Black History Month special issue

We hope you enjoy this month’s Humanities Broadsheet — a compilation of events organized by or featuring members of the Washington University community, as well as our colleagues in the greater humanities community in the St. Louis area. 

With the restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, many public events have moved online. Things change quickly these days, so we recommend you check with organizers for the latest details before you head out or log on.

As you’ll see below, there’s always something going on! 


Organizers may submit events to cenhumcal@wustl.edu.
Visitors to Washington University should be aware of the university’s Health and Safety Protocols.
For last month’s issue, follow this link.

Humanities Broadcast

The Humanities Broadcast section spotlights virtual public events featuring WashU faculty and scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences, organized by internal and external hosts. If you are a faculty member with an upcoming public lecture, please let us know and we will include it here! Email us at cenhumcal@wustl.edu and please include the URL for the event page at your host institution.

 

2 FEBRUARY  |  5 PM
Work, After the Future
The “public-private” divide is “gasping for air,” writes Paolo Virno. What does this mean for work’s present, and its future? This Americanist Dinner Forum looks at the blurred boundaries between life and work from the perspectives of feminist science and technology, literary and sex work studies. Kalindi Vora — visiting professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies, and of ethnicity race and migration at Yale University — investigates how technologies are designed to pry open our intimate nonwork spaces, leisure time and subjectivities in the interest of capitalist profit. Sarah Brouillette — a professor in the Department of English at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada — looks to the gig-working “sensitivity reader” as a view into the feminization of work in the publishing industry. And Heather Berg — author of Porn Work and assistant professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at Washington University — turns to porn workers’ struggles against both the alienation of straight jobs and the constant laboring gigged sex work entails. Together, they ask, what demands we might make of the future of work? And, what tools we might have at our disposal in getting there? Americanist Dinner Forum, American Culture Studies.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

8 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
John Darnielle, Devil House (Author Talk)
Mountain Goats’ singer-songwriter John Darnielle will be in conversation with author and musician G’Ra Asim, assistant professor of English, Washington University. Gage Chandler is descended from kings. That’s what his mother always told him. Years later, he is a true-crime writer, with one grisly success and a movie adaptation to his name, along with a series of subsequent less notable efforts. But now he is being offered the chance for the big break: to move into the house where a pair of briefly notorious murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected teens during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Chandler finds himself in Milpitas, California, a small town whose name rings a bell — his closest childhood friend lived there, once upon a time. He begins his research with diligence and enthusiasm, but soon the story leads him into a puzzle he never expected — back into his own work and what it means, back to the very core of what he does and who he is. Darnielle’s first novel, Wolf in White Van, was a New York Times best-seller, National Book Award nominee and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction, and widely hailed as one of the best novels of the year. Ticket purchase required. Left Bank Books.
VIRTUAL & IN PERSON: Ethical Society of St. Louis, 9001 Clayton Road, St. Louis, MO 63117

 

12 FEBRUARY  |  11 AM
Mindful Movement for Healthy Living
DAVID MARCHANT is a professor of the practice in dance at the Department of Performing Arts, Washington University. Marchant specializes in aesthetic theory, technique, composition and improvisation in the concert art of contemporary dance. He is the coordinator of the University College Somatic Studies Certificate Program at Washington University, offering students a curriculum in integrative movement practices, complimented by theoretical knowledge from a wide variety of fields investigating the art, spirit, and science of human movement. To be perfectly still or frozen in time is a notable phenomenon. Motion, or change of position, is a more familiar state. This February, the MLA Lecture Series explore ways that motion is also truly remarkable, having an impact on our physical and social worlds, and, on a smaller scale, our personal and work lives. MLA Lecture Series, University College.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

26 FEBRUARY  |  11 AM
Social Movements and Social Change
ZAKIYA LUNA is the Dean’s Distinguished Professorial Scholar in the Department of Sociology, Washington University. Luna’s research centers upon the overlapping areas of social change, sociology of law, health, and inequality. Specifically, she is interested in social movements, human rights, and reproduction with an emphasis on the effects of intersecting inequalities within and across these sites. She is author of Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice. To be perfectly still or frozen in time is a notable phenomenon. Motion or change of position is a more familiar state. This February, the Series explores ways that motion is also truly remarkable, having an impact on our physical and social worlds, and, on a smaller scale, our personal and work lives. MLA Lecture Series, University College.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

WashU Events

1 FEBRUARY  |  12:30 PM
Is Professionalism a Racist Construct?
JEWEL D. STAFFORD, assistant dean for field education and teaching professor; and Cynthia D. Williams, assistant dean for community partnerships, both with the Brown School at Washington University. The term “professionalism” has at times been used to silence and marginalize people of color, when attributes of appearance, language or interactions that have nothing to do with job knowledge or constructive collegial relationships are labeled as “unprofessional.” In this context, so-called professionalism is coded language, a construct that upholds institutional racist policies and excluding practices. This presentation will explore dismantling white supremacy and privilege in varied contexts while upholding social justice and advancing effective workplaces in which all contributors can bring their full selves to the job site. Brown School Open Classroom.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

1 FEBRUARY  |  8 PM
Reading by Visiting Hurst Professor francine j. harris
francine j. harris’ third collection, Here is the Sweet Hand (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), is the winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award. Her second collection, play dead, was the winner of the Lambda Literary and Audre Lorde Awards and finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her first collection, allegiance, was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery and PEN Open Book Awards. Originally from Detroit, she has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. She is an associate professor of English at the University of Houston and serves as consulting faculty editor at Gulf Coast. Department of English.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

2 FEBRUARY  |  6 PM
Li Gui: A Qing Man in the World
TOBIE MEYER-FONG is a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. In 1876, a young clerk from the Qing Maritime Customs Service boarded a Japanese-owned steamship in the Treaty Port of Shanghai. His destination: the centennial world’s fair in the American city of Philadelphia, a journey that literally carried him around the world. This man, Li Gui, is perhaps most famous as the author of a best-selling account of his travels, A New Account of a Trip Around the World. How does Li Gui’s travelogue read if we remove it from the confines of a teleological account of China’s modern history and resituate both the man and his book in the context of “late imperial global history” and in relation to the “printed world” of late Qing Shanghai? This talk will consider Li Gui as a Qing man in a late imperial world defined not only by guns and great power competition but also by (shared) wonder at the new possibilities of circumnavigation and for self-representation in new media. It seeks thereby to break apart rigid binaries and to reconsider the place of a late Qing man and his self-representation as a man of the world. East Asian Languages and Cultures.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

3 FEBRUARY  |  12 PM
The Historic Preservation Lecture: H Arquitectes
Based in Sabadell, Barcelona, H Arquitectes is an architecture studio founded in 2000 by David Lorente, Josep Ricart, Xavier Ros and Roger Tudó. They had been combining their professional activity teaching in the ETSAV-UPC, ETSAB-UPC, Harvard GSD and ETH Zurich. They have been invited to AA School of Architecture, Porto Academy, Austin School of Architecture, Universidad Católica de Chile, ENSA Paris and Umea School of Architecture, among other places. Their work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2016 in the Spanish Pavilion (which was awarded the Golden Lion), at Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2019 and at Utzon Center in Aalborg 2021. They have received several national and international awards, including the Berlin Art Prize for Architecture 2021; European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention 2019; shortlisted EU Mies Van der Rohe Award 2019 and 2017; DETAIL Prize 2018; Hispalyt Masonry Architecure Prize 2018; City of Barcelona Prize 2017; MAPEI sustainable building 2017; Ibero-american Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism Award 2016; Brick Award 2016. Historic Preservation Lecture, Sam Fox School.
VIRTUAL

5 FEBRUARY  |  2 PM
Parabola 2022
Parabola: The New Abnormal examines the now-ubiquitous phrase “the new normal,” which has become a constant refrain as we’ve adapted to new routines and regulations caused by the global pandemic. We ask participants to consider the following questions: What is or should be deemed normal vs. abnormal? What has changed during the pandemic? What should be brought back? What should stay, and most importantly, what should change? Our objective is to reflect on what it means to live in the current times, acknowledging the historical relevance of this era and its impact on humanity, while daring to imagine a better world. For more than a decade, the annual Parabola exhibition has brought together graduate and post-graduate students from across the university and asked them to contextualize their academic practice in terms of art and along the theme of the exhibition. The resulting works have comprised a diverse range of art, scientific research, pop-up community outreach, poetry and literature, and more. Graduate Art Organization and Sam Fox School.
IN PERSON: Des Lee Gallery, 1627 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 63103

8 FEBRUARY  |  7:30 PM
Lecture Demonstration with RESILIENCE Dance Company
In this a lecture-demo event, RESILIENCE Dance Company dancers explore how our experiences of memory effect our present, lived selves. In addition, witness and partake in collaborative choreographic processes and hear about their work to challenge toxic norms in the dance world.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Mallinckrodt Center, Annelise Mertz Dance Studio (Room 207)

8 FEBRUARY  |  8 PM
Reading by Visiting Writer Garth Greenwell
GARTH GREENWELL is the author of What Belongs to You, which won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for six other awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, it was named a Best Book of 2016 by over 50 publications in nine countries. His new book of fiction, Cleanness, was published in January 2020. A finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, it was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, the L.D. and LaVerne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize and France’s Prix Sade (Deuxième sélection). Greenwell is also the co-editor, with R.O. Kwon, of the anthology KINK, which was named a New York Times Notable Book, won the inaugural Joy Award from the #MarginsBookstore Collective and became a national best-seller. Greenwell is also the recipient of honors including a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2021 Vursell Award for prose style from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Department of English.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

9 FEBRUARY  |  6 PM
Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist Lecture: Lisa Lapinski
LISA LAPINSKI is an associate professor of art at Rice University, where she teaches undergraduate sculpture. Miss Swiss: Lisa Lapinski — her most comprehensive monograph to date and a co-publication between the Visual Arts Center at the University of Texas at Austin and Inventory Press, Los Angeles — will be released this year. Published on the occasion of Drunk Hawking, her 2019 survey exhibition at the VAC in Austin, the book will include never-before published images of Lapinski’s exhibitions and artworks from 2000 to the present, alongside contributions by Bruce Hainley, Graham Bader, Kyle Dancewicz, Sabrina Tarasoff and MacKenzie Stevens, as well as a conversation between the artist and Viola Schmidtt. Designed by artists Laura Owens and Asha Schechter of Apogee Press, the book will be an inventive collaboration between Owens, Schechter and Lapinski and provide new insights into Lapinski’s influential and idiosyncratic practice. Sam Fox School.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Steinberg Hall, Auditorium

10 FEBRUARY  |  6 PM
Gallery Talk: (Un)masking Health
Join faculty curator Ivan Bujan, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University, as he discusses notions of health in relation to exclusionary ideologies of race, gender, sexuality, ability and class. In addition to scrutinizing notions of what a healthy body is — and according to whom — his Teaching Gallery installation, (Un)masking Health: Counter Perspectives, also invites us to reconsider the role that historical and contemporary grassroots movements, including the ongoing AIDS movement and the Movement for Black Lives, have had in connecting issues of health and social justice. Registration required. Kemper Art Museum.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

10 FEBRUARY  |  6 PM
Challenges to Writing a Commentary on the Gospel of Judas
In sharp contrast to the Gospels in the Bible, the Gospel of Judas criticizes Jesus’ 12 disciples for worshipping a false god and leading a multitude of people astray. Unsurprisingly, then, its unique theology and critical interpretation of Jesus’ closest followers was condemned as heresy by Christian bishops in the 2nd century, and its text was successfully suppressed. The Gospel of Judas became known to modern readers only in 2006 when the National Geographic Society published the first English translation. The editio princeps of the Coptic text followed in 2007. Following my doctoral dissertation (2010) and monograph on the Gospel of Judas (2011), I was invited by the editorial board of the Hermeneia Commentary series to write the volume on this ancient book. In this presentation, I will give an overview of the Gospel of Judas’ narrative and then discuss some of the challenges involved in writing a commentary on it, including transcribing the lacunous manuscript, translating abstruse passages in the Coptic text (itself an ancient translation of a lost Greek original), and interpreting its rich imagery and polemical message. Department of Classics.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

10 FEBRUARY  |  8 PM
Reading by Visiting Hurst Professor francine j. harris
francine j. harris’ third collection, Here is the Sweet Hand (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), is the winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award. Her second collection, play dead, was the winner of the Lambda Literary and Audre Lorde Awards and finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her first collection, allegiance, was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery and PEN Open Book Awards. Originally from Detroit, she has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. She is an associate professor of English at the University of Houston and serves as consulting faculty editor at Gulf Coast. Department of English.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

12 FEBRUARY  |  2 PM
Chinese-Language Tour: Color and Affect in Contemporary Art
Join student educator Yue Dai, PhD student in the Department of Art History & Archaeology at Washington University, for a tour featuring contemporary art in the Kemper Art Museum’s permanent collection galleries. This tour will explore different approaches to color in paintings, sculptures and a large-scale installation by artists from the United States, Germany and Jamaica, whose works alternately deploy a variety of rich colors or a conservatively narrow color palette, resulting in different visual and emotional effects. Kemper Art Museum.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

16 FEBRUARY  |  4 PM
Art, Museums and the Fear of a Black Planet
BRIDGET R. COOKS, associate professor in the Department of Art History and the Department of African American Studies, University of California, Irvine. Ten years after the publication of her book Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum, scholar and curator Bridget R. Cooks discusses art, museums and demands for change in the age of Black Lives Matter. She considers the anxieties that Blackness provokes for rethinking art history and museum practices, and explores how artists are already imagining worlds of Black freedom. Cooks’ research focuses on African American artists, Black visual culture and museum criticism. Lois D. Conley, founder, president and CEO of the Griot Museum of Black History, will serve as moderator. Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis & the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity at Washington University.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

16 FEBRUARY  |  5:30 PM
Israel Institute Visiting Artist Lecture: Maya Muchawsky Parnas
MAYA MUCHAWSKY PARNAS is the Israel Institute Visiting Artist and the spring 2022 Wallace Herndon Smith Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in the Sam Fox School. Parnas is an Israeli visual artist working predominantly with ceramics. She earned a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and an MA in ceramics and glass from the Royal College of Art in London, UK. She is a senior lecturer at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, and her works have been exhibited in galleries and museums in Israel, Europe and the United States. Sam Fox School.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Steinberg Auditorium

17 FEBRUARY  |  2:30 PM
Black Girlhood Studies Lab: In Conversation with Nazera Sadiq Wright
In this conversation, Nazera Sadiq Wright will discuss her book Black Girlhood in the Nineteenth Century and recent digital humanities project, “DIGITAL GI(RL)S: Mapping Black Girlhood in the 19th Century.” Wright is associate professor of English and African American and Africana studies at the University of Kentucky. She is the author of Black Girlhood in the Nineteenth Century (University of Illinois Press, 2016), which won the 2018 Children’s Literature Association’s Honor Book Award for Outstanding Book of Literary Criticism. Her digital humanities project, “DIGITAL GI(RL)S: Mapping Black Girlhood in the 19th Century” documents the cultural activities of black girls living in Philadelphia in the 19th century. In 2019, she was elected to the American Antiquarian Society. Fellowships through the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Bibliographical Society of America funded archival research for her second book, Early African American Women Writers and Their Libraries. Funded by the Center for Race, Ethnicity & Equity and co-sponsored with African and African American Studies; Institute for Public Health; American Culture Studies; and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

17 FEBRUARY  |  6 PM
RE: Ebony and Jet
As a complement to Lorna Simpson’s use of Ebony and Jet magazines in her CAM exhibition Lorna Simpson: Heads, this RE: takes interest in the role of these preeminent publications in Black visual culture and media. Moderated by art historian and curator Bridget Cooks (University of California, Irvine), this program will take the format of a public seminar and community celebration. Cooks will provide context and facilitation, which will invite contributions from both invited guests and the general public in response to the question: What do Ebony and Jet mean to you? Participation with a range of voices are welcome, including scholars, artists, historians, journalists and readers of Ebony and Jet. A reception and art-making station will be available following the event. Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity at Washington University.
IN PERSON: Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 63108

18-19 FEBRUARY  
Black Anthology 2022: Asifuye Mvua Imemnyeshea
Join us for a screening of the 2022 Black Anthology production (previously pre-recorded). The event will include a pre-show panel and a cast talk-back at the end of the screening. Black Anthology is dedicated to telling stories from across the Black diaspora. In keeping with that tradition, this year’s production explores issues of the diasporic divide, as well as navigating life within systems of oppression. Black Anthology is a student-written, -choreographed, -directed and -designed production with the goal of leaving the audience wrestling with questions of their own. This year, we ask: How am I shaped by the systems (and people) around me? How does one contend with/make sense of tradition in a changing society? In-person and streaming options available; see website. Black Anthology.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Edison Theatre
VIRTUAL - RSVP

18 FEBRUARY  |  4 PM
Podding with Hamlet
SUJATA IYENGAR is a professor of English at University of Georgia, co-founder and co-editor of Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation, and director of the Mobile Digital Editing Lab. Iyengar specializes in English Renaissance literature, Shakespearean adaptation and appropriation, book history and arts, and the health humanities. Her first book was the germinal monograph Shades of Difference: Mythologies of Skin Color in Early Modern England. From 2014 to 2015, Iyengar participated in a Second Discipline Fellowship at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, taking courses in letterpress, paper-making, book arts and typography. Her year in the art school inspired her to begin writing poetry as well as to teach it; her free and formal lyrics have been published in a few juried “little magazines” in print and online. Performing Arts Department.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

19 FEBRUARY  |  2 PM
Public Tour: Contemporary Art
Student educators lead interactive tours of contemporary art in the permanent collection and special exhibition galleries, featuring new works by Chitra Ganesh and Ebony G. Patterson. Kemper Art Museum.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

20 FEBRUARY  |  2 PM
Slow Looking: ...In The Waiting, In The Weighting...
Join student educator Jay Buchanan, PhD student in the Department of Art History & Archaeology at Washington University, for a half-hour of slow looking and conversation focused on the new mixed-media installation ...in the waiting...in the weighting... (2021) by Ebony G. Patterson (MFA-VA ’06). Slow Looking is an ongoing series of 30-minute conversations about a single work of art. Kemper Art Museum.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

22 FEBRUARY  |  8 PM
Craft Talk with Visiting Hurst Professor Joni Tevis
JONI TEVIS is the author of two books of essays, most recently, The World Is On Fire: Scrap, Treasure, and Songs of Apocalypse. Her essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, Orion, The Southern Review, Oxford American and Poets & Writers. The winner of a Pushcart Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, she serves as the Bennette E. Geer Professor of English at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. She is at work on a new book of nonfiction about music and destruction.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

23 FEBRUARY  |  12:30 PM
Policymaking Through a Racial Equity Lens
JEWEL STAFFORD, assistant dean, Field Education; and Atia Thurman, lecturer, both with the Brown School at Washington University. Structural racism in laws and legislation have created gross inequities throughout every system of our society, ultimately encumbering our nation’s potential for greatness. Addressing these disparities requires that we analyze how current policies perpetuate racialized outcomes, and redesign policies to advance equity. Only then can we unlock the power and the promise of policy making as a tool of justice. Brown School Open Classroom.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

23 FEBRUARY  |  3 PM
Book Club: Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts
Join us for the February book club to discuss Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia. A handsome stranger. A dead billionaire. A citywide treasure hunt. Tuesday Mooney’s life is about to change…forevermore. Tuesday Mooney is a loner, but when Vincent Pryce, Boston’s most eccentric billionaire, dies—leaving behind an epic treasure hunt through the city, with clues inspired by his hero, Edgar Allan Poe—Tuesday’s adventure finally begins. Book club will begin with a show and tell of Edgar Allan Poe materials followed by a discussion of the book. University Libraries.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

23 FEBRUARY  |  4 PM
Dissecting the Past: Doctors, Donors and Assembling a Collection
ELISABETH BRANDER is the director of the Center for the History of Medicine and the head of the rare books division at Bernard Becker Medical Library. 82nd Historia Medica Lecture, Becker Medical Library.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

23 FEBRUARY  |  6 PM
Robyn O’Neil
Visual artist Robyn O’Neil’s work was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. She has had several traveling solo museum exhibitions in the United States and is the recipient of numerous grants and awards. O’Neil has been included in numerous acclaimed group museum exhibitions both domestically and internationally, including the Dargerism at The American Folk Art Museum, featuring Henry Darger’s influence on contemporary art. She received a grant from the Irish Film Board with director Eoghan Kidney for a film written and art directed by her titled We, The Masses, which was conceived of at Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School. She also hosts the weekly podcast “Me Reading Stuff.” MFA Lecture Series, Sam Fox School.
IN PERSON: Washington University, Steinberg Auditorium

24 FEBRUARY  |  4 PM
Lombardy at the Epicenter of the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Spring of 2020
FRANK SNOWDEN is the Andrew Downey Orrick Professor Emeritus of History & History of Medicine at Yale University. Now in its 25th year, the annual Paul and Silvia Rava Memorial Lecture has been honored by leading lights in Italian literature, history, art history and culture studies over the years. Snowden earned a PhD from Oxford University in 1975. His books include Violence and Great Estates in the South of Italy: Apulia, 1900-1922; The Fascist Revolution in Tuscany, 1919-1922; Naples in the Times of Cholera and The Conquest of Malaria: Italy, 1900-1962. Conquest was awarded the Gustav Ranis Prize from the MacMillan Center at Yale in 2007 as “the best book on an international topic by a member of the Yale Faculty,” the Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize by the American Historical Association as the best work on Italy in any period, and the 2008 Welch Medal from the American Association for the History of Medicine. Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

25 FEBRUARY  |  3 PM
The Enslaver Enslaved: The Black Dominator in Creole Louisiana
ANDIA AUGUSTIN-BILLY is associate professor of French and Francophone studies at Centenary College of Louisiana. Love, sex, betrayal and revenge abound in works written by 19th century Louisiana’s gens de couleur libres – free people of color. Written and published in French journals and newspapers, in New Orleans and Paris, these narratives constitute a remarkable part of American literature that has remained largely unexamined. The authors go beyond the titillating tales to offer biting critique of slavery, advocate for racial and economic justice, and diligently humanize the black experience. This talk will illuminate the ways in which Victor Séjour, Joseph-Colastin Rousseau, Adolphe Duhart and François-Michel-Samuel Snaër, inspiring themselves from the French and the Haitian Revolutions, dared to reimagine provocative possibilities for themselves and for future generations, in which black personhood, whether at home or in the diaspora, emerges unsullied from the spoils of oppression and jubilantly blossoms. Department of African and African-American Studies.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

St. Louis Community Events

2 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Judy Watson
JUDY WATSON is an Indigenous artist whose matrilineal family is from Waanyi country in Northwest Queensland, Australia. She is a member of the first generation of Aboriginal artists to employ the conventions of a studio-based fine art practice to examine contemporary identity and historical trauma. She will discuss her artistic practice and her abstract painting in the Saint Louis Art Museum’s collection titled suture. Saint Louis Art Museum.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

3 FEBRUARY  |  12 PM
Elizabeth Catlett, an American Artist in Mexico
Elizabeth Catlett was an artist, advocate and teacher whose career spanned over 60 years. Her work made visible Black and Indigenous women that are often underrepresented in art. Learn more about Elizabeth Catlett, the influence of Mexican art and artists, and the African-American experiences on her work. This talk will be presented by Delyn Stephenson, the 2021–22 Romare Bearden Graduate Fellow, and will feature two of Catlett’s artworks from the Saint Louis Art Museum’s collection, Sharecropper and Seated Woman. Saint Louis Art Museum.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

3 FEBRUARY  |  5:30 PM
“THISTORY:” An Evening with Corey Black
Award-winning artist Corey Black has been bringing his poetry and music to audiences locally and nationally since 2009. Join him for a journey through soul, jazz and poetry as he performs music from his forthcoming EP, The Black Odyssey. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

4 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Laura Coates
CNN’s senior legal analyst, Laura Coates, started her career as a prosecutor, serving as the assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. She wanted to advocate for the most vulnerable among us, but quickly realized that even with the best intentions, “the pursuit of justice creates injustice.” On the front lines of our legal system, Coates saw how Black communities are policed differently, Black cases are prosecuted differently, and Black defendants are judged differently. Through revelatory and captivating scenes from the courtroom, Coates explores the tension between the idealism of the law and the reality of working within the parameters of our flawed legal system. 2022 Black History Celebration Frankie Freeman Inspirational Lecture, co-sponsored by Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library.
IN PERSON: St. Louis County Library – Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131

7 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Mark Prins, The Latinist (Author Talk)
Author Mark Prins will be in conversation with Rabbi Susan Talve, the founding rabbi of Central Reform Congregation, and Hannah Tinti, author of Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley. Tessa Templeton has thrived at Oxford University under the tutelage and praise of esteemed classics professor Christopher Eccles. And now, his support is the one thing she can rely on: Her job search has yielded nothing, and her devotion to her work has just cost her her boyfriend, Ben. Yet shortly before her thesis defense, Tessa learns that Chris has sabotaged her career and realizes their relationship is not at all what she believed. Driven by what he mistakes as love for Tessa, Chris has ensured that no other institution will offer her a position, keeping her at Oxford with him. His tactics grow more invasive as he determines to prove he has her best interests at heart. Meanwhile, Tessa scrambles to undo the damage and, in the process, makes a startling discovery about an obscure second-century Latin poet that could launch her into academic stardom, finally freeing her from Chris’ influence. Left Bank Books.
VIRTUAL

8 FEBRUARY  |  10 AM
Tuskegee Airmen
In celebration of Black History Month, oral historian Andre Taylor will present the personal stories of two African-American military pilots who fought in World War II as part of the Tuskegee Airmen. St. Louis County Library.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

8 FEBRUARY  |  11 AM
St. Louis Love Stories
St. Louis has some of history’s most famous love stories, both of love gone right and love gone wrong. Community tours manager Amanda Clark will share the deeper histories behind famous couples like Frankie and Johnny and Grant and Julia, and she’ll uncover some of the city’s best lost-love stories too. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, Lee Auditorium, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

8 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Robert Child, Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Winners of World War II (Author Talk)
Historian and film director Robert Child presents the remarkable story of the seven African-American soldiers ultimately awarded the World War II Medal of Honor and the 50-year campaign to deny them their recognition. In 1945, Congress recommended awarding the Medal of Honor to 432 World War II veterans. Despite the fact that more than 1 million African-Americans served, not a single black soldier received the Medal of Honor. Ultimately, in 1993, a U.S. Army commission determined that seven men had been denied the Army’s highest award simply due to racial discrimination. Fifty years after the war, President Clinton finally awarded the Medal of Honor to the seven heroes. St. Louis County Library.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

9 FEBRUARY  |  12 PM
Soldiers Chow and Chat with Behidin Piric
The Bosnian-American community took root in St. Louis in the 1990s, when refugees of the Bosnian War resettled here. That first wave included Behidin Piric’s family, who later learned that his grandfather had died in the Srebrenica massacre, part of the ethnic-cleansing campaign committed by the Army of Republika Srpska. Piric will discuss the war and the impact it had on his family and the Bosnian community. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Soldiers Memorial, Court of Honor, 1315 Chestnut St., St. Louis, 63103

9 FEBRUARY  |  1 PM
Bernadine Evaristo, Manifesto (Author Talk)
BERNADINE EVARISTO will be in conversation with Left Bank Books’ Kris Kleindienst and Danielle King. Evaristo is the Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, a memoir of her own life and writing, and her manifesto on unstoppability, creativity and activism. Evaristo's 2019 Booker Prize win was a historic and revolutionary occasion, with Evaristo being the first Black woman and first Black British person ever to win the prize in its 50-year history. Her Manifesto is a vibrant and inspirational account of her life and career as she rebelled against the mainstream and fought over several decades to bring her creative work into the world. With her characteristic humor, Evaristo describes her childhood as one of eight siblings, with a Nigerian father and white Catholic mother, tells the story of how she helped set up Britain’s first Black women’s theatre company, remembers the queer relationships of her 20s, and recounts her determination to write books that were absent in the literary world around her. She provides a hugely powerful perspective to contemporary conversations around race, class, feminism, sexuality and aging. Ticket or book purchase required. Left Bank Books.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

9 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Tony Messenger, Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice (Author Talk)
As a metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Messenger has spent years in county and municipal courthouses documenting how poor Americans are convicted of minor crimes and then saddled with exorbitant fines and fees. If they are unable to pay, they are often sent to prison, where they are then charged a pay-to-stay bill, in a cycle that soon creates a mountain of debt that can take years to pay off. These insidious penalties are used to raise money for broken local and state budgets, often overseen by for-profit companies, and it is one of the central issues of the criminal justice reform movement. University City Public Library.
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10 FEBRUARY  |  12 PM
But You Feel Me
SHAKA K. MYRICK, the inaugural two-year Romare Bearden Graduate Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum, will address Black stories and the importance of abstraction in contemporary art. She will also discuss artworks by Oliver Lee Jackson, whose work is currently on view at the museum, and explore his techniques and narratives about historic Black experiences. Saint Louis Art Museum.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

10 FEBRUARY  |  5:30 PM
Love Gone Wrong
Public historian Andrew Wanko and community tours manager Amanda Clark will present historic stories of love gone wrong. The night will begin with a tribute to the special exhibit St. Louis Sound, and Wanko and Clark will share the story of the real-life jilted lovers who lived in St. Louis and inspired the ultimate love-gone-bad murder ballad Frankie and Johnny, which has been sung by everyone from Lead Belly to Lindsay Lohan. There will also be the (in)famous love stories of the Lavender Lady Lemp and her scandalous divorce from William Lemp Jr., Annie Malone’s fight to keep her fortune away from her husband, and the ultimate St. Louis breakup: the 1876 “Great Divorce” between the St. Louis City and St. Louis County. Thursday Nights, Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

10 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Florence Williams, Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey (Author Talk)
When her 25-year marriage fell apart, nature journalist Florence Williams expected the loss to hurt. What she didn’t expect was that she’d end up in the hospital. Searching for insight as well as personal strategies to game her way back to health, Williams tested her blood for genetic markers of grief, underwent electrical shocks in a laboratory while looking at pictures of her ex, and ventured to the wilderness in search of awe as an antidote to loneliness. St. Louis County Library.
VIRTUAL

11 FEBRUARY  |  6 PM
StitchCast Studio Live
Story Stitchers Youth Council lead live podcast recording sessions that include art interludes and discussion with community guests. Stories, music, video and dance from the community are shared. $15 per ticket or free with a Student ID or for members of Stitchers Youth Council. Saint Louis Story Stitchers.
IN PERSON: 3524 Washington Ave, St. Louis, MO 63103

12 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Paul Tran, All the Flowers Kneeling (Author Talk)
In All the Flowers Kneeling, former Washington University senior poetry fellow and acclaimed poet Paul Tran investigates intergenerational trauma, sexual violence and U.S. imperialism in order to radically alter our understanding of freedom, power and control. In poems of desire, gender, bodies, legacies and imagined futures, Tran’s poems elucidate the complex and harrowing processes of reckoning and recovery, enhanced by innovative poetic forms that mirror the nonlinear emotional and psychological experiences of trauma survivors. Left Bank Books.
VIRTUAL

15 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
The Black Rep Presents Stamping, Shouting and Singing Home
Inspired by the life of Sojourner Truth, the well-known abolitionist and early feminist, Stamping, Shouting, and Singing Home by Lisa Evans tells the story of her fictitious great-great-granddaughter Lizzie Walker and her transformation from child to adult activist in the Southern States of America. Through the songs and stories of the women in her family, Lizzie comes to understand the importance of her own past and her place in history. The Black Rep and St. Louis County Library. Registration required.
IN PERSON: St. Louis County Library – Florissant Valley Branch, 195 New Florissant Rd., S., Florissant, 63031

17 FEBRUARY  |  12 PM
Modern Japanese Military Art
Military subjects have a long history of representation in Japanese art. Prior to and during the Edo period (1615–1868), the imagery of war was essentially confined to domestic battles between feudal lords. However, after Japan began modernizing during the Meiji period (1868–1912) and the ensuing decades, it became involved in international wars of increasing scope. Philip Hu, curator of Asian art, Saint Louis Art Museum, will discuss a selection of objects dating between 1894 and 1947 that reflect the militarized outlook of the Empire of Japan for a half-century. Saint Louis Art Museum.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

17 FEBRUARY  |  2 PM
The Philadelphia MOVE Bombing
In honor of Black History Month, oral historian Andre Taylor will discuss the May 1985 incident when Philadelphia police bombed a residential home, resulting in the death of 11 people and the destruction of 65 houses. St. Louis County Library.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

17 FEBRUARY  |  5:30 PM
The Legacy of Homer G. Phillips Hospital
In recognition of “Black Health and Wellness” as the national theme for Black History Month 2022, the significance of Homer G. Phillips Hospital and the Black medical professionals who worked there and championed it will be discussed. It was the first teaching hospital west of the Mississippi River that served Black residents, and more Black doctors and nurses earned their degrees there than at any other teaching hospital in the world. Join Priscilla Dowden-White for a presentation about the hospital’s history, followed by a panel of contemporary Black medical practitioners who will discuss their experiences in the medical field and the issues that persist today. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

17 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
An Evening with the Kwansaba
In celebration of Black History Month, learn about the poetic form Kwansaba with Treasure Shields Redmond. St. Louis County Library.
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17 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Park Chung Hee: The United States and Human Rights
Park Chung Hee ruled South Korea for nearly 20 years from May 1961 until his assassination on October 26, 1979 and is widely credited for leading South Korea’s rapid industrialization process that transformed the country from one of extreme poverty into one of the leading economies in the world. However, his rule is also associated with human rights abuses and repression of the Korean Democracy Movement. In particular, Park Chung Hee’s promulgation of the Yusin Constitution in 1972 created a more authoritarian system of government which perpetuated his hold on power indefinitely. As Park Chung Hee sought to entrench himself in power, a revitalization of concern for human rights in the United States was emerging in the wake of the Vietnam War and set up a period of tension between the US and South Korea over the human rights issue. This talk will discuss these tensions and why the U.S. was ultimately unhelpful in assisting the Korean Democracy Movement as a new military ruler, Chun Doo Hwan, took power in 1980. Gateway Korea Foundation.
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17 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano, Black, White, and The Grey (Author Talk)
Chef Mashama Bailey and restaurateur John O. Morisano share how they went from tentative business partners to dear friends while turning a dilapidated formerly segregated Greyhound bus station into The Grey, now one of the most celebrated restaurants in the country. Recounting the trying process of building their restaurant business, they examine their most painful and joyous times, revealing how they came to understand their differences, recognize their biases, and continuously challenge themselves and each other to be better. Through it all, Bailey and Morisano display how two citizens commit to playing their own small part in advancing equality against a backdrop of racism. Sauce magazine & St. Louis County Library.
IN PERSON: St. Louis County Library – Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131

18-19 FEBRUARY
Protests and Progress: St. Louis Neighborhoods
St. Louis is an ever-evolving city with fascinating stories and a complex history. Explore different St. Louis neighborhoods — both past and present — and see how they have changed throughout the years in times of protest and progress. Missouri Historical Society.
VIRTUAL

18 FEBRUARY  |  11 AM
Civil Rights Activism During WWII
DAVID LUCANDER, author of Winning the War for Democracy: The March on Washington Movement, 1941–1946, will discuss Black American activism during WWII, including against employment discrimination in war industries, with a focus on St. Louis. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Soldiers Memorial, Court of Honor, 1315 Chestnut St., St. Louis, 63103

22 FEBRUARY  |  11 AM
Ed Wheatley, Wrestling at the Chase (Author Talk)
ED WHEATLEY will discuss his new book, Wrestling at the Chase, which details wrestling’s “golden years.” The 1959 premiere of Wrestling at the Chase, a professional wrestling television series, fueled a trend that drew hundreds of men and women dressed to the nines ringside each week in the Khorassan Room of the opulent Chase Park Plaza Hotel — not to mention the hundreds of thousands who tuned in from home. This is the story of the rise of professional wrestling that started right here in St. Louis and continues today on television and in venues across the country. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, Lee Auditorium, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

22 FEBRUARY  |  6:30 PM
Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.: Landscape Architect, Author and Conservationist 1822-1903
ESLEY HAMILTON, past preservation historian, St. Louis County Parks. This program is sponsored by the St. Louis Public Library’s Steedman Architectural Library and the SAH-St. Louis and Missouri Valley Chapters. St. Louis Public Library.
VIRTUAL - RSVP

22 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
The Black Rep Presents Waiting for Martin
A poignant and heartfelt tale of three homeless teens living in rural Alabama during the early ’60s, patiently waiting for Dr. King to come, with the expectation that his visit would change their lives forever. Registration required. The Black Rep & St. Louis County Library. I
IN PERSON: St. Louis County Library – Lewis and Clark Branch, 9909 Lewis-Clark Blvd., St. Louis, 63136

23 FEBRUARY  |  6 PM
Curator Tour: Lisa Melandri, Wassan Al-Khudhairi, and Misa Jeffereis
Join Executive Director Lisa Melandri, Chief Curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi and Assistant Curator Misa Jeffereis for a tour of the exhibitions.
IN PERSON: Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 63108

24 FEBRUARY  |  5:30 PM
Race, Violence, and Justice: The Mink Slide Salon
East St. Louis. Rosewood. Black Wall Street. All have violent and disturbing histories. In Columbia, Tennessee, fresh off fighting the Second World War in 1946, Black veterans averted another tragic chapter in America’s history by standing up against oppressive forces and kicking off a series of events that would lead to the White House. St. Louis filmmaker Owen K. Woodard will screen a clip from his film The Mink Slide, named after the African-American business district where the uprising took place. Keynote speaker Geoff Ward (Department of African and African-American Studies, Washington University) will speak about racial violence within American history, how it relates to Missouri’s history, and how reconciliation and healing can begin. Missouri Historical Society.
IN PERSON: Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 63112

24 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Paintings on Stone: Making an Exhibition
JUDITH MANN, curator of European art to 1800, Saint Louis Art Museum, will discuss her nearly 20-year endeavor to bring the exhibition Paintings on Stone: Science and the Sacred 1530–1800 to fruition. She will discuss the emergence of this artistic process in the 16th century as well as the origins of the exhibition: the museum’s purchase of a small painting on lapis lazuli in 2000. Paintings on Stone, Saint Louis Art Museum.
VIRTUAL – RSVP

24 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
The Legacy of Dr. Venable
In celebration of Black History Month, celebrate the resilience of Dr. Howard P. Venable, an ophthalmologist and university professor who worked for equity in health, education, and legal justice. St. Louis County Library.
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25 FEBRUARY  |  12 PM
Thoughts on Law and Global Catholicism: Canon Law as the First International Legal System
ATRIA A. LARSON is an associate professor of medieval Christianity in the Department of Theological Studies and director of the Center for Religious and Legal History, both at Saint Louis University. Her talk will introduce canon law, from late antiquity through the Middle Ages to early modernity, as a mechanism for the spread of moral ideas, legal norms and judicial procedures in what scholars have referred to as “the first international legal system.” Respondents to her paper are Fr. Steven A. Schoenig, SJ, associate professor of history; and Benjamin Wand, PhD candidate in medieval history, Saint Louis University. Center for Research on Global Catholicism, Saint Louis University.
IN PERSON: Center for Global Citizenship Auditorium, 3672 West Pine Mall, St. Louis, 63108
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25 FEBRUARY  |  6 PM
StitchCast Studio Live
Story Stitchers Youth Council lead live podcast recording sessions that include art interludes and discussion with community guests. Stories, music, video and dance from the community are shared. $15 per ticket or free with a Student ID or for members of Stitchers Youth Council. Saint Louis Story Stitchers.
IN PERSON: 3524 Washington Ave, St. Louis, MO 63103

26 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Joel J. Schwartz and Charles Bosworth Jr., Bone Deep (Author Talk)
Defense attorney Joel J. Schwartz, who fought for justice on behalf of Russel Faria, will be in conversation with St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter and author Robert Patrick. Two days after Christmas 2011, Russel Faria returned to his Troy, Missouri home to find his wife, Betsy, murdered. The brutal crime set off a chain of events leading to one man’s wrongful conviction and imprisonment, another man’s death, the revelation of a diabolical scheme and an astounding miscarriage of justice left unresolved for another 10 years. St. Louis County Library.
IN PERSON: St. Louis County Library – Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, 63131

28 FEBRUARY  |  6:30 PM
St. Louis Freedom Struggle, 1821-1968
St. Louis played a leading role in the battle for fair and equitable treatment. In celebration of Black History Month, this presentation focuses on the events and successes of two periods in Missouri history: the years before the Brown v. Board of Education decision (1821–1954) and the modern civil rights movement (1954–1968). Missouri Historical Society & St. Louis. County Library.
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28 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Explore African American Literature
In celebration of Black History Month, learn about the history of African-American literature, get recommendations for great classics and contemporary works, and explore resources available at St. Louis County Library. St. Louis County Library.
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28 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Jess T. Dugan, Look at me like you love me (Author Talk)
St. Louis artist Jess T. Dugan will be in conversation with St. Louis poet Jessica Baran. In their new photography collection, Look at me like you love me, Dugan reflects on desire, intimacy, companionship and the ways our identities are shaped by these experiences. Dugan brings together self-portraits, portraits of individuals and couples, and still lifes, interwoven with diaristic writings reflecting on relationships, solitude, family, loss, healing and the transformations that define a life. Using medium-format cameras and natural lighting, Dugan employs traditional photographic practices to depict these contemporary subjects, resulting in images that both evoke and reimagine the conventional dynamics of art-historical portraiture. Brought together here, these photographs function as an extended, oblique self-portrait as much as a catalogue of friends and loved ones. Left Bank Books.
IN PERSON: High Low, 3301 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 63103
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28 FEBRUARY  |  7 PM
Jessica P. Pryde with Kosoko Jackson, Black Love Matters (Author Talk)
Contributing editor for Book Riot, co-host of the When in Romance podcast and Washington University alumnus Jessica P. Pryde will be in conversation with Kosoko Jackson, YA and adult author of the recently released I’m So (Not) Over You. Romantic love has been one of the most essential elements of storytelling for centuries, but for Black people in the United States and across the diaspora, it hasn’t often been easy to find Black romance joyfully showcased in entertainment media. In this anthology, revered authors and sparkling newcomers, librarians and academicians, and avid readers and reviewers consider the mirrors and windows into Black love as it is depicted in the novels, television shows and films that have shaped their own stories. Whether personal reflection or cultural commentary, these essays delve into Black love now and in the past, including topics from the history of Black romance to social justice and the Black community to the meaning of desire and desirability. Exploring the multifaceted ways love is seen — and the ways it isn't — this diverse array of Black voices collectively shines a light on the power of crafting happy endings for Black lovers. Left Bank Books.
VIRTUAL