Welcome Back!

Below are the Events Scheduled for the Fall 2008 School Year

September

September 19-21
Hittin' the Streets
Friday-Sunday, Nashville African Street Festival
Visit the Black Cultural Center display table at the festival

September 25, Thursday
African American and Diaspora Studies Conference
The Commons - TBA
"Hip-Hop Youth Culture & The 2008 Elections"

September 27, Saturday
McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program
Black Cultural Center
Please accept this invitation to join the Graduate School as we welcome Directors from the McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program to campus from September 25 through September 28. We hope that you will join us and help explain how you and your staff help support underrepresented graduate students at Vanderbilt. Most of you have joined us in one of last year’s events and, from comments I received from the visiting directors, impressed them with the level of support you make available to students like theirs.

September 29, Monday
Coming Toge4ther or Coming Apart: Race, Politics, and Psychology of Identity
6:30pm-8:30pm, Black Cultural Center
The first of two lectures presented by Jeff MenaqAmurr Neferkhar-Menzise, Ph.D., N.D., C.H.
This presentation will highlight some of the issues that have historically driven a wedge between the once healthy interpersonal relationships of African descendants throughout the Diaspora. Various solutions, from a variety of theoretical perspectives, will be shared.

September 30, Tuesday
Adinkra Sculpture Dedication
4:30am, Black Cultural Center
The Adrinka Symbol Mobile, commissioned for the BCC and designed by world-renowned artist, Willis “Bing” Davis, will be formally installed. Please come out to hear the artist discuss the cultural concepts behind this unique piece of African American art.

October

October 7, Tuesday
OBGAPS Campus Airing of the U.S. Presidential Debate
7:30pm, BCC Auditorium
Professional Students in witnessing this historic event in American history happening in the Nashville community.
Debate begins at 8:00 PM. Refreshments served.

October 8, Wednesday
Great Performances presents: LKe Sacre de Printemps
7:30pm, Ingram Hall
Fourteen distinctive African dancers from countries including Mali, Benin, Nigeria and Senegal join for an explosive interpretation of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Presented and choreographed by Heddy Maalem.

October 9, Thursday
Creating Black Places & Spaces at VU
11:30am BCC Auditorium, Lost in the Ivy: Brown Bag Discussion Series
This series examines Black student life at Vanderbilt University from a variety of perspectives. Refreshments served.

October 15-18, Wednesday-Saturday
International Black Film Festival
TBA

October 16, Thursday
International Lens Film Series On the Map
6:30pm The Commons, Multipurpose Room 235
While documenting the atrocities taking place in Darfur, Sudanese filmaker Taghreed Elsanhouri investigates how notiions of race and ethnicity are constructed in Sudan.

October 16-18, Thursday-Saturday
Border Crossings: Boundaries of Cultural Interpretation
Black Cultural Center
A conference for Graduate Students sponsored by The Afro-Hispanic Review
*Some conference sessions in the BCC Auditorium
and Seminar Room

October 17, Friday
Caribbean Voices
TBA Black CulturalCenter
A Conversation with and Reggae Reception for Annalee Davis, filmmaker and director of On the Map. Featuring, Reggae music and Jamaican food.

October 23-December 3
Black Student Life at Vanderbilt Photography Exhibit
8:00am-5:00pm Daily, Black Cultural Center
Presented by Dr. Rosevelt Noble.

October 24, Friday
Reparations, Race and Politics: A Discussion and Dialogue
A discussion centering on Dr. Raymond Winbush’s important and controversial book,
Should America Pay?: Slavery and The Raging Debate on Reparations
The discussion will also focus on issues of race and politics. Winbush is Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University. He is also former Assistant Provost/Director of the Bishop Johnson Center at Vanderbilt. Dr. Jeff Menzise will serve as respondent and moderator.

October 28, Wednesday
"Don't Scare the White People"
11:30 am, Lost In The Ivy: Brown Bag Discussion Series, BCC Auditorium
This series examines Black student life at Vanderbilt University from a variety of perspectives. Refreshments served.

November

November 6, Thursday
2nd Annual Walter Murray Commemorative Lecture
4pm Wyatt Center
Sheryll D. Cashin, Professor of Law, Georgetown University, will present the Second Annual Walter Murray Lecture. Cashin is a Vanderbilt University alumnus (B.S., Electrical Engineering, 1984), and continued her academic work at Oxford (M.A., 1986); and Harvard (J.D., 1989). Cashin is the author of a number of books and articles, including, most recently, The Agitator’s Daughter: A Memoir of Four Generations of One Extraordinary Family (2008); and The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American Dream (2004).

November 19, Wednesday
International Lens Film Series My Brother's Wedding
Presented by: Frank Dobson, Director, Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center
United States. (1985) Dir: Charles Burnett. Recently-restored, director’s-cut version of
independent filmmaker Charles Burnett’s classic. Pierce Mundy has only 24 hours to make a consequential decision: should he cast his lot with the downtrodden community of Watts and go to his best friend’s funeral or should he aspire for better things and attend his brother’s wedding? 81 minutes.

December

December 3, Wednesday
End of semester Pre-Kwanzaa Celebration
Black Cultural Center
Come over for another Soul Food Buffet to end the semester and kickoff the holiday season. Great food, traditional African dance, music and fellowship.

 

All events are free, open to the public and located on the Vanderbilt University campus unless otherwise noted.  If you need disability-related accommodations, additional event information or campus directions/parking details, please contact the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center at 615-322-2524.