Kent State University at Stark’s observance of Black History Month in February offers opportunities for the campus community to get together and experience diversity in all its forms. The monthlong commemoration will feature presentations, forums and a performance by Cleveland-based popular electric blues ensemble the Wallace Coleman Band. Events are listed below. All are free and open to the public.
For more information on Black History Month, contact Joel Carbonell, associate professor of political science, at jcarbon2@kent.edu or 330-244-3429.
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PRESENTATION: DO BLACK LIVES MATTER?
We Stay in the Same Country but We Live Different Lives
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017
5:30 p.m.
Main Hall Auditorium
Presented by William Casterlow, enrollment management & student services advisor, Kent State Stark
Sponsored by the Black History Month Committee
#KentStateUnited
Will Casterlow will briefly review a timeline of the black experience that was framed by the consistent manipulation of America’s laws and criminal justice system to control this population. Special focus will be given to U.S. court cases, interpretation of laws and how these laws were used to disadvantage and still disadvantage many Americans until today.
PRESENTATION: THE 1,000
African-Americans at NASA
Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017
1 p.m.
Main Hall Auditorium
Presented by Robert Hamilton, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences, Kent State Stark
Sponsored by the Black History Month Committee
#KentStateUnited
Dr. Hamilton addresses the mission-critical presence of African-Americans in NASA.
PRESENTATION: CIVIL RIGHTS
Broadening Our Understanding
Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017
1 p.m.
Main Hall Auditorium
Presented by Leslie Heaphy, Ph.D., associate professor of history, Kent State Stark
Sponsored by the Black History Month Committee
#KentStateUnited
Dr. Heaphy will focus on looking beyond just the well-publicized events of the Civil Rights movement to some of the lesser known people and events. Heaphy will look at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but also John L. Lewis, Julian Bond and others. Topics such as school desegregation, “Don’t Buy where you Can’t Work” campaigns and Double Victory will be discussed.
WALLACE COLEMAN BAND
Electric Blues
Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017
6 p.m.
Main Hall Auditorium
Free, tickets not required.
Sponsored by the Black History Month Committee
#KentStateUnited
Wallace Coleman, a 10-year veteran of the Grammy Award-winning Robert Lockwood Jr. Band, started his own band in 1996. He later established his own record label, which he named Ella Mae Music, in honor of his late mother. Coleman has released four, critically acclaimed CDs on his label, including his latest release, Blues In The Wind, Remembering Robert Jr. Lockwood. Coleman has won a Living Blues Award for fan favorite, as well as garnered two nominations for outstanding harmonica. He has been named an Ohio Heritage Fellow. His performance embodies an American art form that has all but disappeared from the African-American music landscape and is certain to captivate blues lovers of all ages.