Campus celebration of Black History Month scheduled
Skidmore's annual celebration of Black History Month will feature an array of events open to the campus and general public, many of them free of charge. The highlight of the month-long observance will be the keynote address by award-winning author Sonia Sanchez at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, in Gannett Auditorium.
Ujima and the Office of Student Diversity Programs are the sponsoring organizations
for activities on the Skidmore campus, and have arranged a rich schedule of activities,
including the following:
Monday, Feb. 5, 7 p.m., Intercultural Center - Screening of Joseph Kaifala's documentary
film The Second Independence: A New Face of Africa.
Feb. 4-10, Case Gallery - La Negritude, an art show on the "Negritude" literary and
political movement.
Friday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m., Case Gallery - Poetry Reading: "La Negritude and the Harlem
Renaissance." Members of Ujima and Professor Hédi Jaouad's French class will read
poems in French and English.
Saturday, Feb. 10, 8 p.m., Bernhard Theater - Ujima will present its 15th annual fashion
show. Tickets on sale at the door. Admission to the After-Party in Falstaff's from
11:30 to 3 a.m. will be $5 or free with a fashion show ticket stub.
Monday, Feb. 12, 7 p.m., Intercultural Center, screening of the first half of Do the Right Thing.
Friday, Feb. 16, 7 p.m., Falstaff's, annual "Food for the Heart and Soul", Caribbean
dinner and a movie. Tickets on sale at the door.
Monday, Feb. 19, 7 p.m., Intercultural Center, screening of the second half of the
film Do the Right Thing.
Tuesday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m., Gannett Auditorium - Keynote speaker Sonia Sanchez will
lecture.
Author, playwright, and poet Sonia Sanchez earned a B.A. degree in political science
from Hunter College in 1955 before studying poetry and completing post-graduate work
at New York University.
Sanchez began her teaching career at San Francisco State University, where she pioneered
the development of Black Studies courses and went on to lecture at more than 500 colleges
and universities around the world. She was the first Presidential Fellow at Temple
University and later was named Temple's Laura Carnell Professor of English, a post
she held until her retirement in 1999.
Sanchez was a founding member of both the Writer's Workshop in Greenwich Village
as well as the "Broadside Quartet", which included poets Etheridge Knight, Nikki Giovanni,
and Haki R. Madhubuti.
Sanchez's many awards and accomplishments include the Lucretia Mott Award (1984),
as well as awards from the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and the National
Endowment for the Arts. Sanchez has published seven plays, five children's stories,
and more than 12 books of poetry, including Home Girls & Hand Grenades (1984), which received the American Book Award in 1985
Friday, Feb. 23, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., the Spa - MuMs Slam Poetry/Spoken Word Contest.
Monday, Feb. 26, 7 p.m., Intercultural Center - discussion of Do the Right Thing.
