A series of events honoring Black History Month will take place at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) during the month of February. Organized in conjunction by students and faculty, the events are free and open to the public.
A lecture and film screening, “Rediscovering the Revolution: Summer of Soul (2021) and the Harlem Cultural Festival,” are set for Tuesday, Feb. 20, from 2 – 5 p.m. in the Academic Innovation Center (AIC), room 126.
Dr. Emily Vanchella, visiting lecturer, TAMIU College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Fine and Performing Arts, will lead the screening of the film, The Summer of Soul. The award-winning film tells the story of the Harlem Cultural Festival and its disappearance from and reintroduction to music history.
In the summer of 1969, the Harlem neighborhood in New York City hosted a concert series, which was a celebration of African-American musicians, their creations, and of Black pride and solidarity, Dr. Vanchella explained. The event, she said, has been described by some as the ‘Black Woodstock.’
“Yet, footage from it was never shown on television networks in its time nor was it recorded as an album, two privileges Woodstock would enjoy,” Dr. Vanchella said, “The footage and memory of the event was, as a result, lost to time until recently.”
As part of her presentation, Dr. Vanchella will deliver a short lecture on the Festival, placing it in the context of civil rights and unrest in late-1960s America.
Another lecture, “Carnivalizing Slavery: African Diaspora Festive Celebrations and Black History,” will be led by Dr. Asligul Berktay, assistant professor of History, Monday, Feb. 26, from 3:20 – 4:20 p.m. in Student Center, room 230. The lecture is sponsored by the TAMIU Student Government Association.
Dr. Berktay said her lecture will explore contemporary festive celebrations across the African Diaspora, with specific focus on the Caribbean. It will demonstrate that the historical experience of slavery continues to shape the Trinidad Carnival, Jamaican Jonkonnu, Bahamian Junkanoo, Haitian Rara, Trinidadian Hosay, and New Orleans Mardi Gras, which in many ways also belongs within the cultural sphere of the Caribbean, she added.
“The sheer survival and continued vivacity of African Diaspora festive celebrations constitute pure evidence for the historical ‘opposition’ of the descendants of enslaved Africans, and of their fight for cultural preservation, adaptation, and re-creation within the worlds of Atlantic slavery,” Berktay said.
Also, TAMIU’s Office of Student Orientation, Leadership and Engagement (SOLE) will present a lecture, “Reconstructing Identity to Fight Genocide Ideology in Rwanda,” featuring Dr. Celine Jacquemin, professor of International Relations at St. Mary’s University, Wednesday, Feb. 28, from 3:20 – 4:20 p.m. in AIC, room 128.
