Wednesday, Jan. 18

Dr. Martin Luther King Keynote
"The Fierce Urgency of Now"
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Loeb Playhouse • 7 p.m.

For over four decades, Bernice Johnson Reagon has beena major cultural voice for freedom and justice; singing, teaching - speaking out against racism and organized inequalities of all kinds. Reagon's life and work supports the concept of community-based culture with an enlarged capacity for mutual respect. For information on other Purdue activities in tribute to Dr. King please visit http://diversity.purdue.edu/MLK

January 20 - March 18

Trading Spaces: Exchanged Collections of African and African American Art
Opening Reception • January 20th 6-8 p.m. Lafayette Art Museum

Thursday, Feb. 9

Difficult Dialogues on Race
Black Cultural Center • 2 p.m.

The Black Cultural Center, in collaboration with the American Studies Department continues its "Difficult Dialogues on Race" program this spring. This semester's session will feature students from American Studies/English fall semester class Post Modern Blackness: Black Literature & Cultural Studies in the Obama Years. Students from this class will participate in a panel discussing how class material, discussion and research projects interrogated the function and meaning of blackness; particularly what is meant by "blackness" in post-black aesthetic movements since the 1990s.

Wednesday, Feb. 15

Black History Month Keynote
Dr. Bettye Collier-Thomas
"Black Women in American Culture & History"
Fowler Hall, Stewart Center • 7 p.m.

Dr. Bettye Collier-Thomas is a nationally known historian of African American history with particular expertise in the areas of civil rights, politics, religion and women's history. She is the author of Jesus, Jobs and Justice: African American Women in Religion and Daughters of Thunder: Black Women Preachers and Their Struggles. She has established the only repository in the country solely devoted to the collection and preservation of materials relating to African American Women in America.

Wednesday, Feb. 29

The Langston Hughes Project
Fowler Hall, Stewart Center • 7 p.m.

The Langston Hughes Project is a multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes' kaleidoscopic jazz poem suite titled, "Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods of Jazz." This is Hughes' homage in verse and music to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s.

Friday-Saturday, March 2-3

Discovering Your Family History,
Genealogy and Cultural Tour
Ft. Wayne, IN

Participants will visit one of the largest genealogical libraries in the U.S. and research their family histories utilizing ancestry databases and government records. We will also tour the African American Historical Museum, enjoy a soul food lunch and a storytelling performance. Registration includes transportation, admission fees, lunch and hotel accommodations. Registration deadline: Wednesday, February 15. General Public $115; Purdue students $40

Tuesday, Mar. 6

Book Discussion: "The Souls of Black Folk"
Black Cultural Center • 6 p.m.

The BCC Library, in conjunction with the Purdue Black Graduate Association, will host a group-style conversation on W.E.B. DuBois' most noted publication. Points of discussion will center on the author's socio-economic views for African Americans at the turn of the century. Related contemporary issues will also be explored.

Wednesday, Mar. 21

Diaspora Discussion -
Clifford Boxley
Black Cultural Center • 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Clifford Boxley will discuss the Civil War Sesquicentennial: 150 years of untold stories of Black soldiers and how they proclaimed their own emancipation from slavery before, during and after the U.S. Civil War. The Forks of the Roads Enslavement Market exhibition will be on display as part of his presentation and will continue until June 1st.

Wednesday, Mar. 28

Black Thought Collective
Spring Symposium
Black Cultural Center • 2 p.m.

Scholar in Residence: Casarae Gibson

Sunday, Apr. 1

Black Voices of Inspiration
Loeb Playhouse • 3 p.m.

Directed by Dr. Twana A. Harris
Tickets: $7 general public/ $5 students

Friday-Saturday, Apr. 6-7

Haraka Writers
Black Cultural Center • 7 p.m.

Directed by Khari Bowden

Friday-Saturday, Apr. 13-14

New Directional Players
Black Cultural Center • 7 p.m.

Directed by Kecha Nickson

Saturday, Apr. 21

Jahari Dance Troupe
Loeb Playhouse • 7 p.m.

Choreography by Kevin Iega Jeff and Joshua Ishmon
Tickets: $7 general public/ $5 students