Students, faculty and staff will celebrate Black History Month with a wide range of cultural and educational activities across the university including screenings, performances and lectures, some hosted virtually due to the ongoing pandemic.
New Brunswick
February 1, 7:30 p.m. The Bildner Center hosts the “Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family” web seminar. Advanced registration is required.
February 6, 2 p.m. Mason Gross School of the Arts hosts their MLK Celebration, both in-person and via livestream. All event attendees will be required to show proof of full vaccination or a COVID-19 negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event.
February 21, 9 a.m. As part of Access Week, the I Am Collegebound: College Fair & Youth Summit will provide dynamic workshops, speakers, and trainings led by Rutgers undergraduates to aid in preparing students for college. Advanced registration is required.
February 22, 2 p.m. As part of Access Week, “A Dollar and A Dream” webinar aims to increase student understanding of key terms and concepts in financial literacy. Advanced registration is required.
February 22, 6 p.m. As part of Access Week, Tori Weiston-Serdan's Zoom discussion will offer a critical framework to engage in culturally sustaining mentoring practices for those working with youth. Advanced registration is required.
February 23, 10:30 a.m. As part of Access Week, the McNair Virtual Symposium will showcase the research of undergraduate research students from McNair Scholars Program and LSAMP. Advanced registration is required.
February 23, 4 p.m. As part of Access Week, this year's James Carr Lecture hosts Davarian Baldwin, who will discuss “Building the Anti-Racist University: Why Equity and Inclusion Can’t Stop at the Campus Gates.” Advanced registration is required.
February 24, 11 a.m. As part of Access Week, Micere Keels will teach attendees via Zoom best practices and student success strategies to facilitate retention and increase timely degree completion. Advanced registration is required.
February 24, 3 p.m. The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, and Justice host their Distinguished Lecture Series featuring historian Chris Span of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Advanced registration is required.
February 25, 11 a.m. As part of Access Week, faculty will share research presentations via Zoom sharing their practices/techniques related to equity in their classrooms, research and general practice. Advanced registration is required.
February 25, 1 p.m. As part of Access Week, “For the Love of Money” is part two of webinars to increase student understanding of key terms and concepts in financial literacy. Advanced registration is required.
February 28, 11 a.m. The Graduate School of Education hosts the RU Ready for Graduate School virtual discussion. Advanced registration is required.
Camden
February 1, 7 p.m. A virtual conversation with Jessica Harris – an internationally known culinary historian, educator and author of dozens of books on the foodways of the African diaspora – will discuss the complex ways that food and its history shape Blackness around the globe. Advanced registration is required.
February 8, 11:20 a.m. The Department of Africana Studies will host a panel discussion on the powerful but neglected history of Haiti, as well as current challenges that the country is facing. Advanced registration is required.
February 17-20. The Department of Africana Studies will collaborate with the Black German Heritage and Research Association to host a four-day virtual conference, “ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER: Black Germany and Beyond.” Film links with passwords will be made available to registrants for viewing ahead of the conference.
February 28, 7 p.m. The Black History Month celebration will conclude with the Black Atlantic Musical (BAM) Festival in the Walter K. Gordon Theater on the Rutgers–Camden campus.
In addition to these events, Rutgers-Camden will celebrate the accomplishments of Black Americans through a month-long storytelling project titled RePRESENTation Matters. Each story will explore the significance of representation in our quest for true racial equality.
The series honors African Americans who serve as inspirational role models and who have broken down barriers in the disciplines of art, science, law and health care. The stories also showcase the research and scholarship of Rutgers University–Camden faculty. “Present” is at the heart of representation: When we are fully aware of and engaged in the opportunities available to us, our aspirations can take shape.
Please be on the lookout as new stories are released throughout the month. The lineup includes stories on:
- A virtual conversation with Jessica B. Harris, acclaimed author of the book and Netflix series, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America.
- African American representation in the Phantom of the Opera and recent Disney films.
- The new U.S. quarter featuring poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou.
- The debut of a signature Barbie doll inspired by journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells.
- President Joe Biden’s commitment to nominating the nation’s first Black female Supreme Court justice.
Newark
February 11, 6 a.m. The New Jersey Film Festival will hold a 24-hour screening of Memory Builds the Monument, a documentary focusing on the cultural and social challenges of African Americans in the South from the 1940s through the 1960s. The event is held in partnership with the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center at Rutgers-Newark.
February 17-19. The annual Black Portraitures[s] VII: Play & Performance conference explores themes of play and performance in past, present and contemporary African diasporic art. Hosted by Express Newark, it concludes with a series of conversations for the 42nd Annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture series at the Newark Museum of Art. Advanced registration is required.
February 23, 5:30 p.m. Hosted by the Black Organization of Students, the Black Excellence panel will highlight members of the Black diaspora and explore what it means to exemplify Black excellence through the panelists’ work. Link to come.
