Black History Month Gatherings: February 2022
Reflect, empower yourself, indulge and confront your curiosities this month. Throughout February, this community hosts events with the notion of celebrating and honoring Black histories, issues, people, and their struggles. Here is a listing of gatherings – let us know if we’ve foolheartedly forgotten to list your program or event, and we will add – please see the form at the bottom of the page.
All Month and All the Time
Boston University Alumni & Friends shows us some members of the Black community who have impacted Boston University in incredible ways. You can learn more about their stories.
Campus Events
Thursday, Feb. 10
Event: “Driving While Black” as “Living While Black” presented by Jamila Jefferson-Jones
Time: 12:45 p.m.
Location: In-person and virtually
Hosted By: Boston University School of Law
Links: Register here on Eventbrite
Description: BU Law is hosting a hybrid in-person* and virtual event on Thursday February 10, 2022 featuring speaker Jamila Jefferson-Jones, who will present “Driving While Black” as “Living While Black.”
Black people have long faced obstacles when attempting to access the freedom of mobility represented by the “open road.” The phenomenon of “Driving While Black” is a manifestation of those obstacles. This Essay posits that the restriction of Black freedom through the racialization of space is the common thread that ties “Driving While Black” to the broader phenomenon of “Living While Black.” It examines “Driving While Black” through a lens of spatial structural racism enforced by state-sanctioned police violence in the guise of the pretextual traffic stop and concludes that banning such policing practices is the remedy for “Driving While Black.”
A copy of her paper can be viewed here.
*Please note all in-person attendees must present a current BU ID or proof of vaccination.
Event: American Studies for the Future: Ross Barrett and Alan Braddock
Time: 2 p.m. or 5 p.m.
Location: Virtual
Hosted By: American & New England Studies Program; BU Center for the Humanities; Dean of Arts & Sciences, Associate Dean of Faculty/Humanities; Associate Dean of Diversity & Inclusion; African American Studies Program; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Department of History; and the Department of English.
Links:
2pm registration: Zoom link: (https://bostonu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMvdOCprjgjG9dUtSvDD0c_yxOg5NqIaiXq)
5pm registration: Zoom link: (https://bostonu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEvcO2przkvG9LMci8TG76CXxI1ABqd2_UU)
Event Poster: View Here
Description:
2 PM: Seminar with Ross Barrett (BU, History of Art); Alan Braddock (William & Mary) responding. In this seminar, we will discuss a pre-circulated paper by Prof. Barrett entitled “Painting and Property on Prout’s Neck.”
5 PM: Public lecture by Alan Braddock. “Black Landscapes: Artistic Origins of Environmental Justice and Dilemmas of Decolonization.”
Event: Senior Diversity Officer’s Panel on Critical Race Theory
Time: 5:30-7 p.m.
Location: Live Location: (Sold out) Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, 808 Comm Ave, Room 104. A virtual link will be sent to all registrants. Location is subject to change to a virtual event, depending on the COVID guidelines and protocols for Boston University at the time of the event.
Hosted By: Dean of Students Office, BU School of Law, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, and BU School of Public Health
Description: “Join the Office of the Senior Diversity Officer for an educational discussion on Critical Race Theory (CRT)—a body of legal scholarship and an academic movement of US civil rights scholars and activists who are critically examining the intersection of race and US law and are challenging mainstream American approaches to racial justice. Organized in collaboration with the Dean of Students Office, BU School of Law, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, and BU School of Public Health, this panel seeks to examine CRT from a multidisciplinary approach in order to better inform and equip the next generation of leaders with a deeper understanding of complex issues and to promote constructive dialogue within the BU community and beyond.”
Event: UMOJA Black Love Day
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: CAS B20
Hosted By: UMOJA: The Black Student Union
Description: “We are hosting a black love day which involves activities such as Valentines card making and a raffle that you should be interested in.”
Wednesday, Feb. 16
Event: BIPOC Wellness Fair
Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Location: Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, 808 Comm Ave
Hosted By: Queer Activist Collective and BIPOC Mental Health Collective
Description: Join us in the Howard Thurman Center for the BIPOC Wellness Fair. Come see BU Clubs, and Boston based organizations that are inclusive of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students.
Thursday, Feb. 24
Event: Spiritual Madness: Race, Psychiatry, and African American Religions
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Science & Engineering, 610 Commonwealth Ave, Room 101 + virtual
Hosted By: Department of Religion, African American Studies Program
Links: Registration: (https://bostonu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UbzDje91Q8mcmA1ix2kUvA)
Event Poster: View Here
Description: “Speaker: Judith Weisenfeld
This talk explores late nineteenth and early twentieth-century psychiatric theories about race, religion, and the “normal mind” and shows how the emerging specialty of psychiatry drew on works from history of religions to make racialized claims about African Americans’ “traits of character, habit, and behavior.””
Monday, Feb. 28
Event: Afrofuturism & Black Life
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Virtual
Hosted By: Part of the Writing Black Lives Series sponsored by African American Studies, the BU Center for the Humanities, the Dept of English and Dept of History.
Links: Registration: Zoom Link (https://bostonu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nyj1PlAZRDuRqoQTZJ5i5w)
Event Poster: View Here
Learn more about the speaker
Description: “Ytasha L. Womack is an award-winning author, filmmaker, independent scholar, and dance therapist. She is a leading expert on Afrofuturism and lectures on the imagination and its applications across the world. Ytasha was honored among DesignHub’s 40 Under 40 designers for social good and innovation in 2017 and listed as a Filmmaker to Watch in The Chicago Tribune. Her book Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci Fi and Fantasy Culture (Chicago Review Press) is the leading primer on the subject and taught in colleges and universities. Afrofuturism is also a Locus Awards Nonfiction Finalist. She is an inaugural resident with Black Rock Senegal helmed by celebrated artist Kehinde Wiley, was a creative in residence with Kickstarter Spring 2019 and a writer-in-residence with Emerson College in Boston Fall/Spring 2018-2019. She recently completed a writing residency in October 2020 as a Writer on the Bloc with Writers on the Wall (WOW) in Liverpool, England. She’s currently a co-curator for Carnegie Hall’s Afrofuturism Festival.”
Thursday, Feb. 17
Event: Black Professionalism in the Workplace
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, 808 Commonwealth Ave
Hosted By: BU BBSA – Black Business Student Association
Links: Instagram post
Tuesday, Feb. 22
Event: ‘People, Pride, and Promise: The Story of the Dockum Sit-in’
Time: 7 pm
Location: CAS 204A
Hosted By: UMOJA
Links: Instagram post
Description: “Come join us as we discuss the historical legacy of the Dockum Drugstore Sit-In on nonviolent protests then and contemporary racial equity struggles with author Prisca Barnes (joining virtually).”
Thursday, Feb. 24
Event: African Diaspora Cultural Night
Time: 5-9 pm
Location: Marciano Commons Dining Hall
Hosted By: BU Dining Services, Student Government, UMOJA, BUASO and BU SOCA
Links: Instagram post
Description: “The African Diaspora Cultural Night (ADCN) is a collaboration between the African Student Organization (ASO), BU Student Government (SG), Students of Caribbean Ancestry (SOCA), and UMOJA to bring the cuisine from African Diasporic countries to BU Dining Halls. Held in February this event is an ode to Black History Month and a night is meant to cultivate and foster an environment that encourages the cultural enrichment and education of the BU community. This year the student selected menu features Rice and Beans, Plantains, Collard Greens, Fried Chicken, Curry Chickpeas and Roti,and more!”
Event: Black & LGBTQIA+ Student Networking meeting
Time: 6 pm
Location: Virtual – Zoom link
Hosted By: Katy Collins, Director of Student Outreach and Engagement
Links: Zoom link
If you are hosting an event that is not listed on this page – please let us know by filling out the form below.