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Equity and Inclusion
OEI James Baldwin Centennial Celebration to Include Talk by Eddie Glaude Jr., Film Screening
In celebration of the centennial of the birth of writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin, the Office of Equity and Inclusion will present a dinner featuring a keynote talk by Eddie Glaude Jr. of Princeton University on Thursday, Nov. 7.
The event in the Campus Center Auditorium will begin at 5:30 p.m. with dinner featuring music by alumnus Mtali Banda. The talk and Q&A featuring Glaude, James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, will begin at 6 p.m.
Glaude, the author of the New York Times bestseller “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own,” will explore Baldwin’s vision and the promise of democracy. “Begin Again” takes an exhaustive look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy.
A passionate educator, author, political commentator and public intellectual who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience, Glaude’s other writings include “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul” and “In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America.”
Reservations are requested for the dinner event, which is free, and can be made at https://www.umass.edu/diversity/baldwin-centennial.
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Additionally, on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m., Amherst Cinema will host a screening and discussion of the film “I Am Not Your Negro.” Directed by Raoul Peck and narrated by actor Samuel L. Jackson, the film based on Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript “Remember This House” is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of Black Lives Matter, while questioning black representation in Hollywood and beyond.
A panel discussion following the screening will feature Ernest Gibson of Auburn University, Frank Leon Roberts of Amherst College and Jordon Crawford of the UMass W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies.
The film and discussion is presented in partnership with the Office of Equity and Inclusion, the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, the Film Studies Program and Hampshire College.
For more information and to purchase tickets for the screening, visit https://www.umass.edu/diversity/events/screening-and-discussion-i-am-not-your-negro.