MoAD Events and Exhibitions

Event: February 4, 2012: MIGRATIONS OF THE SACRED: SPIRITUAL PRACTICES ACROSS THE DIASPORA | ...

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Please join Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) for a special lecture presentation, The History of the Black Church with Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

Rev. Dr. Wright will discuss the formation of the first American black churches in the 1800’s to their present day roles in fostering community organization, political leadership, in addition to religious fellowship. The lecture will be followed by book signing of Rev. Dr. Wright’s most recent publication, A Sankofa Moment: The History of Trinity United Church of Christ, which gives the 48-year history of the Trinity United Church of Christ with a major emphasis on the building of the largest United Church of Christ congregation within the denomination that developed several ministries and several entities under the pastorate of Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. This is a special program in our ongoing series, Migrations of the Sacred: Spiritual Practices Across the Diaspora.

Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. is a man of faith, a homiletic genius, a theological scholar and a pastor’s pastor. He is a family man who enjoys spending quality time with his wife, children, grandchildren, extended family and friends. Dr. Wright is Pastor Emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, IL.

Tickets for this special MoAD event are $20 for Members/$25 for General Admission and can be purchased at http://jeremiahwright.eventbrite.com

Tickets will be pre-sold to MoAD members only January 13-27, 2012. Members must enter promotional access code and may purchase 2 tickets per member.

General Admission tickets will be available as of January 25, 2012.

Seating is limited and advanced tickets are required for admission to this program.

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm:

Event: February 5, 2012: FILM SCREENING | COLLECTED: Film Series

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Midnight Ramble: Oscar Micheaux and the Story of Race Movies (1994, 60 minutes)

The various cultural artifacts on display in COLLECTED: Stories of Acquisition and Reclamation encourage reflection on their impact and to look at them with new eyes. We are pleased to present a companion film series made up of features and shorts from earlier eras (1930s-1950's) and from the Hollywood industry, as well as the low budget "race movies" genre made especially for Black audiences. Movie posters from some of the films are displayed as part of the COLLECTED exhibition.

Midnight Ramble: Oscar Micheaux and the Story of Race Movies (directors: Pearl Bowser and Bestor Cram, 1994, 60 minutes) examines the genre from 1910-1940.

Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation

Free with MoAD Admission.

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm:

Event: February 8, 2012: AUTHORS IN CONVERSATION | Redefining Black Power: Reflections on the ...

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The Obama presidency represents a major milestone in black history and the struggle for political, economic and cultural equality in the United States. But how--if at all--has the first black presidency helped move things forward for people of color? This question is explored in the new book Redefining Black Power: Reflections on the State of Black America, which is part of a multimedia project that’s gathering the thoughts and opinions of African Americans ahead of the 2012 election. Redefining Black Power’s editor, international journalist, Joanne Griffith joins us to discuss the project and the importance of the preservation of the African American voice in this ‘Age of Obama’.

Joanne Griffith is an award winning international broadcast journalist who has reported, produced and hosted programs for the British Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio and the Pacifica Radio Network. Joanne has spent her career telling the stories of tragedy and triumph throughout the African Diaspora; from voting rights in the United States, the legacy of slavery in the Caribbean, the contribution of immigrants to the United Kingdon and the politics of food and power in southern Africa. Now based in Los Angeles, Joanne hosts a weekly radio program based on the historic audio held in the Pacifica Radio Archives for BBC Radio.

This program is co-presented by Museum of the African Diaspora and City Lights Publishers.

RSVP at http://redefiningblackpower.eventbrite.com/

Free with MoAD Admission.

7:00 pm - 8:30 pm:

Event: February 10, 2012: FILM SCREENING | COLLECTED: Film Series

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Pinky (1949, 101 min., directed by Elia Kazan)

Pinky, a young nurse (Jeanne Crain), returns to her small southern hometown, but the trip is a bittersweet one: Educated in the North, pinky is engaged to a doctor who doesn’t know that she is part black. Shunned by both blacks and whites, Pinky’s choices make her the unfortunate target of bigotry in this compelling classic. This deeply moving drama features three indelible Oscar-nominated performances from Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore and Ethel Waters.

Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation

Free with MoAD Admission.

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm:

Event: February 12, 2012: AUTHORS IN CONVERSATION | Harlem is Nowhere with Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

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For a century Harlem has been celebrated as the capital of black America, a thriving center of cultural achievement and political action. At a crucial moment in Harlem’s history, as gentrification encroaches, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts in her first book, Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America, untangles the myth and meaning of Harlem’s legacy. Examining the epic Harlem of official history and the personal Harlem that begins at her front door, Rhodes-Pitts introduces us to a wide variety of characters, past and present. At the heart of their stories, and her own, is the hope carried over many generations, hope that Harlem would be the ground from which blacks fully entered America’s democracy. Ms. Rhodes-Pitts will be in conversation with community activist Alicia Garza.

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is a brilliant new voice who, like other significant chroniclers of places-Joan Didion on California, or Jamaica Kincaid on Antigua-captures the very essence of her subject.

Alicia Garza is currently the co-executive director at People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) in San Francisco. For nearly ten years she has been helping to build people‘s power in working class communities of color in the Bay Area and abroad.

RSVP to http://harlemisnowhere.eventbrite.com/

Free with MoAD Admission.

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm:

Event: February 12, 2012: FILM SCREENING | COLLECTED: Film Series

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Imitation of Life (1934, 111 minutes)

In this Academy Award-nominated Best Picture, Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers are superb as two women with young daughters who build a fortune together. But success doesn’t save them from sorrow with the passing years. Delilah’s light-skinned teenager rejects her mother and her race, while Bea must choose between the man she loves and the daughter who loves him, too. Now all of them will pay the price of love in this spellbinding classic.

Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation

Free with MoAD Admission.

12:00 pm - 2:00 pm:

Event: February 14, 2012: An Intimate Evening with Soul Sensation Martin Luther

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The MoAD Vanguard in conjunction with The San Francisco Arts Commission’s ART IMPACT & Creative Edge PR

Present

An Intimate Evening with Soul Sensation Martin Luther

Spend your Valentine's Day at this unplugged session to hear the stories behind the music

VIP Tickets: $50.00

Couples General Admission: $45.00

General Admission: $30.00

VIP Section hosted by Modern Class Design Co-Founders NFL Player Vernon Davis and Music Executive Antone Barnes

Complimentary wine, cocktails & sumptuous appetizers will be served!

Cocktail Attire Requested

Purchase advanced tickets at http://mlmoadvalentines.eventbrite.com/

7:00 pm - 10:00 pm:

Event: February 17, 2012: FILM SCREENING | COLLECTED: Film Series

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Carmen Jones (1954, 105 minutes)

Set during World War II, the story focuses on Carmen Jones, a vixen who works in a parachute factory in North Carolina. When she is arrested for fighting with a co-worker who reported her for arriving late for work, foreman Sgt. Brown assigns young soldier Joe to deliver her to the authorities, much to the dismay of Joe's fiancée Cindy Lou, who had agreed to marry him during his leave. Stars: Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Dianne Carroll, Joe Adam and Olga James.

Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation

Free with MoAD Admission.

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm:

Event: February 18, 2012: FOLKTALES ACROSS THE AFRICAN DIASPORA | Folktales and Songs from the ...

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Diane Ferlatte, accompanied by her drummer Moshe Milon, will share folktales, & songs coming from various parts of the African continent. Besides the many West African Anansi trickster tales, Diane loves to tell African folktales emphasizing a lesson such as Why the Sky is so High, Two Friends, & Crocodile & Hen, among others. Diane’s personal favorite however, is probably the story of Sundjata, the Lion King. Also as part of this program Diane & Moshe will teach and engage the audience in the making of African musical instruments.

Internationally renowned storyteller Diane Ferlatte, is an award winning, dynamic performer, who has captivated audiences across the globe from the northern reaches of Alaska to the southern tip of New Zealand, from Europe to Singapore & Malaysia, from Colombia to Senegal, Kenya, & South Africa. Shehas been researching, collecting and telling stories for over twenty-five years. While emphasizing the history, struggles and triumphs of the African American experience as well as African & Southern tales, she also loves to tell stories that hold truths touching upon our common humanity, including personal stories as well as many tales from across the globe.

Folktales Across the African Diaspora is supported by a generous grant from the James Irvine Foundation.

RSVP to http://folktaleswithdianeferlatte.eventbrite.com/

Free with MoAD Admission.

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm:

Event: February 19, 2012: AUTHORS IN CONVERSATION | Black Cool: The Language of Survival with ...

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Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness, edited by Rebecca Walker with a forward by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., explores the ineffable state and aesthetic of Black Cool. From the effortless reserve of Miles Davis in khakis on an early album cover, to the shock of resistance in black women’s fashion from Angela Davis to Rihanna, to the cadence of poets as diverse as Staceyann Chin and Audre Lorde, Black Cool looks at the roots of Black Cool and attempts to name elements of the phenomena that have emerged to shape the global expectation of cool itself. Buoyed by some of America’s most innovative thinkers on the subject—graphic novelist Mat Johnson, Brown University Professor of African Studies Tricia Rose, critical thinking and cultural icon bell hooks, Macarthur winner Kara Walker, and many more—the book is at once a handbook, a map, a journey into the matrix of another cosmology. It’s a literal periodic table of cool, wherein each writer names and defines their element of choice. Dream Hampton writes about Audacity. Helena Andrews about Reserve, Margo Jefferson on Eccentricity, Veronica Chambers on Genius, and so on. With a foreword by Henry Louis Gates that bridges historical African elements of cool with the path laid out for the future, Black Cool offers a provocative perspective on this powerful cultural legacy.

Rebecca Walker has forged a successful career as a writer, activist, and leading American advocate for women's issues. Author of the best-selling Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, Walker has written extensively on race, gender politics, and the changing face of contemporary American feminism.

RSVP to http://blackcool.eventbrite.com/

Free with MoAD Admission.

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm:

Event: February 19, 2012: FILM SCREENING | COLLECTED: Film Series

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St. Louis Blues (1958, 105 minutes)

Will Handy grows up in Memphis with his preacher father and his Aunt Hagar. His father intends for him to use his musical gifts only in church, but he can't stay away from the music of the streets and workers. After he writes a theme song for a local politician, Gogo, a speakeasy singer, convinces Will to be her accompanist. Will is estranged from his father for many years while he writes and publishes many blues songs. At last the family is reunited when Gogo brings them to New York to see Will's music played by a symphony orchestra.

St. Louis Blues is a 1958 film broadly based on the life of W. C. Handy. It starred jazz and blues greats Nat "King" Cole, Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, and Barney Bigard, as well as gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and actress Ruby Dee. The film's soundtrack used over ten of Handy's songs including the title song.

Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation

Free with MoAD Admission.

12:00 pm - 2:00 pm:

Event: February 24, 2012: FILM SCREENING | COLLECTED: Film Series

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Moon Over Harlem (1939)

Kind-hearted widow Minnie is marrying a womanizing racketeer known as Dollar Bill, and her beautiful daughter Sue is heart-broken. When Bill tries to seduce the young girl right under Minnie’s nose, the love-struck mother wrongly blames her daughter. Cinematic auteur Edgar G. Ulmer shot Moon Over Harlem in just four days with an ultra-low budget. Despite these limitations, Ulmer brings a distinctive style and a broad range of themes to the film, which is generally regarded as one of the best of the genre.

Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation

Free with MoAD Admission.

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm:

Event: February 25, 2012: COLLECTOR'S TALK | A Collector's Perspective with Dr. Leon Litwack

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Join us for a lecture on the creation and publication of a collection of postcards depicting lynching photographs. Dr. Leon Litwack, Professor Emeritus of History at University of California Berkeley and Pulitzer Prize winning author, will discuss the collection that is documented in the publication Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, which includes an essay written by him. Dr. Litwack will also discuss his own perspective on collecting and share items from his personal collection of African American history and culture.

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition COLLECTED: Stories of Acquisition and Reclamation. Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation.

RSVP to http://collectorstalklitwack.eventbrite.com/

Free with MoAD Admission

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm:

Event: February 25, 2012: TELL ME MORE | Scholarly Voices from the Diaspora

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This series is designed to bring different scholars to MoAD who will present on a variety of topics related to the African Diaspora. These Member Only events will create a bridge of conversation between scholars and the community. All talks will occur on Saturday mornings 10am -12pm in the Salon. Seating is limited.

Marco Villalobos presents "Afro-Mestizos and Afro-Latinos in the Americas.” Marco Villalobos is driven by an ambivalence toward art and his desire to examine and even revise racial and ethnic histories. As a filmmaker and writer he values the forces of dignity, music and poetry that emerge from communities galvanized by shared experience. Villalobos illuminates and connects the contemporary experiences of Afro-Latinos in the Americas. His short films, “Rompiendo El Silencio” and “The Mas Chulo Shorts” (2006) have screened throughout Latin America, while his written work has been anthologized in major publications and appears in Anthem magazine, Complex, Dazed & Confused, Trace, the Fader, and Teachers & Writers. He is a William J. Fulbright scholar (Mexico 2009-2010) and a UNESCO-Aschberg Laureate (France 2003-2004) whose publications include African By Legacy, Mexican By Birth (Unilan 2007) and Barrio Gold (Unilan 2003).

MoAD Members Only

Please RSVP to education@moadsf.org

10:00 am - 12:00 pm:

Event: February 26, 2012: FILM SCREENING | COLLECTED: Film Series

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Ethnic Notions (56 min., 1987)

Ethnic Notions is Marlon Riggs' Emmy-winning documentary that takes viewers on a disturbing voyage through American history, tracing for the first time the deep-rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice. Through these images we can begin to understand the evolution of racial consciousness in America.

Exhibition programs generously supported by Do A Little Fund and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation

Free with MoAD Admission.

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm:

Event: February 26, 2012: SACRED MUSIC, SUNDAY FELLOWSHIP | The Candomble Tradition with Jorge ...

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Join us for a lecture, demonstration and performance of the Songs of the Orixa and the Brazilian Candomble tradition. World-class Brazilian percussionist Jorge Alabê brings the rich musical culture of Brazil to MoAD. His deep history and skill developed as he grew up playing Afro-Brazilian and samba rhythms in Rio de Janeiro, and took him around the work as dirctor of percussion with the legendary performing company Oba Oba. Jorge is an acknowledged percussion master, and a popular and dedicated performer and teacher now based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sacred Music, Sunday Fellowship is supported by a generous grant from The James Irvine Foundation.

RSVP to http://thecandombletradition.eventbrite.com/

Free with MoAD Admission.

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm:

Event: March 10, 2012: TELL ME MORE | Scholarly Voices from the Diaspora

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This series is designed to bring different scholars to MoAD who will present on a variety of topics related to the African Diaspora. These Member Only events create a bridge of conversation between scholars and the community. All talks occur on Saturday mornings 10am -12pm in the Salon. Seating is limited. Producer Amina Mama, presents documentary film The Witches of Gambaga, an extraordinary story of a community of women condemned to live as witches in Northern Ghana. Ms. Mama is a published feminist, researcher and scholar, has lived and worked Nigeria, South Africa, Britain, the Netherlands and the USA. She spent 10 years (1999-2009) working across the African region to establish the University of Cape Town’s African Gender Institute as a continental resource dedicated to developing transformative scholarship bringing feminist theory, teaching and activism together, and is founding editor of the African journal of gender studies, Feminist Africa.

MoAD Members Only

Please RSVP to education@moadsf.org

10:00 am - 12:00 pm:

Event: March 10, 2012: AUTHORS IN CONVERSATION | Blackness, Sexuality and Revolution in Cuba ...

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This conversation about blackness, gender, sexuality and revolution in contemporary Cuba follows Jafari S. Allen’s groundbreaking ethnography-- ¡Venceremos? The Erotics of Black Self-Making in Cuba. This book is a rare and engaging study of race, desire, and belonging among Blacks in early-twenty-first-century Cuba, as the nation opens its economy to global capital. Allen highlights small but significant acts of struggle for autonomy and dignity in everyday practices in Havana and Santiago de Cuba—including Santeria rituals, gay men’s parties, hip hop concerts, the tourist-oriented sex trade, lesbian organizing, HIV education, and just hanging out.

Jafari S. Allen is editor of the Black/Queer/Diaspora special issue of GLQ: A Lesbian and Gay Studies Journal. Allen is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Anthropology at Yale University, where he also teaches in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies program and the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. Professor Allen’s ethnographic and critical work has been published widely, and he is currently conducting research for a new book project, Black Queer Here and There: Sociality and Movement in the Americas, a transnational analysis of black queer sexuality, subjectivity, and resistance in and between North America, the Caribbean and South America.Visit his website at www.jafariallen.com.

Free with MoAD Admission

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm:

Event: March 17, 2012: TELL ME MORE | Scholarly Voices from the Diaspora

info@moadsf.org

This series is designed to bring different scholars to MoAD who will present on a variety of topics related to the African Diaspora. These Member Only events create a bridge of conversation between scholars and the community. All talks occur on Saturday mornings 10am -12pm in the Salon. Seating is limited.

Patricia A. Turner presents “Crafting Revenue: Who Profits From Arts in Africa and the Diaspora?” Turner is the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of African and African-American Studies at the University of California, Davis, where she has been on the faculty since 1990. A nationally known folklorist, her scholarly interests include rumor, quilting, and media portrayals of African Americans. Dr. Turner’s books include Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African-American Quilters (2009); Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America with Gary Alan Fine; (2001); Ceramic Uncles and Celluloid Mammies: Black Images and Their Influence on Culture (1994) and I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African-American Culture (1993).

MoAD Members Only

Please RSVP to education@moadsf.org

10:00 am - 12:00 pm:

Event: March 24, 2012: TELL ME MORE | Scholarly Voices from the Diaspora

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Rekia M. Jibrin presents The Wretched of the School System: Education’s Practice of Violence. Rekia is a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley and a researcher at the Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Law School. Her current work is a study of violence prevention school practices, state repression, and economic conditions that ‘epidermalize violence’ on poor children in American public schools.

MoAD Members Only

Please RSVP to education@moadsf.org

10:00 am - 12:00 pm: