'We Wear the Mask': ASU celebrates
Black History Month, Feb. 1-29

Jan. 21, 2008 -- The Office of Student Affairs at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro will sponsor “We Wear the Mask,” a celebration of Black History Month, beginning Friday, Feb. 1, and extending throughout the month.

On Friday, Feb. 1, Black History Month begins with a special pair of exhibitions at the ASU Museum, collectively titled “Medium as Message.” One exhibition, curated by Rose Ong’oa, a doctoral student in Heritage Studies, is “Wearing What Cannot Be Spoken: Kanga Cloth from Zanzibar, East Africa,” and the other exhibition, “A Delta Era Gone By,” features mid-20th century photography from Memphis photographer Nadia Price Bates Strid. Strid’s lens captured the Delta’s African Americans at work, at school, at play, and at church in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama.

These exhibitions are free and open to the public, thanks to ASU’s Office of Diversity. The exhibitions will be open through Friday, March 14. The ASU Museum will also hold an exhibition reception and Cultural Diversity Celebration on Thursday, Feb. 7, from 3-6 p.m., with refreshments and hands-on activities for children.

ASU’s celebration of Black History Month concludes on Thursday, Feb. 28, with the appearance of Dr. Henry Louis Gates as part of this year’s Lecture-Concert Series. Dr. Gates, director of the W. E. B. DuBois Institute for African and African American research, will present a lecture, “Bridging the Digital Divide: W. E. B. DuBois and the Encarta Americana,” on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in Centennial Hall, on the third floor of the ASU Reng Student Services Center/Student Union.

Other events are as follows:

Friday, Feb. 1
Dean B. Ellis Library presents an exhibit, “Women of the Central High Crisis: The Politics of Gender and Desegregation.” The exhibition also contains material about other women of the Civil Rights movement. For more information, call the Dean B. Ellis Library at (870) 972-2766.
Wednesday, Feb. 6
The Tribal Leadership Center presents “Tunnel of Oppression” at 7 p.m. in the Heritage Plaza Lounge, ASU Student Union. This student activity provides a walking tour through various historical modes of oppression. Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch, assistant professor of history at ASU, will lead a discussion following the tour.
Thursday, Feb. 7
The Strong-Turner Alumni Chapter hosts its annual Soul Food Dinner at 5:30 p.m. at the ASU Armory. This long-standing tradition is sponsored in part by the Delta Studies Center and ASU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs in addition to the Strong-Turner Alumni Chapter. The dinner welcomes new faculty and community visitors and is free and open to the public. Reverend Brandon D. Walker, pastor of St. John Church, will deliver the invocation, and Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch, assistant professor of history at ASU, will speak. For more information, call (870) 972-2325.
Tuesday, Feb. 12
ASU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs sponsors Black Entertainment Television (BET) host and producer Jeff Johnson presenting a lecture, “Leadership in the 21^st Century.” This lecture will be at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Auditorium.
Wednesday, Feb. 13
ASU’s student chapter of the NAACP will present an open talk, “Bridging the Gap: Prejudice or Preference?” at 6 p.m. in the Chickasaw Room, Student Union.
Monday, Feb. 18
The documentary film “February One: Greensboro Four,” will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Auditorium. Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch, assistant professor of history at ASU, will serve as facilitator for the discussion following the film.  
Thursday, Feb. 21
The ASU Jazz Band, under the direction of Dr. E. Ron Horton, will perform from 11 a.m.-12 p.m. in the Center Court of ASU’s Student Union.
ASU’s Black Student Association sponsors an All Black Affair social event at 7 p.m. in Centennial Hall, Reng Student Services Center/Student Union.
Tuesday, Feb. 26
The ASU Jazz Band, under the direction of Dr. E. Ron Horton, will host ASU Jazz Night at 7 p.m. in Fowler Center.
Thursday, Feb. 28  (UPDATE...Gates lecture has been cancelled)
Dr. Henry Louis Gates, literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual, will appear as part of ASU’s Lecture-Concert Series. Dr. Gates, who is currently serving as Alphonse Fletcher University professor at Harvard, is director of the W. E. B. DuBois Institute for African and African American research. He will present a lecture, Bridging the Digital Divide: W. E. B. DuBois and the Encarta Americana,” on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in Centennial Hall, ASU Reng Student Services Center/Student Union. Admission to the lecture is free, and the public is invited.

For additional information on any of the events in “We Wear the Mask,” ASU’s celebration of Black History Month, call Kimberley Johnson, ASU Tribal Leadership Center/Office of Multicultural Affairs at (870) 972-2055.
 

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