Black History Month
Presented as part of our Tucson Humanities Festival spring series, the College of Humanities and Department of Africana Studies invite you to join us for several events in February to celebrate Black History Month.

Black History Month Kick-Off Open House
Tuesday, February 7, 2:00 PM | FREE
North Ballroom | Student Union Memorial Center
Meet the Department of Africana Studies at this lively kick-off to the 2023 Black History Month. Enjoy FREE food and an afternoon of amazing performances in a club-like atmosphere. Win prizes, take away fun giveaways and more!

Faculty Guest DJs on KXCI
Fridays, 5:00 PM
Live on KXCI Community Radio, 91.3 FM or kxci.org
As part of an annual partnership with KXCI Community Radio, professors from Africana Studies will be featured as guest DJs on the Home Stretch every Friday in February. The professors will select a topic to discuss and play related songs, illuminating subjects related to music, culture, history and their own research.

UPROOTED: Film Screening
Post-Screening Q&A with film team members:
Khadifa Wong, Matt Simpkins, and Laura Smyth
Friday, February 10, 7:00 PM | FREE (Pre-show reception opens at 6:00 PM in the lobby)
Stevie Eller Dance Theatre | 1713 E University Blvd
Presented by Arizona Arts Hanson FilmTV Institute in collaboration with the School of Dance and Africana Studies.
UPROOTED is a feature-length documentary celebrating the history, lineage, and future progressions of jazz dance. With a stellar cast of leading industry experts, award-winning choreographers, and legendary performers, this ground-breaking documentary goes back to the roots in Africa and follows the evolution of this incredible dance form through every single decade and genre. Exploring and commenting on political and social influences, the film addresses topics such as appropriation, racism, socialism and sexism.
UPROOTED includes special appearances with Debbie Allen, George Faison, Chita Rivera, Camille A. Brown and Thomas F. DeFrantz and showcases the works of the Nicholas Brothers, Pepsi Bethel, Jack Cole, Katherine Dunham, Bob Fosse and Gene Kelly.

Social Art-ivism: Black Panther Culture, From Oakland to the World
Pamela Mays McDonald, Arts Advocate, Historian, Activist, Curator
Tuesday, February 28, 6:30 PM
UA Poetry Center, Rubel Room | 1508 E Helen Street
Join Pamela Mays McDonald for a discussion and exploration of a case study on Oakland’s Black Panther culture. The motto that propels her art activism is “Yesterday’s histories unravel today’s mysteries.” Mays McDonald explores Black culture through multiple artistic lenses — language, music, visual and performing arts, literature, poetry, fashion, ritual and spiritual expression.
Mays McDonald is a former fine arts museums director and community organizer from San Francisco and Oakland, California, who currently resides in Philadelphia. A graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California, she studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and completed her Masters and PhD studies in Linguistics in Washington DC as a Georgetown University Graduate Fellow.
Her professional museum career was launched as a Smithsonian Institution Doctoral Fellow. In San Francisco, she had a hand in the envisioning, rebuilding, and opening of five popular museums: the de Young, Legion of Honor, Asian Art Museum, Museum of Performance and Design, and Museum of the African Diaspora.
Sponsored by Arizona Humanities
About the Tucson Humanities Festival
The University of Arizona College of Humanities regularly presents events that encourage public participation in the humanities. The Tucson Humanities Festival every fall is organized around a timely and thought-provoking theme that invites you to explore the impact of humanities on our lives. The festival carries into the spring with select programming to continue the conversation. To subscribe to festival mailing list or view recordings of presentations from the 2022 Tucson Humanities Festival: COMMUNITY, please visit humanitiesfestival.arizona.edu.
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