Nonprofit Thursday: Schomburg director in town this Saturday

“Slavery By Another Name” panel adds Schomburg director

This Saturday’s panel discussion on the PBS documentary “Slavery By Another Name”, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by Douglas Blackmon, now includes Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director of the renown Schomburg Center in Harlem. Previously announced panelists include: Susan Hall, community relations director for the Western Reserve Historical Society;  county councilman Julian Rogers; civil rights attorney Dennis Niermann; motivational speaker Basheer Jones; radio/tv personality Sandra Bishop; and filmmaker Marquette Williams.

A portion of the riveting documentary, broadcast last week in its entirety, will be shown before the panel discussion. The program begins at 6PM this Saturday, Feb. 25 at New Bridge, 3634 Euclid Ave., Cleveland OH 44115. Call 216.867.9775 for info.

Muhammad was appointed director of the Schomburg Center in November 2010. He is the author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. Learn more about him here and here.

League Park Update

If you are interested in learning more about the recently announced plans for the restoration and reconstruction of League Park and the redevelopment plans for the surrounding neighborhood, you are invited to attend the community meeting on next Wednesday, Feb. 29 at 6PM at Faith Temple Church of God, 7035 Lexington Ave, Cleveland OH 44106. The meeting is sponsored by the League Park Heritage Committee and the City of Cleveland.

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Cleveland State Black Studies Dept. hosts Ghana film festival

The School of Communication and the Howard A. Mims African American Cultural Center will be presenting an UMOJA Round Table event, “African Films Versus Reality: A Student Film Showcase”, on Feb. 29.

The event is free and will feature two former Imaging Africa (Com 428) students’ films from 4PM to 5:30PM in the Main Classroom Building, Room 135/137.

Mai-Kim Dang, a Cleveland State film graduate, and MiLisa Coleman, a digital media major, will be present to discuss their films and their experiences in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia.

Light refreshments will be served, and the event is open to the public. 
Dang and Coleman visited the African continent as a result of two different travel abroad programs.

Dang visited Ethiopia through a Fulbright research grant while Coleman visited Ghana and Burkina Faso through the Morehouse Pan African Global Experience (MPAGE) study aboard program. The ability to get first hand accounts of Africa should be useful in addressing many of the misperceptions Americans have about Africa.

Imaging Africa is a class taught by instructor Eric Siler and is designed to enable students to understand images, stereotypes, and myths associated with the historical development of film with African content.

Instructor Siler encourages CSU students to participate in the screenings and see what former students have done with information learned in his class.

For more information, please contact Prester Pickett, coordinator of the Howard A. Mims African American Cultural Center at (216) 687-3656 or visit http://www.csuohio.edu/class/blackstudies/.