The Avery Research Center commemorates MALCOLM X on the 50th anniversary of his assassination – February 21, 1965.

The Commemoration Program on Feb 21 is from

11am to 5pm, see details below:

–Film screenings begin at 11:00 – 3:00
(see flyer for details)

MalcolmX

–3:00pm: A Conversation with Mzee
(esteemed & respected Elder) James E. Campbell and Imam Hakim Abdul-Ali.

–4:00pm: Exhibition Opening/Reception “Malcolm X: 50 Years and Counting, The Legacy Continues” featuring materials from the James E. Campbell Collection & from the private collection of Imam Hakim Abdul-Ali.

ALL ACTIVITIES ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

For information call: 843.953.7609 or visit our website: http://avery.cofc.edu

 

Feb 18: Avery Brown Bag: “Baseball Dreams Deferred: The Story of the 1955 Cannon Street Y.M.C.A.,”

Panel Presentation moderated by Ramon M. Jackson, University of South Carolina, Avery Research Center, 12-1:15 pm

In this panel discussion, moderated by University of South Carolina PhD candidate Ramon M. Jackson, local scholars and members of the 1955 Cannon Street Y.M.C.A. All-Stars will share their team’s story and discuss its legacy. Once described as the “most significant amateur team in baseball history,” members of this African-American youth baseball team were key figures in an adult-led direct action campaign to desegregate Little League Baseball in the American South. Nearly fifteen months after the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregated schools were unconstitutional, Cannon Street Y.M.C.A. president Robert F. Morrison entered the All-Stars into the “whites only” Charleston Little League tournament. This action caused a “Civil War” within Little League Baseball, as teams in seven southern states seceded from the national organization and formed a segregated league known as “Little Boys Baseball” (Today known as “Dixie Youth”). Join us for a discussion of this powerful, often overlooked moment in the African American freedom struggle in South Carolina and the nation. To learn more about the Cannon Street All-Stars, visit: www.1955cannonstreetallstars.weebly.com

Follow this link for an online petition to have the Cannon Street All Stars team invited to the White House: https://www.change.org/p/president-barack-obama-please-invite-the-cannon-street-ymca-all-stars-to-the-white-house

***Day after this presentation: Unveiling Ceremony for a Historical Marker for the Cannon Street All Stars, Thursday, February 19, 2:00 p.m., Harmon Field (Corner of Fishburne and President, across from Burke High School). Park at Arthur Christopher Gym, 265 Fishburne Street (This is also the alternative site in the event of inclement weather)

New Orleans Revisited: Tourism, Race, and Historical Memory after Katrina (Jan. 22)

Title: New Orleans Revisited: Tourism, Race, and Historical Memory after Katrina

Presented by: Lynell Thomas, UMass-Boston

Date: January 22, 2015

Location: Avery Research Center (125 Bull Street)

Time: 6pm

Overview: By the eve of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, collective dissent over the slow, uneven and inequitable recovery was displaced by a blitz of favorable media coverage that refashioned a tale of national disaster into a fable of American resilience and rebirth. In this presentation, Lynnell Thomas explores how events, such as the election of a white mayor, the New Orleans Saints’ NFL Super Bowl victory, the critical acclaim and local fandom surrounding the launch of the HBO television series Treme, BP’s tourism promotional campaign following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the positive national attention generated by the city’s neoliberal solutions to public education and affordable housing relied on and reclaimed the racialized tourist tropes central to New Orleans’s place identity. The city’s post-Katrina tourism narrative advances an idea of recovery that obscures painful post-Katrina realities. As the script of New Orleans’ recovery is being written, the city is poised to emerge as an international symbol of rebirth, renewal, and racial unity or a harbinger of the systemic social, economic, and ecological disasters that plague all U.S. metropolitan areas. The nation – indeed the world – is watching (and touring) to see which symbol will win out.

“Make it Funky: Or, Music’s Cognitive Travels and the Despotism of Rhythm” by Paul C. Taylor

The Aesthetics Work Group, The Avery Research Center, and African American Studies are proud to sponsor a talk by Paul C. Taylor, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Head of African American Studies at Penn State University. Professor Taylor will deliver, “Make it Funky: Or, Music’s Cognitive Travels and the Despotism of Rhythm” at 3:15 on Thursday, November 20 in 235 Robert Scott Small.
Photo: The Aesthetics Work Group, The Avery Research Center, and African American Studies are proud to sponsor a talk by Paul C. Taylor, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Head of African American Studies at Penn State University. Professor Taylor will deliver, "Make it Funky: Or, Music's Cognitive Travels and the Despotism of Rhythm" at 3:15 on Thursday, November 20 in 235 Robert Scott Small.

Film Screening, The New Black (March 27 at 6 p.m.)

Film Screening: The Alliance for Full Acceptance and (AFFA) & the Avery Research Center present the South Carolina premier of “The New Black” and a discussion with the film’s producer, Yvonne Welbon. “The New Black” is a powerful story of Black families and churches grappling with gay rights and civil rights in the midst of the fight for marriage equality.

Date/Time/Location: Thursday, March 27, 2014, 6:00pm, 125 Bull Street, Charleston, SC. Free and open to the public.

http://www.newblackfilm.com/

NewBlack

Avery Research Center Hosts One of the First Conferences of its Kind

 

Black sexuality and gender identities have traditionally been taboo topics – until recently. This fall the College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center will host one of the first academic conferences to explicitly focus on these topics and more. “Unleashing the Black Erotic: Gender and Sexuality – Passion, Power and Praxis” will include panels ranging from “Women, Sex, and Hip Hop” to the “State of the Field,” which will feature nationally influential scholars. Renowned journalist and feminist author, Joan Morgan will deliver the keynote address on Thursday, September 19, 2013 at 4:00 p.m., and this event is free and open to the public. The entire conference will be held from September 18 through 21, 2013 at the Avery Research Center (125 Bull St.). View registration information and full schedule here.

 

Read a Chronicle of Higher Education article on the rise of black sexuality.

 

For the second year in a row, the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture’s annual conference is breaking ground. Last year’s Black Power conference also drew national attention, including an article in USA Today, and brought international scholars to the College’s campus.

 

“It is so important that we talk about these issues now, and it is so important that we talk about them here, in Charleston, South Carolina,” says Patricia Lessane, director of the Avery Research Center. “We want to host work that is interesting, work that is being done around the world, and yes, work that is edgy.”

 

The late African American poet and civil rights activist Audre Lorde  argued that the “erotic” involves various forms of personal pleasure, from sexuality and physical appearance to art, music, poetry, and performance. During the 1970s, Lorde advocated for African American women to empower themselves by embracing the erotic as part of the black feminist movement. Conference organizers highlighted Lorde’s definition of the erotic in their call for papers and panels, which yielded a record number.

 

Consuela Francis, College of Charleston professor of African American studies explains, “We will come together to examine what it means to be black, female, male, gay, straight, and anything in between. In doing so, we acknowledge our agency and power, and collectively unleash the black erotic.”

 

“This conference is very unique,” Lessane adds. “The interdisciplinary nature of ours, and the focus on different black sexualities really makes this conference one of the first of its kind.”

 

In addition to the panels, there will also be a dramatic performance by E. Patrick Johnson that is free and open to the public. The one-man-show is entitled “Sweet Tea: Stories of Gay Black Men in the South.”

 

This conference is hosted jointly by the Avery Research Center and the African American Studies program at the College of Charleston. For more information, contact averyconferences@gmail.com or 843.953.7609.

http://news.cofc.edu/2013/09/05/avery-research-center-hosts-one-of-the-first-conferences-of-its-kind/