February is Black History Month and many special events are planned on campus. A variety of film screenings include titles such as “Black Orpheus,” “Talking Black in America,” James Blue’s award-winning film “The March,” and the Duck After Dark screening of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
Plus, visit the Knight Library exhibit “Archives for Black Lives: Archives Freed” or attend artist talks by African-American cartoonist and author Keith Knight at the Erb Memorial Union or photographer, installation artist, and cultural activist Lonnie Graham at the Jordan Schnitzer. Art Museum.
UO Libraries Resources, in association with the Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center, offers an extensive catalog of streaming music, sound recordings, and online video collections. Be sure to check out the Division of Equity and Inclusion website for more upcoming Black History Month activities and events.
Music
The sounds of music will echo throughout the campus this month.
At Beall Concert Hall, the UO Wind Symphony presents a winter concert on February 2. Joining the wind ensemble on stage on February 3rd is the Grammy Award-winning sextet Eighth Blackbird. Associate Professor of Percussion Pius Cheung conducts the Oregon Percussion Ensemble on February 17, and on February 26 ChamberMusic@Beall presents Ruckus with Emi Fergusion, a baroque band described by The New York Times as “…a moment painfully delicate, incisive and forceful”. the next.”
At Berwick Hall, University of California, Berkeley music professor Dan Flanagan will present a violin recital on February 5. On February 11, a trombone quartet with special guest Tueph Ensemble will perform Low Brass Sass; support the OU Governor’s Food Drive and donate at least two canned goods to receive a complimentary concert ticket. The vocal-instrumental group Collegium Musicum, which studies the performance practices of the 17th and 18th centuries, will perform a concert using many of the instruments from the university’s period instrument collection.
On February 9, the UO Symphony Orchestra will perform Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts’ Soreng Theater.
The UO Opera Ensemble will perform on campus at the Robinson Theater in the Miller Theater Complex on February 17.
exhibitions
Special Collections & University Archives at the Knight Library announced the recent acquisition of the Brian Lanker Collection, a selection of his photographs, interviews, and film works. Lanker, who died in 2011, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and artist living in Eugene whose work spanned a variety of subjects, from Steve Prefontaine to advertising work for Nike to documentary photography for Life magazine.
What forces many to leave “home”? “What We Left Behind,” an exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, explores global mobility and the causes of the contemporary diaspora.
On February 2, join Chief Curator of Asian Art Ann Rose Kitagawa for a talk in the museum’s gallery about the exhibition “Framing the Revolution: Contemporary Chinese Photographs from the Jack and Suzy Wadsworth Collection.”
The EMU Craft Center welcomes its first visiting artist to Erb Memorial Union’s Adell McMillan Gallery. Hannah Austin, creator of Needle OR Thread, finds inspiration for her embroidery work using vintage textiles and scraps of fabric from the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. A reception and artist talk will be held in the Swindells Room on February 3rd.
Theater
The Hope Theater stage transforms into an indoor soccer field somewhere in suburban America, where a team of high school girls warm up, joke, train, play and tackle life’s big questions in “The Wolves.” , which continues on February 3, 4, 10 and 2. 11 at 7:30 p.m. and February 5 at 2:00 p.m.
Workshops
Learn the art and process of storytelling in an “Intertwined Storytelling Workshop” on February 16 at the Living-Learning Center North dormitory performance center. Delve into the power of storytelling through activities to strengthen and spark new stories and writing ideas at this fun event.
Cinema
Watch James Blue’s award-winning film, “The March,” featuring an introduction by University of Oregon Professor Emeritus David Frank, on February 1 at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. The film chronicles the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Discussion and a question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.
Join UOPresents for a selection of films followed by a discussion at the Lillis Business Complex. The first screening on February 1 will be “Black Orpheus,” a romantic tragedy from 1959. Catch “The Harder They Come,” a 1972 Jamaican crime thriller, on February 15, and on February 22, “Speedy,” a 1928 silent comedy starring Harold Lloyd on 16mm.
A four-week series of films celebrating journalism will screen at Allen Hall, beginning with “Shattered Glass” on February 4, “The Post” on February 14, “All the President’s Men” on February 21 and “Spotlight ” on February 2. 28
Screenings of the Ducks After Dark film continue on February 9 with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” a double feature featuring “X” and “Pearl” on February 23 and “The Shell with Shoes On” on March 9 . Free admission for UO students with a valid UO ID.
In collaboration with the African American Studies Program and Black History Month, the Department of Linguistics will present two film screenings in Room 145, Straub Hall, followed by a discussion with Rachel Weissler and Shiloh Drake. On February 17, “Talking Black in America” chronicles the descendants of American slaves and the impact they have had on American life and language. “Signing Black in America,” the first documentary on African-American sign language, will be shown on February 23.
Conferences
Judith Raiskin and panelists Debby Martin, Linda Rose, Janice Baker and Lisa Hellemn will discuss lesbian art and culture in Eugene from the 1970s to the 1990s on February 2 at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
Join cartoonist and author Keith Knight for “The Intersection of Art and Social Justice” on February 7 at EMU’s Redwood Auditorium as he reflects on 20 artists who inspired him to use their art to address social issues. Knight is the co-creator and co-writer of the Hulu streaming series “Woke,” based on his comic series “The K Chronicles,” “(Th)ink,” and “The Knight Life.”
Photographer, installation artist, and cultural activist Lonnie Graham will present an artist talk on February 8 at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Graham, a professor of visual arts at Pennsylvania State University, will provide a visual documentation of his work and its evolution and will offer insight into the “Conversation with the World” project currently on display at the museum.
On February 9, the Art Department and Center for Artistic Research will present the Edie Fake Visiting Artist Lecture Series: “An Impossible Place.” Examining trans identity and “queer space” through the lens of architecture and ornamentation, the work of painter and visual artist Edie Fake has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Oregon Center for the Humanities Faculty Research Fellow Solmaz Mohammadzadeh Kive will present the work-in-progress talk “Before ‘Islamic Art'” on February 17.
To commemorate the closing of “Archives for Black Lives: An Archive Freed,” the Knight Library will present a two-day symposium, “An Archives Liberated Experience: Black Memory, Social Justice, Art, and the Archive,” on February 23-24. . in the navigation room of the library and DREAM Lab.
On February 23, join Elissa Auther, Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs and William and Mildred Lasdon, Chief Curator of the Museum of Arts and Design, for “Queer Maximalism,” a visiting artist lecture series presentation focusing on the solo exhibition of the costume designer and the performer. Machine Dazzle and her body of creative work spanning art, craft, design, theater and nightlife.
streaming resources
UO Libraries Resources, in association with the Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center, offers an extensive catalog of streaming music, sound recordings, and online video collections.
Explore the UO channel for a variety of live-streamed events, videos from the Art Department’s Visiting Artist Lecture Series, guest speakers, and more.
—By Sharleen Nelson, University Communications
