Black Studies

David K. Smith ’42 Lecture @RAJ 4:30 – 5:45 PM

“From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty First Century.”

By William A. Darity, Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, Duke University, and A. Kirsten Mullen, Folklorist, Writer and Arts Consultant/Independent Scholar.

Barbara Ofosu-Somuah ‘13, both a Watson and a Fulbright recipient, is a published and recognized translator from Italian, an activist, and currently a PhD student at Duke University. Her talk will discuss the work of current Black Italian authors and the role of translation

Kwanza Musi Dos Santos is an italian-afrobrazilian activist raised in Rome, co-founder of the cultural association QuestaèRoma that has been operating since 2013 to erase any type of discrimination through culture and art. Her talk will focus on colonial-era public art in Rome, and its relationship with current erasure of Italian colonial past.

Professors Claudio Medeiros (Theatre) and Jerry Philogene (Black Studies) will lead a cozy book club session about August Wilson’s Two Trains Running. Refreshments provided. This event is a lead-up to the production at Wright Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 13, performed by The Acting Company and presented by the Middlebury Performing Arts Series.

NOTE: Sign-up for this event is now closed as capacity for attendance has been reached.

In this moment of environmental, political, and social change, what are the stories of “now”? Who is doing the telling?  And why does it matter?