The Colors of Pan-African Solidarity

Leave a reply

Red, Black and Green, if you think about it…

Pan-African Flag

The Pan-African flag was created in 1920 to represent people of the African Diaspora and to symbolize black liberation in the United States. As flags symbolize the union of governance, people, and territory, this flag was created to give Black people in the U.S., that is to say New Afrikans, in the Americas (Cubans, Jamaicans, Colombians, etc.) and the world over a symbol that unifies the Diaspora. This tri-color flag consists of three equal horizontal bands colored Red, Black, and Green.

Red: the blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry, and shed for liberation;
Black: for the people whose existence as a nation, though not yet a nation-state, is affirmed by the existence of the flag;
Green: the abundant and vibrant natural wealth of Africa, the Motherland; youth, hope.

Since its existence, a number of African nations have adopted the colors as a symbol of sovereignty and unity. It has also been adopted by several Black organizations that carry on the fight towards justice and liberation for Black people. Gold or yellow, representing peace and harmony, has also been associated with pan-African solidarity as inspired by the flag of Ethiopia that Emperor Menelik had made on 11 October 1897, a year after Ethiopia decisively defeated the Kingdom of Italy at the Battle of Adwa,

New Africa House on the campus of the University of Massachusetts has proudly displayed the Pan-African Flag and as the colors of its main front door since the 1969 student takeover of what had been a men’s dorm, Mill’s House.

During the Black Power Movement, several songs popularized the RBG colors and flag. Some of the best include “Red, Black & Green” by Pharoah Sanders on Thembi (1971); “The Liberation Song” by Gil Scott-Heron & the Midnight Band on the album The First Minute of a New Day (1975); & “Red, Black & Green” by Roy Ayers Ubiquity (1973) here…

Roy Ayers 
Red black and green
If you think about it you know what I mean [x3]

Red is for the eastern side
Red is for the blood we share
Red is for our thousands dead
Red is for our liberty
We fight for our own nation yeah

Red black and green
If you think about it you know what I mean

Black is for the mother land
Black is for the proud black man
Black is for the beautiful face
Of a proud and beautiful place
Black is for the soil we need
So a nation we can feed

Red black and green
If you think about it you know what I mean

Green is for the seed of freedom planted in our minds
Green is for that seed to grow free from all the fires
Green is for the earth to feel -
Red black and green
If you think about it you know what I mean

Red black and green
If you think about it you know what I mean [x3]

Sources:

NPR Code Switch Podcast and What Are The Pan-African Colors?

Randy Weston, Jazzmaster and Beloved Friend of the Department, transitions at 92

Leave a reply

On November 18-20, 2010, The Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies brought together scholars and activists, writers and artists, youth and elders, to mark our 40th year on the UMass Amherst campus, as well as to support the exchange of knowledge about the dynamic Black Power Movement period in which academic Black Studies units like ours were established. The conference, Art & Power in Movement 2010 Conference, drew over 400 participants. One of those who participated was Randy Weston. He did not demand payment commensurate of someone of his stature, he did not require VIP treatment (although we extended to him our best hospitality), and throughout, he was most generous with his time, talent, and brilliance.
Photo of participants in the Plenary Session: Forty Years of Black Music in the Pioneer Valley
with John Bracey (Chair), Glen Siegel, Randy Weston, Terry Jenoure, Frederick Tillis, and Tom Reney.

Dr. Randy Weston, Musician also appeared in concert at Bowker Auditorium, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, November 18, 2010, at 8:00 PM.  After seven decades as a professional musician Weston remains one of the world’s foremost pianists and composers, a true innovator and visionary. “Weston has the biggest sound of any jazz pianist since Ellington and Monk,” writes Stanley Crouch. In a career that began in the late 1940s, Weston has criss-crossed the globe connecting the African diaspora through sound. “Mr. Weston is a truth seeker who sees a power in music much greater than all of us,” writes The New York Times.

We send our condolences to the Weston family. Brooklyn born on 4/6/1926, to Garveyites, Frank, a barber and restaurateur from Panama, and Vivian, a domestic worker who grew up in Virginia, he lived a long and accomplished life. When he keynoted our conference in 2010, his book, African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston had just been published. We will miss this jazz master, Africana Studies pioneer, and black power activist. Let us never fail to remember him in word and deed. —Amilcar Shabazz

Important links:

2010 Conference proceedings https://scholarworks.umass.edu/blackartspower/

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2018/09/02/randy-weston-pianist-whose-jazz-compositions-explored-music-african-beginnings/N6mkmz28m0FTev4BKYPd1J/story.html

2001 NEA Jazz Master https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/randy-weston 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/obituaries/randy-weston-dead.html

“Randy Weston, Pianist Who Traced Roots of Jazz to Africa, Dies at 92,” NYT, Giovanni Russonello
Sept. 1, 2018.–click photo above to go to the article–Randy Weston performing in 1963. His playing and composing emphasized the African roots of jazz. Credit: Chuck Stewart

New Africa House Theater

Leave a reply

The cultural hub of people of African descent on the UMass campus and the larger Pioneer Valley community since 1969, is known as New Africa House.We have been steadily working to reestablish the building as a choice destination for knowledge, creative expression, and intercultural exchange and solidarity. Here’s what we have:

  1. The W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies
  2. Augusta Savage Gallery
  3. Brown Paper Studio
  4. Media Africana Project

Details are forthcoming at the links above and additional information will be made available on this blog, especially the calendar of New Afrika House events coming up. The 4th floor, at present, continues to be used as “swing space” for University needs. The UMass Press has moved from it East Experiment Station location at 671 North Pleasant Street to our 4th floor. They will be with us until 2020, while their building is renovated.

This fall the work to our Underground Performance & Media Center was completed. Here are some photos showing the progress of the renovation work to NAH 03 to date:

[foogallery id=”485″]

The New Africa House Theater is beginning to return New Africa House to being a hub for academic and cultural activity related to African people locally and worldwide. Here are some of the dynamic events that have been held in NAT (New African Theater) this fall of 2018:

 

 

Black Panther Showtime!

2 Replies

SPECIAL FEATURE FOR UMASS+5C AFRICANA STUDENTS
Feb. 15, 2018 * 6:45pm to 9:45pm

Hadley Cinemark Theater at Hampshire Mall 

*Preceded by a commentary from Du Bois Dept. Faculty on Black Panther in relations to Re[pair]ations_Representation, AfricanaScienceFiction, & Afrofuturism*

The worldwide opening for Black Panther is Feb. 16th in the middle of Black History Month.

The Du Bois Department is a co-sponsor of an advanced screening with our students the night before the film is released to the general public. We’ve secured the 144-seat theater in Hadley Cinemark for this unique UMass/5 College screening.

Featured Pre-film Lightning Talks by: 

Demetria Shabazz  

Teaching our Spring 2018 courses “Black 70s Film Representations” and “African American Television Studies.” Also, last fall, she taught “Digital Video Production & Research in the Black Community.

Amilcar Shabazz 

Du Bois Professor, AfroAm Dept. Chair, Black Liberation Theoretician, author of Advancing Democracy & more

Priority reservations for AfroAm majors and minors until Feb. 1. Contact Sharon Coney for details.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

A PechaKucha Night on the Black Panther movie and phenomena is being planned along with an Africana-STEM syllabus and an episode of the soon to be launched Africana Studies Today.

STAY TUNED! LONG LIVE THE KING!

The Decade of the African Diaspora–Forward Ever

Leave a reply

The Decade of the African Diaspora–Forward Ever, Backwards Never with Brother David Horne is a Harambee Radio and Television Network program that is streamed live every Thursday at 10:00 PM. EST. On December 10, 2017 (52adM), the conversation with David features Gerald Horne and Amilcar Shabazz speaking on “The Black Radical Tradition.” Listen tonight at 10, by getting the link to the online livestream at http://www.harambeeradio.com/David.htm.

DAVID L. HORNE

David Horne is a tenured full professor of Critical Thinking and African History, and is the former chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Cal State University, Northridge. He also teaches graduate public policy and introductory political analysis, and is the graduate advisor for the department. He is the original Executive Director of the California African American Political Institute at CSU Northridge (created by state legislation in 2000), and he is the current Executive Director of the revised California African American Political and Economic Institute (AB 165) at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He has a Ph.D in history and political economy from UCLA, and two Master’s degrees, one in Public Policy from CSU San Bernardino, and the other in South African history from the University of Florida. He is the author of Straight to the Point: A Primer for a Logical Introduction to Critical Thinking, and Meeting Maat: The Handbook of African Consensus Meetings and Gatherings, as well as numerous scholarly and community-based articles. Outside of the academy, he is the founder and Chair of the Reparations United Front, a regional organization that seeks to push the Reparations Movement forward. He is the author of the only national Reparations Survey being done, a life-time member of N’COBRA, and he was one of the primary coordinators and conveners of the National Reparations Congress held in Compton, California, in 2004, out of which came the only National Strategic Reparations Plan currently in force. He is also the co-founder of a 21st century Pan African NGO, the Pan African Organizing Committee, with international headquarters in Accra, Ghana and affiliates in Bluefields, Nicaragua, and Panama City, Panama. He was the organizer and coordinator of the Pan African Roundtable held April 7-8, 2006, in Los Angeles at which the African Union‘s contemplation of designating the Diaspora as the 6th Region of Africa was discussed, along with the AU’s invitation for Blacks in the USA and other places to elect their Diasporan Representatives and join the AU as voting members. The Los Angeles Roundtable created the only existing methodology that is now being used to organize the Diaspora in the USA, Europe, Central America, Brazil, Canada and the Caribbean to accept that invitation and join the AU. He is currently writing a book, Organizing the African Diaspora, and he is the author of the Decade of the Diaspora theme.

GERALD HORNE

Gerald Horne currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. Born in January 1949 he was raised in St. Louis, USA. After undergraduate education at Princeton University he received his PhD from Columbia University and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Horne is the author of more than thirty books and one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His current research includes an examination of U.S.-Southern African relations since the so-called “Anglo-Boer War” at the end of the 19th century and an analysis of the Political Economy of the music called “Jazz” from the late 19th century to the present.  A prolific author, Horne has published on W. E. B. Du Bois and on the internationalist intellectual Shirley Graham Du Bois who was a member of the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies (#WEBDDAFRO) faculty. <adapted from wiki and UH.edu bio>

AMILCAR SHABAZZ

Amilcar Shabazz is a professor in the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and he teaches in the area of historical studies with an emphasis on the political economy of social and cultural movements, education, and public history. Learn more about him from his Frankly speaking blog by clicking here.

Resources for a deeper dive

The black radical tradition – Libcom

Any National “Conversation About Race” Must Include Black Radical Tradition, February 16, 2014. By Adam Hudson, Truthout

 

HOW TO READ AN HISTORICAL MONOGRAPH

Leave a reply

I. STEPS IN THE READING PROCESS [Major Works course notes (hispol track), ca 1997]

  1. read the preface, introduction, table of contents to find out what the author’s stated purpose is and how he/she intends to accomplish it.
  2. read the footnotes and/or bibliography to see what kinds of evidence the author is drawing on and what other works in the field have preceded the one you are reading.
  3. read the entire book through taking notes and/or making marginal comments as you proceed; remember to read the footnotes as you go along.
  4. reread the parts you have underlined as well as your own comments. this should give you a pretty firm idea of what you do or don’t understand about what you have read.

II. How to situate the book in various contexts.

  1. to get some idea of the conversations or controversies in which the book may be involved read several book reviews. these can be located by consulting the BOOK REVIEW DIGEST for the years during which the book first appeared. you also should consult the major historical journals, all of which have indices, such as the AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY, THE JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN HISTORY and perhaps the relevant speciality journals such as the JOURNAL OF SOCIAL HISTORY, SOCIAL SCIENCE HISTORICAL REVIEW, PAST & PRESENT, or the relevant state historical journals. if the book is a particularly difficult one you might want to consult the reviews before you read the book so you have a better handle on the major issues.
  2. read the footnotes! historians use footnotes to point you to the sources of their ideas and conclusions and to locate their work in relation to the work on the same subject that has already been done. footnotes also allow you to trace the author’s steps if you do not find the conclusions or arguments very persuasive.
  3. read the bibliography! one way to get some idea of what a particular monograph is attempting is to read ,or browse intensely, one or more of the works that the author is attempting to revise, surpass, refute, confirm, etc.
  4. check for symposia or reports on panels or conferences if the book is particularly noteworthy or controversial it might be the subject of joint reviews, symposia ,panels at conventions or special conferences. the dialogue generated in these formats can be extremely useful in highlighting the main issues and points of difference.
  5. browse the library shelves to the left and right of where your book would be located to get some idea of the range of works on the same or similar topics.

John Bracey  Afro-Am 701

An Afterthought by Amilcar Shabazz (2017)

The above reading strategy may be viewed in relation to its mode of production–the late capitalist research university. It is well traced by the US/UK academic historical discipline as well as “identitarian” interdisciplines like American Studies, Gender Studies, Classics, etc. See https://amst522.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/how-to-gut-a-book-or-the-best-advise-my-grad-school-advisor-ever-gave-me/ for a purported “graduate student” POV; or http://www.artsweb.bham.ac.uk/NStanden/impchina/guttingabook.htm qua a learning skill. What are your thoughts? Can you use any of it?

Fall 2017–Community Engagement Classes for you!

Leave a reply

AFROAM 170–The Grassroots Experience in American Life and Culture I
A civic engagement/community-based service learning class you co-create
(#42677) / Meeting Dates: Wedn 2:30 – 5PM, New Africa House room 302
Prof. Demetria Shabazz

 

For details on the class go to
http://websites.umass.edu/dshabazz/register-fall-2017-170-seminar/

 

AFROAM 591C
Digital Video Production and Research in the Black Community
(#42695) Meeting Dates: Tues 2:30 – 5PM, New Africa House room TBA
Prof. Demetria Shabazz

This course aims to increase the utility and impact of research produced at UMass by creating, adapting, implementing, supporting, and sustaining innovative digital tools and publishing platforms for content delivery, discovery, analysis, data curation, and preservation. It will also engage students in extensive outreach, education, and advocacy to ensure that scholarly work in the Du Bois Department has a global reach and accelerates the pace of research across disciplines.

The course will teach visual methodological research methods and digital camera usage to explore social networks, the inclusion of community partners in research, and black neighborhood and community spaces. We draw on the substantive and methodological experiences of visual researchers using photography, film, and video and the evident challenges of representing such a diversely situated experience as that of African Americans. We will discuss and learn camera use and operation, data collection and analysis, ethical concerns, community partnerships, refinement of research questions, and theoretical use and development of imagery in research regarding the African American community.

I welcome working with graduate students, and undergraduates, Emerging Scholars, and Commonwealth Honors College students. The course can focus on your own research project and/or connect with a new video production of the Du Bois Department we will begin that will air on Amherst Media. Contact Prof. Dee Shabazz at dshabazz@umass.edu for more details on the course.

Spring 2017 courses

Leave a reply

AFROAM 101 Introduction to Black Studies  01-LEC (10542)
TuTh 10:00AM – 11:15AM | New Africa House Room 21 | Carlyn Ferrari

AFROAM 118 Survey of Afro-American Literature II 01-LEC (10532) Gened AL U +
MoWe 10:10AM – 11:00AM | Integ. Learning Center N101 | Karla Zelaya

AFROAM 133 African-American History, Civil War-1954 01-LEC (10516) Gened HS U +
MoWe 2:30PM – 3:45PM | Morrill Sci. Ctr. (II) rm 131 | Toussaint Losier

AFROAM 151 Literature & Culture 01-LEC (19877) Gened AL U
CPE On-Line | Keyona Jones| Restrictions/Notes

AFROAM 196ISH Honors Independent Study In Afroam 01-IND (10528)

AFROAM 196S Harambee Independent Study Group 01-IND(10580)
Fr 1:00AM – 1:00AM | John Bracey

AFROAM 196T Harambee Independent Study Group, Part II 01-IND (10595)
TBA | John Bracey

AFROAM 197B ST-Taste of Honey: Black Film Since the 1950’s, Part 2 01-SEM (10543)
Th 6:00PM – 8:30PM | New Africa House Room 21 | John Bracey

AFROAM 244 Afro-American Poetry: Beginning to 1900 01-LEC (20434) Gened AL U
Mo 5:30PM – 8:00PM | New Africa House Room 21 | Britt Rusert

AFROAM 252 Afro-American Image in American Writing 01-LEC (10576) +
MoWe 10:10AM – 11:00AM | Tobin Hall room 204 | James Smethurst

AFROAM 296ISH Hnrs Indstu Afroam 01-IND(10529)

AFROAM 297A ST-Black Springfield:Revisited 01-LEC (10570)
Tu 4:00PM – 6:30PM | New Africa House Room 26 | Amilcar Shabazz
https://websites.umass.edu/afroam297a-shabazz/syllabus/ 

AFROAM 345 Southern Literature 01-LEC (20707) Gened AL U
TuTh 4:00PM – 5:15PM | New Africa House Room 21 | Nadia Alahmed

AFROAM 395F S-Peer Leadership Development 01-LEC (10546)
Th 5:30PM – 8:00PM | Integ. Learning Center N101 | Doris Clemmons

AFROAM 396ISH Honors Independent Study in AFROAM 01-IND (10530)

AFROAM 398 Practicum 01-PRA(10520)

AFROAM 496ISH Honors Independent Study in AFROAM 01-IND (21488)

AFROAM 498Y Practicum 01-PRA(10523)

AFROAM 499P Honors Project 01-IND(10524)

AFROAM 499T Honors Thesis 01-IND(10531)

AFROAM 499Y Honors Research 01-IND(10537)

GRADUATE LEVEL COURSES

AFROAM 591B Seminar- Black Radical Thought 01-SEM(10577)
We 6:00PM – 8:30PM | New Africa House rm 309 | John Bracey

AFROAM 690E Blackness and Utopia 01-SEM(20436)
Tu 11:30AM – 2:00PM | New Africa House room 302 |Britt Rusert

AFROAM 692G S-African American Women’s Narrative 01-SEM(20437)
Tu 4:00PM – 6:30PM | New Africa House rm 309 | A-Yemisi Jimoh

AFROAM 692Q S-African Diaspora Stds: Intro to Concepts & Historiography 01-SEM(21339)
Tu 2:30PM – 5:00PM | New Africa House room 302 | Agustin Lao-Montes

AFROAM 696A IS-Qualifying Examination 01-IND(10533)

AFROAM 702 Major Works in Afro-American Studies II 01-SEM(10526)
MoWe 2:30PM – 5:00PM | New Africa House rm 309 | James Smethurst

AFROAM 753 Special Topics in Afro-Amer Lit & Culture 01-LEC(20368)
Mo 11:15AM – 1:45PM | New Africa House rm 309 | Steven Tracy

BLACK LIVES MATTER HERE

Leave a reply

BLM poster Best copy

 

THIS SPACE IS THE PLACE!

This event has been generously supported by the endowment fund of the Resistance Studies Initiative, the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, the Dept. of Sociology, the Five Colleges, Incorporated, and culminates week of research and reflection on the movement for black lives — https://websites.umass.edu/wbdubois/2016/02/01/blm_week/

For an overview of the movement, see The New Yorker, March 14, 2016, “The Matter of Black Lives: A new kind of movement found its moment. What will its future be?”  By Jelani Cobb,  http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/14/where-is-black-lives-matter-headed

Research & Reflection on Black Life

Leave a reply

A campus-wide, interdisciplinary engagement with the Black Lives Matter movement
___________________________________________________________________________________________
How to tell you of peace? Change? Hope?  http://www.leftvoice.org/BLM-Protesters-Dropped-the-Mic-Now-Let-s-Drop-the-IllusionsOf racial and sexual and economic injustice? Of anAmerica rising up out of an aristocracy of death. An aristocracy of slavery. Racism. An aristocracy of color. An aristocracy of corporate greed? An America that made Langston Hughes write: “We the people must redeem our lands and make America, America again.”         —Sonia Sanchez (SOS, 2014)
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Dedication of a “Black Lives Matter” banner off the Amherst Town Commons
March 21 | Monday 12 noon – across S. Pleasant St. in downtown Amherst
Speakers will include Liberation Worker Dr. Barbara Love and Police Chief Scott Livingstone
*Sponsored by Coming Together: Understanding Racism, Building Fairness and Connection.
Community Forum on “Black Lives Matter”  [Free and open to the public]
March 21, 2016 | Monday 7PM – First Congregational Church of Amherst, 165 Main St.
Featured multi-age panelists: Dr. Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Vira Douangmany Cage, Nurah Jaradat, Viseth Loeung, and Dr. Amilcar Shabazz followed by Community Discussion/Q&A.

Social Science Research Methods at the Frontier: Affirming Black Lives Matter
March 23 | Wednesday 12:30-2PM – UMass Campus Center Hadley Room (10th floor)
Featured Panelists: Dawn Dow (Syracuse/Sociology), Fredrick Harris (Columbia/Political Science), and Linda Tropp (UMass-Amherst/Psychology) reflect critically on the frontiers of research methods in each of their disciplines in light of the fight for racial justice. Co-sponsored by the Institute for Social Science Research and the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program.
Three scholars of race and politics reflect critically on the frontiers of research methods in each of their disciplines in light of the fight for racial justice. This event is part of a weeklong, campus-wide and interdisciplinary engagement with the Black Lives Matter movement, and is co-sponsored by ISSR and the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program.  Please RSVP

Sharing the Prize: Reconsidering the Economics of the Civil Rights Movement
March 23 | Wednesday 4-6PM – Student Union Cape Cod Lounge
Professor Gavin Wright, author of Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South (2013), will present followed by three commentators: Professors John Bracey (W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies), Gerald Friedman (Department of Economics), and Katherine Newman (Department of Sociology). There will be time for questions and discussion from the audience and a reception will follow the symposium.
Co-organized by Gerald Friedman, Johan Mathew, Priyanka Srivastava, and Carol Heim.

Critical Theory & Social Change Workshop: Confronting Racism in the Contemporary U.S.
March 24-25 | Thurs. 7-9PM; Friday 11:45-1:15/2:30-4PM | Campus Center/Cape Cod Lounge
A two-day workshop featuring Mariana Ortega and Touré Reed, who share a commitment to anti-racist organizing but represent different academic disciplines and adopt different theoretical approaches to analyzing racism. See https://www.umass.edu/stpec/events/critical-theory-and-social-change-confronting-racism-contemporary-us
Organized by the Social Thought & Political Economy Program.

Resisting Police: Social Science Resistance Series * A Lecture by Paul Amar
March 24 | 4PM | Cape Cod Lounge | http://www.umass.edu/events/resisting-police-social
Resisting Police Panel Discussion: Police Forces as Social Movements in Contentious Fields of Authoritarian-Populism, Militarized Masculinity, and Racial Brutality
March 25 | 4PM | Cape Cod Lounge | with Sonia Alvarez, UMass; Paul Amar, Global Studies, UCSB; Barbara Cruikshank, UMass; Donna Murch, History, Rutgers; Cathy Schneider, International Service, American U; Jillian Schwedler, Political Science, Hunter College 

Feminist Poetics: Legacies of June Jordan Symposium
March 25 | Student Union Ballroom | www.umass.edu/afroam/documents/SaveTheDate4.pdf
A symposium celebrating the work of feminist poet, scholar and activist June Jordan, and her legacies in contemporary feminist poetics featuring Alicia Garza (#BlackLivesMatter), Lisa C. Moore (RedBone Press), Nadia Alahmed &  (UMass), Samiya Bashir (Poetry for the People), Korina Jocson, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, & Arlene Avian (UMass), Aneeka Henderson (Amherst College), Aishah Shahidah Simmons (Williams College), Kai M. Green (Northwestern University), Evie Shockley (Rutgers University), Che Gossett (poet and activist), Paula Giddings & Kevin Quashie (Smith College), Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Mobile Homecoming project), Cheryl Clarke (author, Living as a Lesbian), Barbara Smith (author, Writings on Race, Gender and Freedom), Sharon Page Ritchie (San Francisco Arts Council), Akasha Gloria Hull (author, Color, Sex, and Poetry), Margo Okazawa-Rey (Fielding Graduate University), Sonia Sanchez (author, Shake Loose My Skin), Evelyn Harris (Grammy award winning artist), and UMass student performers. Organized by Afro-American Studies & Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies

#BLM Remembering, Celebrating & Moving Forward: An Evening of Beautiful Struggle
March 26 | Saturday – Student Union Ballroom, 7PM hosted by the Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies and Resistance Studies Initiative. Featuring the incomparable Sonia Sanchez, Rev. Sekou and the Holy Ghost, Melina Abdullah, Matt Meyer, and others.

Movement for Black Lives Strategy Retreat intergenerational luncheon
March 27 | Sunday – Campus Center Hadley Room, 1PM, RSVP to resist@umass.edu
Organized by the Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies and Resistance Studies Initiative. 

Social Science Research Methods at the Frontier: How do we heed the call?
Monday | March 28 | 12:30-2:00 pm – Bartlett 107
This inter-disciplinary dialogue aims to engage scholars across the Five Colleges to identify implications and shared agendas for social science research after a week of events centered on the Black Lives Matter movement and the fight for racial justice. This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Social Science Research and the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program in collaboration with a wide range of partner organizations such as the Public Engagement Project and the GEO Black Caucus. Dialogue Moderators: TBA  Please RSVP

University Museum of Contemporary Art | Exhibit—Question Bridge: Black Males
A video installation that aims to represent and redefine black male identity in America.
Question Bridge: Black Males is a five-channel video installation that aims to represent and redefine black male identity in America, and powerfully exposes the incredible diversity of thought, character, and identity within the black American male demographic, disrupting traditional generalizations. Created by Chris Johnson, Hank Willis Thomas, Bayeté Ross Smith, and Kamal Sinclair, the project explores challenging issues within the black male community by instigating a transmedia conversation across the geographic, economic, generational, educational, and social divisions of American society. For more info., click here

Students can arrange to get one-credit hour for academic work related to these events. Please contact Amilcar Shabazz, Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, for more info. Email: shabazz@chancellor.umass.edu

Webliography

Creating Social Transformation Through Building Deeper Relationships

Black Lives Matter -wedidntstartamovementwestartedanetwork-

Building a Manifesto BYP 100

Black Lives Matter + International Decade for People of African Descent

Intergenerational

Healing

Campus Racism 

Historical commentary
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/14/where-is-black-lives-matter-headed
The New Yorker MARCH 14, 2016 ISSUE “The Matter of Black Lives: A new kind of movement found its moment. What will its future be?” BY JELANI COBB

On White Allyship