HWS News
23 February 2021 • Arts • ic HWS Celebrates Black History
Join the HWS community in celebrating Black history through a teach-in, virtual art exhibition and speaker series.
In celebration of Black History Month, the Colleges will host events facilitated by the Davis Gallery at Houghton House, the Fisher Center for the Study of Gender and Justice, the Africana Studies Program, the Office of Intercultural Affairs, the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
On Wednesday, Feb. 10, guest speaker and assistant professor of philosophy at George Washington University Vanessa Wills joins the Fisher Center for the Study of Gender and Justice to present, “The F Word: How Should We Talk About the Far Right?” With a research focus in economic and social arrangements, and how they inhibit or promote the realization of values such as freedom, equality and human development, Williams will discuss the term “fascism” in relation to historiographical controversies and philosophical considerations, and in light of the Jan. 6 coup attempt on the nation’s capital. Join the Zoom event at 7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 953 4845 6831, Passcode: 024344).
The Colleges will host The Beloved Community: HWS and Geneva Remember Dr. King’s Life and Legacy on Monday, Feb. 15. The event will feature guest speakers Lucile Mallard L.H.D. ’15, president of the Geneva chapter of the NAACP, and Rev. Donald Golden, president of the Geneva MLK Committee, which recently marked the 50th anniversary of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. March and Memorial service. Join the Zoom at 6:30 p.m. here. Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Khuram Hussain will facilitate the conversation.
The Colleges are co-hosting the second event in a series of teach-in discussions on racial justice, titled “Anti-Racist Resolutions: Building Belonging.” The conversation will take place on Saturday, Feb. 20 at 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Zoom and is a collaboration with the ODEI, CET and the Geneva Chapter of the NAACP. Join the Zoom here (ID: 913 0539 4627). The event follows the first event last June titled, “Voices of Protest and Love: Liberatory Knowledge in the Hour of George Floyd,” where educators, scholars and activists came together to share knowledge, lived experiences and resources with the HWS community.
An upcoming exhibition at the Davis Gallery titled Better than Good: Black Hair and the Art of Nakeya Brown will be in residence at Hobart and William Smith from February through March. Curated by Hope Lee ’22, the event will feature 25 works from Maryland based conceptual artist Nakeya Brown, from her photographic series that engages with themes of identity, representation and beauty standards in contemporary American culture. A partner exhibition, Hair Stories Untold, will be on display in the Solarium Gallery. Curated by Lee and Faithe Bey ’21, the collection features pieces from artists across the country that engage with the subject of Black hair. The Art and Architecture Department will host “‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Hair: A Historical Discussion” on Monday, Feb. 22 at 5 p.m. An artist talk with Nakeya Brown will take place on Friday, March 5 at 7 p.m. Join the Zoom event here.
In addition, members of the HWS community are invited to join neighbor institutions Cornell University and the University of Rochester for special events:
- Cornell Libraries invite members of the HWS community to join their birthday celebration for abolitionist Frederick Douglass. “Douglass Day 2021: A Birthday Party for Frederick Douglass” will kick off with a panel discussion featuring Cornell’s distinguished faculty on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 4:30 p.m. Guests are also invited to attend a National Transcribe-a-thon of the papers of Mary Church Terrell, who helped establish Douglass Day in 1895. Soon after, she also helped found the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and the NAACP. Register here.
- The University of Rochester and the Central New York Humanities Corridor Global DH working group welcomes guests to attend “Hashtag Activism: A Conversation with Moya Bailey” on Friday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. Bailey is the co-author of the book #HashtagActvism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice(MIT, 2020). RSVP to the event
