Press
Release
FILMMAKER WILLIAM GREAVES TO SPEAK FEBRUARY 26
ON LIFE AND LEGACY OF STATESMAN RALPH BUNCHE
Event launches
Weissman Center series "Geographies of Color:
Education, Inequality, and Black Leadership in the Twenty-First
Century"
SOUTH HADLEY,
Mass. - Award-winning filmmaker William Greaves will speakabout
his
documentary "Ralph Bunche: An American
Odyssey" on
Thursday, February 26 at 7:30 PM in Gamble Auditorium of the Art
Building at Mount Holyoke College. There will be screenings of
the film at 7 PM on February 24 and 25 in Room 101 of Dwight Hall.
The screenings and talk are
free and open to the public, and both venues are accessible by wheelchair.
Greaves' talk launches "Geographies of Color: Education, Inequality,
and
Black Leadership in the Twenty-First Century," the spring
series of the
Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts. The spring
"
Geographies of Color" series, which begins during Black History
Month,
seeks to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of W.E.B. Du
Bois's "
Talented Tenth" essay, as well as the fiftieth anniversary
of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court
ruling against racial segregation in public schools. This series
invites scholars, writers, and filmmakers to campus to reflect
on Du Bois's leadership program in light of contemporary struggles
toward racial and social equality. Speakers will also revisit the
role that education has played in charting new approaches to ending
race-based inequality and injustice.
"Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey" is
the first film to explore the life
and legacy of Ralph Bunche, the the first African American to receive
the
Nobel Peace Prize and former United Nations under-secretary for
special
political affairs. Narrated by Sidney Poitier, this seminal documentary
explores the meaning of Bunche's accomplishments and his contribution
to global decolonization, conflict resolution and human rights advancements.
In celebration of the centenary of the birth of Ralph Bunche,Greaves,
a
member of the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and recipient of more
than 70 international film festival awards, will explore facets
of black
leadership that were either challenged or exemplified by Bunche.
Greaves also discusses his own experiences as a prominent African
American filmmaker devoted to chronicling the lives of key figures
in African American history.
The "Geographies of Color" series, presented by the Weissman
Center and the African American and African Studies Program, continues
on Thursday, March 4, with "From Integration to Affirmative
Action: The Contested Status of Brown in the Campaign to End White
Supremacy," a
talk by Kimberlé Crenshaw at 7:30 pm in Gamble Auditorium.
Crenshaw, professor of law at UCLA and Columbia University, will
examine Brown v. Board of Education and the precedent set by this
defining case in today's juridical treatment of racial bodies.
Crenshaw explores the contradictory outcomes of Brown, as it both "granted
full citizenship status" to African Americans while immunizing
the racial status quo against redistribution of economic opportunity
and social power.
On Thursday,
March 11, "Are All Mothers Created Equal?," a
panel
discussion organized by Crystal Hayes, a member of the MHC class
of 2004, will be held at 7:00 PM in Gamble Auditorium. This panel
discussion examines how black mothers respond to racism and sexism.
Invited panelists include: asha bandele, features editor, Essence
magazine, author of the memoir The Prisoner's Wife; Professor Safiya
Bandele, Director of The Center for Women's Development at Medgar
Evers College.
On Wednesday,
March 31, "Rethinking African Empowerment:
Youth, Gender, and Tradition in Africa," a panel discussion
organized by Hannah Hafter, Avni Dave, Biiftu Aba-Jebel, Neda Sobhani,
Osato Ayanru, and Thelma Wong, all members of the class of 2004,
will be held at 7:00 pm in Hooker Auditorium of Clapp Laboratory.
The panel discusses concepts of gender, traditional medicine, the
culture of youth, and women's rights in modern Kenya. Students
also present independent work on topics such as education and resistance
as forms of leadership, specifically examining the students strikes
at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa.
The series
concludes on Thursday, April 8 with "Imagining
the Nation:
Representing Black Leadership at the Turn of the Century," a
final
keynote talk by Deborah Willis, at 7:30 PM in Gamble Auditorium.
Willis, School of the Arts, focuses on the uses of visual arts
to define,
reinterpret, and re-imagine black life at the turn of the century,
both
in Du Bois's time and our own.
For more information about these events, the speakers, or related
events,
visit the Weissman Center Web site at www.mtholyoke.edu/go/wcl
or call the Weissman Center at 413-538-3071.
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413-538-3071