Department of African American Studies

Conversations by Artists for Artists, Spring 2018
2018-03-25 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | California African American Museum
Conversations by Artists for Artists, Spring 2018

Sunday, March 25th, 2018
2:00pm-4:00pm
California African American Museum | 600 State Drive Los Angeles, CA 90037

Charlyn Green (aka The Cosmic Goddess Herself) and Dr. Scot Brown continue this series conceived by artist Lisa C Soto and originally hosted at Soto Studio in Inglewood, which brings together creative contemporaries from many artistic genres, including visual, performing, and multidisciplinary practices. Two artists working in different mediums and with distinctly different approaches interview one another and then broaden their conversation to an audience of their peers.
Come for a stimulating, nurturing, and supportive environment where creatives can get to know one another and talk shop.

A reception with homemade Caribbean food follows, cooked by Soto.
Limited capacity, RSVP required.

RSVP HERE

Tendayi Sithole: “Re-Reading Steve Biko in the Archive: The Epistemology of the Interview”
2018-03-05 14:00 - 16:00 | 10383 Bunche Hall
“Re-Reading Steve Biko in the Archive:
The Epistemology of the Interview”

Tendayi Sithole | University of South Africa

Monday, March 5, 2018 | 2:00 pm
10383 Bunche Hall
Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Scholar/Critic/Poet Tendayi Sithole:
“The archive and the interview assume the place of the original because they are considered primary if not authentic texts. Both are, of course, very important textual forms and more so if they are about important figures. In this paper, I want to re-read the archive and also the interview as important sites in understanding the knowledge practices of Biko under the context of the apartheid regime. This will be done by engaging the interview that Gail Gerhart conducted with Biko in 1972 as the site of examination of the conception of the archive and the interview in re-reading the subjectivity of Biko.”

Tendayi Sithole is an associate professor in the Department of Political Sciences, University of South Africa. He is the author of Steve Biko: Decolonial Meditations of Black Consciousness (2016). Professor Sithole teaches holds a doctorate in African Politics which was based on Achille Mbembe’s political thought. Thematic areas of his research are black radical thought, decolonial critical theory, Africana existential phenomenology, public intellectuals, and literary studies.

This lecture is part of the African Studies Center Speaker Series and is cosponsored by Professor Robin D.G. Kelley, Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History, UCLA Department of African American Studies and the African Activist Association.

For questions/more information, contact:
UCLA African Studies Center | 10244 Bunche Hall | Los Angeles, CA 90095-1310 | Telephone: 310-825-3686
Website: http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa | email: africa@international.ucla.edu

Economic Policy and the Civil Rights Movement: How Coretta Scott King Helped Change Federal Reserve Policy
2018-03-05 12:00 - 15:00 | Bunche 6339
RSVP to rsvpluskin@history.ucla.edu

The Intersection: Woke Black Folk
2018-03-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
26th Annual Pan African Film Festival
Featured Theater Event

Playwright, Poet, Scholar and Activist FUNMILOLA FAGBAMILA performs for
ONE NIGHT ONLY
her one-woman, hip hop, spoken word theater piece:
THE INTERSECTION: WOKE BLACK FOLK

March 2nd, 2018
Doors Open: 6:00pm
Show Begins: 7:00pm
Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center | 4305 Degnan Blvd #101, Los Angeles, CA 90008

TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLY AT
WWW.FUNMILOLA.COM
The Intersection is a theatrical production that explores and deconstructs black political identity, foregrounding the forms of ideological conflict and difference that exist within what can be understood to be black radicalism. Funmilola Fagbamila (playwright) developed this production during her time as the Inaugural Activist-in-Residence at the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin during the Winter 2017 quarter. Renowned scholar-activist Dr. Angela Davis reviewed the earliest presentation of The Intersection, stating “This production is brilliant, timely and necessary.”
The Intersection has been selected as the featured theatrical production for the 2018 Pan African Film Festival (the largest black film festival in the United States) and will open on March 2, 2018.

The Kind of Man I Am: Jazzmasculinity and the World of Charles Mingus, Jr. by Nichole Rustin-Paschal
2018-02-22 12:00 - 13:30 | Black Forum Room; Haines Hall 153
The Kind of Man I Am: Jazzmasculinity and the World of Charles Mingus, Jr.
by Nichole Rustin-Paschal
Thursday, February 22nd, 2018
12:00pm-1:30pm
Black Forum, Haines Hall 153

The Kind of Man I Am: Jazzmasculinity and the World of Charles Mingus Jr. (Wesleyan 2017) is a gendered cultural history of jazz in the postwar period. She draws on archival records, published memoirs, and previously conducted interviews to explore how Mingus’s ideas about music, racial identity, and masculinity—as well as those of other individuals in his circle, like Celia Mingus, Hazel Scott, and Joni Mitchell—challenged jazz itself as a model of freedom, inclusion, creativity, and emotional expressivity.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Musicology

A Book Talk with Manisha Sinha on "The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition"
2018-02-13 12:00 - 13:30 | Black Forum Room; Haines Hall 153
A Book Talk with Manisha Sinha
The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition
Tuesday, February 13th, 2018
12:00pm-1:30pm
Black Forum, Haines Hall 153

Manisha Sinha will discuss her prize-winning book, The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition (Yale University Press, 2016)
Co-sponsored by the Department of History and the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies
Lunch will be provided.

Support for Black Reparations in the Early 21st Century
2018-02-12 12:00 - 14:00 | Black Forum Room; Haines Hall 153
Support for Black Reparations in the Early 21st Century
Talk by Michael Dawson
John D. MacArthur Professor of Political Science and the College
The University of Chicago

Monday, February 12th, 2018
12:00pm-2:00pm
Black Forum, Haines Hall 153

Lunch will be provided.

Why Black Women’s Lives and Histories Matter
2018-02-08 19:00 - 20:30 | UCLA Fowler Museum, Lenart Auditorium 308 Charles E Young Dr N, Los Angeles, CA 90024
WHY HISTORY MATTERS
Why Black Women’s Lives and Histories Matter
Thursday, February 8, 2018
7:00 p.m.
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Lenart Auditorium
Self-pay parking available in Structure 4

Funmilola Fagbamila
Adjunct Professor, Department of Pan-African Studies
California State University, Los Angeles
Dion Fountaine Raymond, J.D.
Discrimination Prevention Officer and Coordinator
UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Brenda Stevenson
Professor and Nickoll Family Endowed Chair in History
UCLA Department of History
moderated by
Marcus Anthony Hunter
Scott Waugh Endowed Chair in the Division of the Social Sciences
Associate Professor and Chair
UCLA Department of African American Studies
RSVP HERE

Bankers, Empire, and Black Study
2018-02-01 14:00 - 16:00 | UCLA Young Research Library, Main Conference Room 11360
Bankers, Empire, and Black Study
Thursday, February 1st, 2018
2:00pm-4:00pm
Reception to follow.
UCLA Young Research Library (YRL) Main Conference Room 11360

A roundtable discussion on Peter James Hudson’s “Banker’s and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean”.
featuring
Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report
Peter James Hudson, UCLA
Walter Johnson, Harvard University
Deborah A. Thomas, University of Pennsylvania
Moderated by Marcus Hunter, UCLA

Cosponsored by the Department of History and the James S Coleman African Studies Center

A Conversation With Bootsy Collins: Worldwide Funk
2018-01-30 18:00 - 20:30 | UCLA Fowler Museum, Room A139
A Conversation With Bootsy Collins: Worldwide Funk
Hosted by Scot Brown

Tuesday, January 30, 2018
6:00pm-8:30pm
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Room A139

RSVP HERE:
worldwidefunk.eventbrite.com
Free and Open to the Public

"My Good Friends Walter Rodney and John Walton": Racial Brokering in New Orleans Education Reform
2017-11-13 12:00 - 14:00 | UCLA Haines Hall 153
“My Good Friends Walter Rodney and John Walton”:
Racial Brokering in New Orleans Education Reform
A Talk with Christien Tompkins

Monday, November 13th, 2017
12:00pm-2:00pm
UCLA Black Forum Room, Haines Hall 153
Christien Tompkins is a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California Los Angeles in African American Studies. He received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 2017 and previously worked as an elementary school teacher in a New York City public charter school. His first book project, Reconstructing Race: New Orleans Education Reform as Experimental Labor, has been selected by the University of California Press as a finalist in the new series, Atelier: Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century.

Futures of Black Radicalism
2017-11-07 13:30 - 18:00 | California NanoSystems Institute
Futures of Black Radicalism
Tuesday, November 7th, 2017
1:30pm-6:00pm
California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) Auditorium
(located in South Campus)

RSVP
https://futuresofblackradicalism.eventbrite.com

Schedule
1:30pm-2:00pm Pre-Reception (with refreshments)
2:00pm-3:30pm Response to book by Jonathan Gomez, Olufemi Taiwo, Thabisile Griffin, and Marques Vestal and author response by Alex Lubin and Gaye Theresa Johnson
3:45pm-5:00pm Authors and Artivist Dialogue with Authors and Tom Morello and Chuck D
5:00pm-6:00pm Reception & Book Signing (with food & refreshments)

With additional comments by Elizabeth Robinson and Shana Redmond

Black as Space, Femme as Future: An Afrofuturist Feminist Roundtable
2017-10-19 16:00 - 19:00 | UCLA Young Research Library (YRL), Room 11348
Black as Space, Femme as Future: An Afrofuturist Feminist Roundtable

Thursday, October 19th, 2017
4:00pm-7:00pm
UCLA Young Research Library (YRL), Room 11348

Conversations with
Andre Carrington, Department of English and Philosophy | Drexel University
Nalo Hopkinson, Department of Creative Writing | UC Riverside
Tananarive Due, Department of African American Studies | UCLA

What It Iz! The Spokenwordical
2017-10-13 19:00 - 2017-10-14 22:00
What It Iz! The Spokenwordical
The UCLA Department of African American Studies, The Institute of Inequality and Democracy, and the Department of Theater present What It Iz: The Spokenwordical !
What It Iz will be performed during the BARS Conference at UCLA over the weekend of October 13th – 15th, 2017. Performances will take place the evenings of Fri, Oct. 13th & Sat, Oct. 14th at 8 PM at the Northwest Auditorium, UCLA. Note that the doors will open at 7 PM.
​
Special pre/post-show appearances by…
The Founder of Hip Hop: DJ KOOL HERC
The First Lady of Hip Hop: CINDY CAMPBELL
The Godfathers of Hip Hop: THE LAST POETS
​
This event is open seating but you can RSVP here:
https://whatitizproduction.wixsite.com/whatitiz/rsvp
​
An art installation in the lobby will be available one hour before the show.

Black Convocation 2017
2017-10-10 17:00 - 19:30 | UCLA De Neve Plaza Room, 351 Charles E Young Drive West
The Black Convocation is an annual event that welcomes new and returning students to the UCLA campus and makes them aware of the different organizations, departments, and resources available to serve them. It is an evening full of Bruin pride, providing encouragement, anecdotes about the past, and a glimpse of the future from UCLA faculty, staff, and alumni dedicated to supporting all students.
The Black Convocation is free and open to the public. Maps & directions. Parking can be purchased at Parking Lot DD.

OCTOBER 10, 2017
5:00pm-7:30pm
DE NEVE PLAZA ROOM

REGISTER HERE

Presented by: The Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, Dept. of African American Studies, Black Alumni Association (BAA), Academic Advancement Program (AAP), UCLA Institute of American Cultures (IAC), IAC Development, Student Affairs, Office of Residential Life, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Black Graduate Students Association (BGSA), First Year Experience (FYE), Dept. of Sociology, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Afrikan Student Union (ASU), UCLA Anderson Black Business Student Association (BBSA), Black Bruin Transfer Success (BBTS), Dean of UCLA Social Sciences.

Ethnic & Indigenous Studies Welcome
2017-09-26 16:00 - 18:00 | UCLA Sunset Village Plaza
Ethnic & Indigenous Studies Welcome

We are #EthnicStudies. Explore African American Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, and Chicana/o Studies at our FREE event with food, music, and giveaways with fellow students, faculty, and staff. Learn how Ethnic and Indigenous Studies fits into your UCLA experience and beyond.

Tuesday, September 26th, 2017
4PM
Sunset Village Plaza

Generously sponsored by First Year Experience, Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Dean of UCLA Social Sciences, Institute of American Cultures, and the Asian American Studies Center.

Test Divisional Event
2017-07-28
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Department of African American Studies Commencement Ceremony
2017-06-17 11:30 - 13:00 | UCLA Fowler Museum, Lenart Auditorium 308 Charles E Young Dr N, Los Angeles, CA 90024
The following information is in regards to the Department of African American Studies commencement ceremony.
Date: Saturday, June 17th, 2017
Time: 11:30am-1:00pm
Location: UCLA Fowler Museum, Lenart Auditorium; 308 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Tickets: Students may request up to 4 complimentary tickets. There will be a $12.00 charge (per ticket) to your BruinBill account for each additional ticket ordered. Guest tickets are to be picked up from 1308 Rolfe Hall prior to commencement day.
Parking: The closest parking lot to the Fowler Museum is Lot 4. Parking is $12.00 per vehicle. Parking passes are available from the Parking Services Office prior to commencement day.
The address to Lot 4 is 221 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Students on Graduation Day:

Student graduates are requested to arrive at the Fowler Museum, Lenart Auditorium in cap and gown for check in at 11:00am. Please be on time!
Seating is unreserved and doors will open at 11:15am.
The ceremony will start at 11:30am.

Please email Eboni Shaw, eshaw@afam.ucla.edu or Tricia Park, triciapark@afam.ucla.edu for further questions.
For more information on commencement, please go to www.commencement.ucla.edu

Film Screening & Discussion of: BaddDDD, Sonia Sanchez
2017-05-17 16:30 - 19:00
RESCHEDULED TO MAY 17th, 2017
Film Screening & Discussion of: BaddDDD, Sonia Sanchez
Screening will be followed by a Discussion with Dr. Sonia Sanchez + Book Signing and Reception.

Date: Wednesday, May 17th, 2017
Time: 4:30pm-7:00pm
Location: CNSI Auditorium (South Campus)
RSVP HERE

Costume Designer, Ruth E Carter: Design for the Decades
2017-05-15 19:00 - 21:00
Design for the Decades
with
Ruth E. Carter, UCLA TFT Copley Center’s Swarovski Designer-in-Residence
UCLA Bridges Theater
Monday, May 15th, 2017
7:00pm-9:00pm
(reception to follow)
Ruth E. Carter’s unparalleled ability to develop an authentic story through costume and character has made her one of the most sought after and renowned costume designers today. She has garnered two Academy Award (Oscar) nominations for “Best Costume Design,” for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X (1992) and Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997). Ruth Carter holds a BA from Hampton University, majoring in Theatre Arts. Carter has worked in the industry for three decades and has been credited with well over forty films to date. Carter is a frequent collaborator with director Spike Lee. Carter and Lee have worked on twelve films together beginning with School Daze (1988) and including Do the Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X, Old Boy (2013), and Chi-Raq (2015). Known for her research and diligence to the craft, specifically for her outstanding work for period ensemble films like the highly praised Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013), and Best Picture Academy Award nominee Selma (2014), her most recent period work. Currently she recently wrapped the film Marshall, about the life of the first African American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall and is currently shooting the new Marvel super hero film, Black Panther.

RSVP HERE

A Talk with Richard C. Brown: From Appalachia to the Academy
2017-05-09 15:30 - 17:00
A Talk with Richard C. Brown:
From Appalachia to the Academy
Join us in a colloquia to hear Richard C. Brown speak about his experience growing up black in Appalachia during the Civil Rights Era, his journey migrating to New York during the height of the African-American Great Migration, and his experience collaborating with his daughter, Professor Karida L. Brown (UCLA Sociology), on her research project on the African American experience in and through central Appalachia.

Date: Tuesday, May 9th, 2017
Time: 3:30-5pm
Location: Public Affairs, 1234
Moderated by: Robin D. G. Kelley and Karida L. Brown
(light refreshments served)

Emancipation and Empire Series: Professor E. Kwame Otu
2017-05-08 12:00 - 14:00
Emancipation & Empire: Africa and the Project of Black Studies presents
Professor E. Kwame Otu
Carter G. Woodson Center for African-American and African Studies, University of Virginia
at the Black Forum at the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies; UCLA 153 Haines Hall
Monday, May 8th, 2017
12:00pm-2:00pm
All workshops will be based on a pre-circulated paper. Hardcopies are available at the African Studies Center, the Department of African American Studies, and the Ralph J. Bunche Center.
For more information contact: Eboni Shaw: eshaw@afam.ucla.edu

Emancipation and Empire Series: Professor Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui
2017-04-24 12:00 - 14:00
Emancipation & Empire: Africa and the Project of Black Studies presents
Professor Siba N’Zatioula Grovogui
Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University
at the Black Forum at the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies; UCLA 153 Haines Hall
Monday, April 24th, 2017
12:00pm-2:00pm
All workshops will be based on a pre-circulated paper. Hardcopies are available at the African Studies Center, the Department of African American Studies, and the Ralph J. Bunche Center.
For more information contact: Eboni Shaw: eshaw@afam.ucla.edu

Obsesion Cuban Hip Hop Duo In Residence at UCLA
2017-04-12 15:00 - 2017-04-13 17:00
Obsesion- Cuban Hip Hop DuoIn Residence at UCLA
Wednesday-Thursday, April 12-13

Wednesday, April 12, 3-5 p.m
Cuban Hip Hop: Desde el principio [From the beginning]
Schoenberg Music Building, Room 1100 (Schoenberg Auditorium)
Documentary screening followed by a Q&A with Obsesion and filmmaker Vanessa Díaz (Visiting researcher at Chicano Studies Research Center)
Co-sponsor: Department of Ethnomusicology

Thursday, April 13, 5-7 p.m
Public Conversation with Obsesion on Hip Hop, Race, and Gender
Powell Library Rotunda
Moderated by Aisha Finch, UCLA Professor of African American Studies and Gender Studies
Translation by Vanessa Díaz, Visiting researcher at Chicano Studies Research Center
Refreshments provided

One of the most well-respected and longest-running hip hop groups in Cuba, Obsesion was formed in 1996 by Magia López and Alexey “el tipo este” Rodriguez. They’ve performed with the likes of The Roots, and their fan base includes Harry Belafonte, Mos Def, and Afrika Bambaata. They also form part of the collective Club del Espendru, which empowers Afrocuban culture and business in Havana. Co-sponsor: Latin American Institute, Program on Caribbean Studies, Dept. of Gender Studies, Chicano Studies Research Center
Admission to both events is free; no reservations are required. For more information, email tksangwand@library.ucla.edu #UCObsesion

Winston C. Doby Distinguished Lecture featuring U.S. House of Representative John Lewis
2017-04-10 11:30 - 14:00
Monday, April 10th, 2017
11:30pm-1:00pm
UCLA Royce Hall
The UCLA Academic Advancement Program Proudly Presents
The 5th Annual
Winston C. Doby Distinguished Lecture
featuring
THE HONORABLE JOHN LEWIS
United States House of Representatives
Tickets are free of charge
Available from the UCLA Central Ticket Office in person or by phone (310) 825-2101
Click Here for More Information

What It Iz! The Spokenwordical
2017-03-17 - 2017-03-18 | Los Angeles Theater Center
A fusion of traditional musical theatre, hip-hop, and spoken-word poetics, this “spokenwordical” is inspired by the 1975 musical The Wiz. What It Iz is a journey of self-discovery from the birth of hip-hop through the social and political corruption that fuels the current incarceration epidemic. Poignant and humorous, mesmerizing and musical, come see What It Iz!
To RSVP: what-it-iz.eventbrite.com
Suggested Donations
General Admission: $20 per ticket
Groups of 5 or more: $10 per ticket
To donate to the UCLA Department of African American Studies, please visit:
https://giving.ucla.edu/campaign/Donate.aspx?SiteNum=515

Film Screening of: BaddDDD, Sonia Sanchez
2017-03-13 16:00 - 19:00 | California NanoSystems Institute
Screening will be followed by a Discussion with Dr. Sonia Sanchez + Book Signing and Reception.
All are Welcome!

Uri McMillan: Author Meets Critic
2017-03-06 16:00 - 2017-03-07 17:00 | Humanities Building, Room 193
In Celebration of Professor Uri McMillan’s multiple award-winning book
Embodied Avatars:
Genealogies of Black Feminist Art & Performance

Featuring Guest Speakers:
Amber Musser, Washington University
Jessica Johnson, Johns Hopkins
Patrick Anderson, UC, Irvine
Josh Chambers-Letson, Northwestern University
Roy Perez, Willamette University
Jayna Brown, UC, Riverside

Diasporic Dreams, African Nation-State Realities Rastafarian Repatriation to Tanzania
2017-02-27 12:00 - 14:00
As part of the series Emancipation & Empire: Africa and the Project of Black Studies,
the Department of African American Studies at UCLA presents
Diasporic Dreams, African Nation-State Realities
Rastafarian Repatriation to Tanzania
Monique Bedasse
Departments of History and African American Studies
Washington University in St. Louis
Respondent: Marcus Anthony Hunter, Sociology and African American Studies, UCLA
Monday, February 27, 2017
12:00pm-2:00pm
Black Forum at the Ralph J. Bunche Center
153 Haines Hall
Professor Bedasse’s workshop is part of Emancipation & Empire, a year long series examining the role and status of Africa within the disciplinary project of Black Studies. Workshops are based on a pre-circulated paper. Hardcopies are available at the African Studies Center, the Department of African American Studies, and the Ralph J. Bunche Center.
For more information contact: Eboni Shaw: eshaw@afam.ucla.edu
Emancipation & Empire: Africa and the Project of Black Studies is cosponsored by Professor Melvin L. Rogers, the Scott Waugh Chair in the Division of Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science and African American Studies; UC Consortium for Black Studies in California; James S. Coleman African Studies Center; Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.

Melina Abdullah: Information, Access, Activism
2017-02-09 15:00 - 17:00 | Charles E. Young Research Library (Conference Room)
Melina Abdullah: Information, Access, Politics. A discussion brought to you by the UCLA Information studies department’s diversity council.
Closest parking available in Lot #3. Reception to follow in the GSE&IS Building 2nd Floor Grand Salon.
Registration Required! Click here
