a possible marker for securing their future and upward mobility.

March 6-9, residency at the center by Los Angeles-based artist and film animator Lyndon Barrois. He will conduct student workshops including one for local junior high and elementary school students enrolled in Communiversity, the center’s after-school academic and cultural enrichment program.

One of the few African Americans working at his level in Hollywood, Barrois represents the pinnacle of intellectual and creative achievement in computer-generated film animation. He is best known for supervising or directing animation for films including "Elektra," "I, Robot," "The Matrix Revolutions," "The Matrix Reloaded," "Scooby Doo" and "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist." Barrois has earned awards at the Palm Springs, Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago International Film Festivals.

He also is known as the innovator behind "gumation"—characters fashioned from chewing gum wrappers and captured through stop-motion filming. His gumation technique and figurines have been featured in Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museums worldwide and were highlighted on Great Moments: The Super Bowl, where the figurines were staged to recreate memorable moments in Super Bowl history.

March 21-April 25, Tuesdays, 7 p.m., Tuesday Night Open Mike series. Poets, spoken-word artists, writers and first-timers from UNC, Durham, Chapel Hill and beyond can apply their craft. Stone Center graduate fellow and poet Raina Leon will host the series, cosponsored by TRIBES Magazine and Durham’s SpiritHouse arts collective.

March 23, 7 p.m., Viewing and discussion of the documentary "By the Dawn’s Early Light: Chris Jackson’s Journey to Islam," Hitchcock Multipurpose Room. In 1996, basketball star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (formerly Chris Jackson) caused a national stir when the NBA suspended him for refusing to stand during the national anthem because of his "Muslim conscience." The documentary reexamines the controversy and associated media misrepresentations and reactions. Sport and societal analysts Hanif Omar and Robert Stone-El will lead the discussion after the film.

April 4, 7 p.m., reading, signing, discussion and questions and answers with Afro-Dominican writer Junot Díaz, Hitchcock Multipurpose Room. An associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Díaz wrote the innovative short-story cycle/novel "Drown." He will address the inter-related topics of silence, color, language, war and immigration after 9/11. UNC units cosponsoring the event are the English department, College of Arts and Sciences, Latina/o Culture(s) Speakers Series, Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, Institute for African American Research and Latina/o Studies Gift Fund.

April 12, noon, UNC alumnus and Duke Endowment Fellow Micah Gilmer discussing his research on "South African Vernacular Hip Hop and Masculinity," in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room. A backdrop of photos taken by his wife, Jamaica, will show South African Hip-Hop analysts and practitioners.

April 20, 8 a.m. Day of the Poet, workshops with in-state and out-of-state poets for students from area high schools, Hitchcock Multipurpose Room. Participating poets will include Dasan Ahanu, Aracelis Girmay, Lita Hooper, Stephanie Pruitt, Oscar Bermeo, Evie Shlockey, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Ebony Golden, Kim Arrington, Mara Jebsen and Rich Villar. The workshops also are open to UNC students, faculty and staff who submit a short application (available at the center). The event will conclude with a final reading over a bring-your-own brown bag lunch. 

An annual event, Day of the Poet also is sponsored by the High School Literacy Project and the UNC School of Education. Contact Raina Leon at rleon@email.unc.edu or 962-9001 for the schedule or more information.

April 20, 4 p.m. Discussion by authors of the book "Identity Politics Reconsidered," Hitchcock Multipurpose Room. The writers are professors Satya P. Mohanty of Cornell University, Linda Martin Alcoff of Syracuse University, Michael Hames-Garcia of SUNY Binghamton and Paula M.L. Moya of Stanford University.

Based on the ongoing national Future of Minority Studies Research Project, "Identity Politics Reconsidered" examines the scholarly and political significance of social identity. A collection of powerful essays, it offers original answers to questions concerning the analytical legitimacy of "identity" and "experience," and the relationships among cultural autonomy, moral universalism and progressive politics. For more information on the research project, visit http://www.fmsproject.cornell.edu/.

The event is cosponsored by the center and UNC’s Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Education, English department, curricula in American studies and women’s studies and cultural studies program.

April 21, 6 p.m. A select group of Day of the Poet artists will gather for a night of poetry in the center’s Brown Gallery and Museum. Drawn from throughout the United States, these writers will present some of their most dynamic works. The evening will begin with a poetry open mike session hosted by center graduate fellow Raina Leon. 

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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