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Black History Month

Macalester College recognizes and honors the centrality and significance of Black life, art, history, and activism throughout the history of the United States.

Efforts to dedicate a specific time to center Black history and narratives began in the early 19th century and were championed by Carter G. Woodson, the “father of Black history.” Since 1976, the month of February has been designated as Black History Month in the United States. 

For this year’s Black History Month, Macalester will center and amplify Black voices, ideas, and wisdom through story-telling and shared community space. We offer programs that resonate with the theme established by the Association for the Study of African American Life & History, “African Americans and the Arts,” as a call to engage and learn from Black art, music, cultural expression, fashion, and other mediums of creativity. During this month, Macalester will host programs with Black performers, artists, and Penumbra Theatre, Minnesota’s only Black professional theatre company. 

If you would like to have a program featured, please submit details via our online form.

Please note that the events below are coordinated by different organizations and departments at Macalester. Use the links below for further information or directly contact the event host with questions.

Minnesota Voting Rights Symposium: Our Past, Our Present, Our Future

Thu., Feb. 1 | 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | St. Thomas University – Anderson Student Center
RSVP Link (The event is free of charge.)
Supported by: Community Engagement Center, Institutional Equity, and Lealtad-Suzuki Center for Social Justice | cec@​macalester.edu

Join FairVote MN, the University of St. Thomas, Macalester College, the Humphrey School, and the African American Leadership Forum (AALF) for a symposium on voting rights!

The symposium will convene a diverse and influential gathering of voting rights academics, thought leaders, students, community members, and political figures to engage in deep and meaningful conversations about the evolution of voting rights in Minnesota. We will tackle the challenges our democracy currently faces and explore transformative reforms like ranked choice voting that can help reduce extremism, encourage coalition-building and build a more representative and inclusive future for our state and our nation. Confirmed speakers and panelists include Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, St. Thomas Professor Yoruhu Williams, and Stanford Professor Larry Diamond.

Soiree Noire

Fri., Feb. 2, 9, 16 | 8:30 p.m. | Varying Locations
Hosted by: Afrika!, B.L.A.C., and Program Board | [email protected]

In this Black History Month event series, local Black musical artists and groups will perform at Macalester every Friday in The Loch throughout February. Doors open at 8:30 p.m., music starts at 9:00 and light refreshments will be served. The series includes:

Black History Month Community Luncheon

Tue., Feb. 6 | 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Weyerhaeuser Hall Boardroom
RSVP Form
Hosted by: Institutional Equity | [email protected]

Institutional Equity invites our Black students, staff, faculty, and alumni to a luncheon in honor of Black History Month. This will be a time to share a meal and build community through conversation.

French Lecture Series: Mark Roudané: “Unis Pour La Justice: L’Union et La Tribune de La Nouvelle-Orléans.”

Tue., Feb. 12 | 4:45 p.m. | Humanities Building 401
​Hosted by: French & Francophone Department | [email protected]

“Mark Charles Roudané, author of “The New Orleans Tribune: An Introduction to America’s First Black Daily Newspaper,” is currently writing a full-length book on the Tribune. He hopes this inspirational and underrepresented history will inspire wider audiences and foster greater appreciation for one of America’s most significant civil rights movements.”

Mark Charles Roudané, author and public historian, was born in New Orleans in 1951. He is the great, great grandson of Dr. Louis Charles Roudanez, founder of the South’s first Black newspaper, L’Union, as well as the New Orleans Tribune, America’s first Black daily. Inspired by his heritage, Mark has spent the last decade passionately researching these groundbreaking journals and bringing this inspirational and underrepresented history to the general public. His book, The New Orleans Tribune, An Introduction to America’s First Black Daily Newspaper, has reached a wide audience. Roudané’s articles have appeared in numerous journals, including the Atlantic, and 64 Parishes. Mark has presented on L’Union and the Tribune at universities, museums, and cultural organizations throughout the United States.

French Lecture Series — Black History Month
Monique Ilboulo — “Être une femme au pays des hommes intègres”
“On Being a Woman in the Land of the Incorruptibles”

Tue., Feb. 20 | 4:45 p.m. | Humanities Building 401
Hosted by: French & Francophone Studies | [email protected]

Monique Ilboudo is an author and human rights activist from Burkina Faso. She was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Burkina Faso to the Nordic and Baltic countries.

Ilboudo received the national first prize for Best Novel with her 1992 Le Mal de Peau (The Ill of the Skin). The novel deals sensitively with subjects such as the colonial experience, prejudice and miscegenation. Murekatete, a novel written as part of the project “Rwanda, writing as a duty of memory”, was published in 2001. Murekatete is the name of a woman, and means “let her live”. The woman is haunted by memories of the Rwandan genocide. Trying to overcome her complex and return to normal life, she and her husband visit the memorial site at Murambi. The move only makes the problem worse. The story is written in the first person, in few words. In 2006, Ilboudo published Droit de cité, être femme au Burkina Faso (Freedom of the City, being a woman in Burkina Faso). (Source Wikipedia)

Forty-Second Annual G. Theodore Mitau Endowed Lecture
Omar Wasow — NARRATIVE POWER: How the Civil Rights Movement Overthrew Jim Crow

Thu., Feb. 22 | 4:45 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. | Campus Center – John B. Davis Lecture Hall
Hosted by: Political Science | [email protected]

Omar Wasow is an Assistant Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Political Science. His research focuses on race, politics and statistical methods. His paper on the political consequences of the 1960s civil rights movement was published in the American Political Science Review. His co-authored work on estimating causal effects of race was published in the Annual Review of Political Science. Before joining the academy, Omar served as a regular on-air technology analyst and was the co-founder of BlackPlanet.com, a social network he helped grow to over three million active users. In 2003, he helped found a high performing K-8 charter school in Brooklyn. He is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He received a PhD in African American Studies, an MA in Government and an MA in Statistics from Harvard University. For more information please visit Mac College Events Calendar.

Wine in the Wilderness: Written by Alice Childress at the Penumbra Theatre

Thu., Feb. 22 | 7:30 p.m. | Penumbra Theatre
RSVP for tickets
Sponsored by: Institutional Equity | [email protected]

From playwright Alice Childress, Wine in the Wilderness follows artist Bill Jameson who is focused on finishing his latest paintings during an uprising in his Harlem neighborhood. While finishing his works that represent three types of Black womanhood, the arrival of an unexpected muse challenges his shallow assumptions and artistic vision. As Childress’s most revolutionary and essential playwright, she takes on class, patriarchy, and the artist’s role within the community through humor and heart.

Sha Cage ’95
A Moment of Silence: Survival, Struggle, and Joy

Mon., Feb. 26 | 5:00 p.m. | The Loch
RSVP for Reception
Hosted by: Institutional Equity | [email protected]

Performance artist and poet Shá Cage ‘95 has been called a leader of her generation.

Accompanied by poet & media maker E.G. Bailey, the evening will feature Cage’s highly engaging signature storytelling and spoken word that centers the complexity of Blackness.

Shá Cage  is a renaissance artist, poet, director and producer of theater and film. Her work has taken her across the U.S. to Tokyo, Osaka, South Africa, Mali, England, Bosnia, Toronto, Sweden, Vancouver, and Berlin. She has been called a change-maker and one of the leading artists of her generation. She also writes plays and poetry and has experienced a successful career as an award winning actor. Recent directing credits include: Jaclyn Backhaus’ Men on Boats, Michael John Garces’ 36 Yesses,  Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel, Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everybody, Joselyn Bioh’s African School Girls, and Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, adapted by Michael J. Bobbitt. Recent films include: the feature documentary for PBS/TPT titled Underbelly that spotlights healing and activism in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, Kiss the Tiger’s Grown Ass Woman, horror short, You’re Home Now, and At the Corner of Experimental Doc series.  

Sports Futurism: How Sports Could Look In A More Just World

Tue., Feb. 27 | 4:45 p.m. – 6 p.m. | Markim Hall – Davis Court
Co-Sponsored by: Geography, History, Media and Cultural Studies, Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship, Athletics Department, Provost’s Office, and Institutional Equity | [email protected]

Notable sports journalist Dave Zirin will discuss a new book project on “sports futurism.” Inspired by Afro-futurism, this concept is about what sports could look like in a more just future unshackled by oppression and liberated by technology. A Macalester alum (class of 1996), Dave Zirin has written several books on sports and society in the US, with an emphasis on racial justice issues, including “A People’s History of Sports in the United States”, “The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World”, and “Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports”. He currently serves as the Sports Editor of “The Nation” and hosts the “Edge of Sports” podcast and accompanying website (www.edgeofsports.com). He is based in Washington, DC. For more information please visit Mac College Events Calendar. 

Macalester Orchestra Concerto Concert

Fri., Mar. 1 | 8:00 p.m. | Mairs Hall
Hosted by: Music Department | [email protected]

The Macalester Orchestra is rehearsing music by William Grant Still throughout the month of February. William Grant Still (1897-1978) was known during his lifetime as the the “Dean” of African American composers, earning this agnomen by being a breakthrough artist in many areas: the first Black musician to conduct many leading orchestras and the first Black composer to have his music premiered at New York City Opera. The Macalester Symphony celebrates this legacy by performing his “Wood Notes” Suite which is inspired by the poetry of J. Mitchell Pilcher of Alabama along with concertos performed by student soloists. For more information please visit Mac College Events Calendar.