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The University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries will celebrate the recent PBS documentary film, “W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With A Cause,” with the film’s director, Rita Coburn, at the University Libraries Annual Fall Reception, Friday, Sept. 18, at 6 p.m., in the Bromery Center for the Arts.

Coburn will be joined by scholars and collaborators Karida Brown and Whitney Battle-Baptiste to share how archival discoveries, scholarship and partnership with the Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center (SCUA) helped shape the film’s portrait of Du Bois’ life and legacy. The event is free and open to the public, though registration is required.

Coburn is a Peabody Award-winning director, writer and producer of radio, television and film. She began her career as a producer and writer for news outlets across the U.S., before working as a producer for The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah Radio, Apollo Live! and Walt Disney Productions, among others. In 2016, Coburn co-directed and co-produced “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise,” which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and won a Peabody Award in 2017. Coburn also directed “Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands,” which premiered nationwide on PBS’ “American Masters” in February 2022.

Brown is an NAACP award-winning author, sociologist, oral historian and professor whose research centers on the fullness of Black life. She is a professor of sociology at Emory University and a Fulbright Scholar. She previously served as professor of sociology at UCLA, inaugural Diane Nash Descendants of Emancipation Chair at Fisk University and inaugural director of racial equity and action with the Los Angeles Lakers. She also served on the board of the Obama Presidency Oral History Project.

Brown is the author of six books, including “The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois” and “The New Brownies’ Book: A Love Letter to Black Families,” which received the 55th NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Literary Work, as well as “The Battle for the Black Mind.” 

Battle-Baptiste is a professor of anthropology and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Center at UMass Amherst. A native of the Bronx, New York, she is an activist-scholar whose work examines the interconnectedness of race, gender, class and sexuality through an archaeological lens. Her research sites include Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage Plantation, the Abiel Smith School on Beacon Hill in Boston, the W.E.B. Du Bois Homesite in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and a community-based heritage site at Millars Plantation on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera.

Her books include “Black Feminist Archaeology” and “W.E.B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America,” co-edited with Britt Rusert, professor of Afro-American studies at UMass Amherst. She is completing the second edition of “Black Feminist Archaeology” with Routledge and co-edited a volume tentatively titled “The New Vanguard: Du Boisian Legacies and the Future of Black Intellectual Thought.”

“We are honored to have Rita Coburn and Dr. Brown join Dr. Battle-Baptiste and the Libraries on stage to celebrate the film and the extraordinary life and legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois,” said Curtis Brundy, dean of UMass Amherst Libraries. “Their groundbreaking work, scholarship, and dedication have made significant contributions to our understanding of Du Bois and his enduring impact. We are especially grateful for their role in bringing greater attention and insight to one of our most treasured collections, helping to illuminate the breadth and significance of Du Bois’ work for new generations of scholars, students and the broader community.”

The event is presented by University Libraries in partnership with SCUA and the W.E.B. Du Bois Center, and is sponsored by the UMass Amherst Foundation and the Fine Arts Center.

More information on the event can be found on the UMass Amherst Libraries website.