News Release

Stone Center's spring semester programs
to look at poems, painting, protests, more

CHAPEL HILL - An exhibit of photographs, posters and flyers chronicling the common and connected histories of the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords Organization will be among programs this spring at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.

In January, the center will celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with an evening of poetry and the screening of three films based on King's life.

In April, the center will convene an inaugural meeting of a new African-American Studies Consortium at UNC, gathering faculty and graduate students from different departments and disciplines in attempt to foster new ideas and collaborations.

Besides offering these and other programs for the public, the center will enhance one of its public service programs, Communiversity, an after-school program for local school children in which UNC students teach skills development, offer cultural enrichment activities and help with homework. The program will observe its 15th anniversary in 2007.

During spring semester, center visiting artists-in-residence Carolina Chocolate Drops will perform fiddle and banjo music for the youngsters. Dance Brazil, in town in February to perform in the Carolina Performing Arts Series, will introduce the students to Afro-Brazilian dance. The Carolina Chocolate Drops also will perform at two local retirement communities in March and April.

Founded in 1988, the center is dedicated to broadening the range of intellectual discourse about African diaspora cultures and pursuing challenging examinations of contemporary issues. The center is at 150 South Road west of the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower. For more information, call (919) 962-9001.

Spring semester programs, listed below, will be free and open to the public in the center unless otherwise noted. Spanish translation is available on request.

Jan. 16, 6 p.m. "He was a Poem: An Evening of Poetry Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King," presented by the center and the University Library. Faculty, staff and students will participate in the third annual reading of poems inspired by King's life and work. For more information, contact Raquel Cogell, center librarian, at cogell@email.unc.edu or (919) 843-5808.

Jan. 17-19, noon. Martin Luther King Jr. Film Festival, three films based on King's life and legacy. Viewers are invited to bring their lunches to the three screenings:

• Jan. 17 - "The Boy King"
  
• Jan. 18 - "Martin Luther King: The Legacy"
  
• Jan. 19 - "The Assassination of Martin Luther King"

Jan. 22, 5 p.m. Reception honoring artist Iona Rozeal Brown, presented by the center and the UNC art department. Brown, a black painter who specializes in Japanese subjects, will speak about her work at 5: 30 p.m. Jan. 16 as part of the department's Hanes Visiting Artist Lecture Series (http://www.webslingerz.com/depts/art/news_events). Clarence and Janet Ledbetter, members of the Hillsborough group Circle in the Round, will perform traditional Japanese music during the Jan. 22 reception.

Jan. 27 - March 2, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays. "Radicals in Black and Brown: Palante, People's Power and Common Cause in the Black Panthers and the Young Lords Organization," an exhibit of photographs, posters and flyers chronicling the common themes, imagery and iconography of the two radical groups of the 1960s. The exhibit, in the center's Robert and Sallie Brown Gallery and Museum, will focus on the history, interaction and corresponding activities of the groups, which arose in similar circumstances and suffered similar fates.

Jan. 27, 4 p.m. Opening reception, symposium, for "Radicals in Black and Brown," with former leaders of the Black Panthers and the Young Lords.

Feb. 2, 4:15 p.m. "Black Music's Body Politics," a lecture by Ronald Radano, professor of musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, presented with the UNC music department as part of its Carolina Symposium on Music and Culture.

Feb. 13, 5:30 p.m. "Stomping Down: The Food Workers Strikes of 1969 and the Black Student Movement," a panel discussion presented with the University Library in relation to "I Raised My Hand to Volunteer: Students Protest in 1960's Chapel Hill," an exhibit at Wilson Library from Jan. 23 to May 31. The panelists will include Julius Chambers, a UNC law professor and director of the UNC Center for Civil Rights, and Adolph Reed, an original member of the Black Student Movement at UNC, now a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania. For more information, contact Tim West at the library at (919) 962-1345.

April 4, 4 p.m. African-American Studies Consortium, a gathering of faculty and graduate students from across the university. The goal of the event is to foster relationships among colleagues from different departments and disciplines, which in turn may result in new ideas and collaborations.

April 11, 7 p.m. David Garcia Lecture and Book Signing. Garcia, a UNC assistant professor of music who specializes in ethnomusicology, will speak about his book "Arsenio Rodriguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music" (Temple University Press, June 2006) and sign copies afterward.

April 19, Tiffany Okafor Presents "Entertain Me" (Time to be announced). Okafor, a spring 2006 recipient of the Stone Center Undergraduate International Studies Fellowship, presents "Entertain Me," a play based on her travel and research in London and Washington, D.C.

April 26, Communiversity End-of-Year/ 15th Anniversary Celebration (Time to be announced), including reflection on successes during the year, recognition of graduating student counselors, musical performances and recognition and acknowledgement of former participants and volunteers. Communiversity is an after-school program for local school children in which UNC students teach skills development, offer cultural enrichment activities and help with homework.

For more information, visit http://www.unc.edu/depts/stonecenter or call (919) 962-9001.

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Stone Center contact: Olympia Friday, (919) 962-7265, ofriday@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589, (919) 219-6374