African American Heritage Trail

CU Days
2023-08-12 11:00 - 20:00, 2023-08-11 17:00 - 20:00 UTC | Douglass Park, 804 N. Fifth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820
As Champaign-Urbana Days draw near, the Champaign Park District would like to invite you to participate in this 30+ year-old tradition. This event draws nearly 2,000 patrons each year and offers great exposure to the community.
Celebrate the Chambana community with us! Enjoy live music, tasty food, children’s activities, senior activities, and more!

Friday, August 11, 2023 – 5-8p
Saturday, August 12, 2023 – 11a-8p

Questions: katherine.hicks@champaignparks.org or 217-398-2573
https://champaignparks.com/cu-days/

Understanding the State of Illinois' Black Business Survey
2023-07-20 12:00 - 14:00 | Champaign Public Library – Main Library, 200 W. Green St., Champaign, IL, 61820
Presented in partnership with The City of Champaign, The City of Urbana, Campus-Community Compact To Accelerate Social Justice, and Champaign Community Coalition – Walk As One
In February 2023, the IL Office of Minority Economic Empowerment (OMEE) released results of its black business survey. This first-of-its-kind statewide Black Business Survey solicited information directly from black-owned businesses to provide empirical context to better understand the unique challenges facing lack-owned businesses across the state.
Matt Simpson from the IL OMEE office will present the findings of the survey and share important insights to supporting both black business development and overall economic growth. Entrepreneurs who attend will be able to network with one another and take advantage of business resource organizations that will be in attendance.

Lives in Code: Stories of African American Resilience (The Illinois Black Codes, 1819-1865)
2023-07-06 18:00 - 19:00 | Zoom
Join historian and educator, Caroline Kisiel, for a history of the Illinois Black Codes, sponsored by the Illinois Humanities Road Scholar Speaker Bureau. This event will be held on Zoom.

As the home of celebrated champions of freedom such as Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama, it is often surprising for Illinoisans to learn about the long history of slavery, racial segregation, and exclusion in Illinois’s past.
Federally obligated by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 to pass its constitution as a free state in 1818, residents in the region prior to Illinois statehood had practiced slavery and indentured servitude since the 1700s. This laid the groundwork for a series of harsh laws passed post-statehood called the Illinois Black Codes, which regulated the lives of enslaved people, indentured servants, and free Blacks in Illinois from 1819-1865 – a period of 46 years.
Caroline Kisiel is a public historian and educator who has been teaching for over 25 years. With a background in immigration law, literature, history, storytelling, and performance, Kisiel writes and presents on early-Illinois history and is currently conducting research on the role of Albion, Illinois in the struggle to keep Illinois slavery-free in the early years of statehood as well as research on stories of African American resilience under the Illinois Black Codes.
Kisiel showcases researched information and historical documents, and facilitates audience engagement activities around questions of the value of history and activism through themes of early Illinois struggles to keep slavery at bay in the state, the fight for African American rights, and key early Illinois figures in this period who fought against racism and exclusion—and persevered despite the odds.
This event is being produced in partnership with Illinois Humanities. The Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau invites Illinois authors, artists, and educations to share their expertise and enthusiasm with people throughout the state, enabling local nonprofit organizations to present free-admission cultural programs to their communities.

The Library is committed to making programs accessible for all. If you need an accommodation to attend a program, please let the Library know at least two weeks in advance. To request an accommodation, contact the Programming and Outreach Manager via email at programming@urbanafree.org or via phone at 217-367-4057.

25th Annual MLK Jettie Rhodes Neighborhood Day
2023-06-24 12:00 - 16:00 | King Park, 915 W. Wascher Dr., Urbana, IL
FREE Community Event! Food, Raffle & Prizes, Live Entertainment, Local Talent, Fun & Games, Cook-Off Contest, Family, Friendly, Diverse Atmosphere and More. Celebrating the legacy of the late Mrs. Jettie Rhodes and her commitment to serve her community. Help us pack King Park!!
https://www.facebook.com/events/965484594430125/?ref=newsfeed

Juneteenth Celebration at Colbert Park (Savoy)
2023-06-19 12:00 - 18:00 | Colbert Park, 203 E. Church St., Savoy, IL
Join in celebrating the freedom of African Americans at Colbert Park (203 E. Church St., Savoy). Free food, shopping, music, poetry, and more! The event will take place on June 19, from 12:00–6:00 p.m. For more information, visit this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/3352338645004923/

Juneteenth Celebration at Crystal Lake Park (Urbana)
2023-06-18 14:00 - 16:00 | Crystal Lake, 206 W. Park St., Urbana, IL
Join the Urbana Park District and The Urbana Free Library for a family-friendly Juneteenth celebration at the Lakehouse in Crystal Lake Park! The event will take place on Sunday, June 18, from 2:00–4:00 p.m.

Enjoy music, food and refreshments, fishing, Urvana Mobile Recreation Unit games and activities, community resources, and more as we celebrate Black freedom, culture, contributions, and achievements in Urbana and beyond.

The Library is committed to making programs accessible for all. If you need an accommodation to attend a program, please let the Library know at least two weeks in advance. To request an accommodation, contact the Programming and Outreach Manager via email at programming@urbanafree.org or via phone at 217-367-4057.

Juneteenth Celebration at Neil St. Blues
2023-06-17 22:00 | Neil St. Blues, 301 N Neil St, Champaign, IL, 61820
It’s almost that time of the year again. Juneteenth is slowly approaching!
Join us for an electrifying Juneteenth celebration at Neil St Blues on Saturday, June 17th! As the doors swing open at 10pm, prepare to immerse yourself in a night filled with joy, history, and soulful tunes. This event commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans and pays tribute to the rich cultural heritage of the community.
With sounds provided by Dj Slim, enjoy classic soul and R&B to energetic hip-hop and Afrobeat rhythms, DJ Slim will curate a diverse playlist that honors the spirit of Juneteenth.
This Juneteenth Weekend, June 17th
Doors open at 10pm
$10 cover till 11pm
Security and dress code enforced
Kitchen open
21+ to enter
Only at Neil St Blues!
301 N. Neil St, #106
Champaign, IL, 61820
217-531-1150
www.neilstblues.com

Juneteenth Celebration at Douglass Park (Champaign)
2023-06-17 12:00 - 15:00 | Douglass Park, 804 N. Fifth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820
Juneteenth, the oldest known celebration commemorating the abolition of slavery in the United States, is one event you don’t want to miss. Enjoy music and visit different vendors while learning about this important holiday. Children can make arts and crafts, play on the bounce house and obstacle course, or get soaked in the Splash Pad.
Questions: robert.white@champaignparks.org or 217-398-2572
The Juneteenth celebration is scheduled for Saturday, June 17, 2023, from 12-3pm, at Douglass Park 804 N. Fifth St, Champaign, IL 61820.
For more information on attending or applying as a vendor, please follow this link: https://champaignparks.com/event/juneteenth/.

MTD Juneteenth Block Party
2023-06-16 17:00 - 19:00 | Illinois Terminal, 45 E. University Ave., Champaign, IL, 61820
The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD) will host a Juneteenth Block Party on Friday, June 16, from 5pm to 7pm outside at Illinois Terminal in downtown Champaign. To celebrate, MTD and our community partners have created a space to connect with one another and support the observance of Juneteenth through local art, poetry, and history. This event is free to the public and will occupy a portion of the parking lot in front of Illinois Terminal at University Ave. and Market St. with our Juneteenth Bus, Mama Duke’s Food Truck, and musical entertainment by DJ BJ Clark.

MTD’s Juneteenth Bus will be on display at the event for guests to get on board to learn about the history and importance of Juneteenth, an annual celebration commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. The bus is a mobile exhibit with nearly 40 unique interior displays ranging from historical facts and photographs, to quotes from famous figures, as well as book excerpts and recommendations for continued learning. Several MTD employees submitted quotes about Juneteenth, freedom, and the Black experience, which are also displayed.

To honor Juneteenth, we are also proud to announce a new art installation on the second floor of Illinois Terminal in the Amtrak Waiting Area. Second and third graders from Champaign Unit 4’s Booker T Washington Elementary School created Juneteenth-inspired artwork, with help from their amazing Art Teacher, Emily Pawlicki, to share with the public through the summer.

MTD also commissioned poems from the current Urbana Poet Laureate, Ja Nelle Davenport-Pleasure and Youth Poet Laureate, Danyla Nash. In addition to a live poetry reading from Danyla Nash at the event, both poems are prominently displayed in a light box behind the driver on the Juneteenth Bus and are installed along the bus platform of Illinois Terminal.

The Juneteenth Bus Mobile Exhibit is a powerful and accessible educational resource that will be in service on randomly assigned routes through the end of July 2023. MTD will also make the bus exhibit available at community events throughout the summer, including Juneteenth Celebrations from the Champaign Park District (Saturday, June 17) and Urbana Park District (Sunday, June 18) and the 25th Annual MLK Jettie Rhodes Neighborhood Day (Saturday, June 24).

Juneteenth Flag Raising & Reverence Ceremony
2023-06-16 12:00 - 13:00 | City of Urbana, 200 S. Vine St., Urbana, IL
Please join the City of Urbana at 12 p.m. on June 16, 2023, for the Juneteenth Flag Raising & Reverence Ceremony. The ceremony will be held directly in front of the City building located at 200 South Vine Street in Urbana.

Juneteenth Celebration at Anchor Church
2023-06-11 17:00 - 19:00 | Anchor Church, 2901 Watterson Ct., Champaign, IL
Juneteenth Service/Celebration with Anchor Church
Join Anchor Church for its 2nd annual Juneteenth Celebration on Sunday, June 11th at 5:00pm. They will have a special Juneteenth service with Rev. Lawrence Kirby and special music followed by food, bounce houses, water balloon games, and more!
Food will be provided by Anchor Church, but we are also asking people to make and bring their favorite dish(es) to have it as more of a potluck style dinner. Questions? Please visit: https://www.anchorchurchil.com/

Gwendolyn Brooks's Birthday
2023-06-07 15:00 - 17:00 | The Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 346 Main University Library, 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL, 61801
Gwendolyn Brooks’s Birthday

Event Type
Reception/Open House
Sponsor
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Location
346 Main University Library, 1408 W. Gregory Dr.
Date
Jun 7, 2023 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Contact
Carrie Lingscheit

E-Mail
carriel@illinois.edu

Come and celebrate the birthday of Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000), former Illinois Poet Laureate and the first African American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize. Take a look at some of our favorite gems from Miss Brooks’s literary archives, and enjoy a slice of her birthday cake! This event is free and open to all.

An Evening with Jesmyn Ward
2023-06-06 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
Join the Urbana Free Library for an online evening with two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward as she discusses how her literary vision & personal experiences address urgent questions about racism and social injustice.

Two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward will discuss how her literary vision and personal experiences address urgent questions about racism and social injustice.
Ward, hailed as “the new Toni Morrison” by the American Booksellers Association, is the author of fiction, nonfiction, and memoir, including the critically acclaimed novels Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones, and the memoir Men We Reaped. In 2017, she became the first woman and first person of color to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice. A professor of creative writing at Tulane University and contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Ward’s many honors include the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, a MacArthur Genius Grant, and a Strauss Living Award.
This event is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present, a statewide collaboration among public libraries offering premier events. ILP is funded in part by a grant awarded by the Illinois State Library, a department of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).
ILP is committed to inclusion and accessibility. To request accommodations, please email illinoislibrariespresent@gmail.com.

The Library is committed to making programs accessible for all. If you need an accommodation to attend a program, please let the Library know at least two weeks in advance. To request an accommodation, contact the Programming and Outreach Manager via email at programming@urbanafree.org or via phone at 217-367-4057.

My Soul Doesn't Cast a Shadow
2023-05-27 08:00 - 2023-06-08 17:00 | Independent Media Center, 202 S. Broadway, Suite 100, Urbana, IL, 61801
Art gallery at Urbana-Champaign’s Independent Media Center showcasing works by Marilynn Dean Cleveland. Some of the 1,778 pieces that Ms. Cleveland created are included in the gallery, which show how the nation transcended in terms of race. The artist’s paintings tell the story of how Black people migrating after slavery made a living and searched for better opportunities, but were welcomed with new challenges like segregation.
IMC webpage: https://www.ucimc.org/cleveland
Open Hours
Come by for a tour, visit the art gallery, read a zine in the zine library, use a public computer station, print (up to 10 pages free!) or just hang out! Or schedule an appointment by contacting us at 217-666-7628 or booking@ucimc.org.
Friday – 2:00pm-5:00pm
Saturday – 2:00pm-5:00pm
Sunday – 2:00pm-5:00pm
Monday – Thursday – Closed

Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower (Krannert Center for the Performing Arts)
2023-04-29 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-04-28 19:30 - 21:00 | Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL, 61801
Based on the novels Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler, this genre-defying work of political theatre featuring a powerhouse ensemble of 20 singers, actors, and musicians harnesses 200 years of Black music to give musical life to Butler’s acclaimed science fiction novels.
Parable of the Sower, set in 2024 and published in 1993, presciently grapples with many of the same issues we face today—global warming, corporate influence over government, a destabilized economy, water scarcity, food scarcity, the privatization of social services, homelessness, public safety, a return of long-forgotten diseases, and the profit-making machine that runs the medical industry.
Written by singer, composer, and producer Toshi Reagon in collaboration with her mother, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon (song leader, composer, scholar, social activist, and founder of Sweet Honey In the Rock), Parable of the Sower is a mesmerizing theatrical work of rare power and beauty that reveals deep insights into gender, race, and the future of human civilization.
Follow this link to purchase tickets: https://krannertcenter.com/events/octavia-e-butlers-parable-sower

John Jennings: “Go Back and Get It”
2023-04-20 17:30 - 18:30 | Krannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign, Illinois, 61820
Join us for a School of Art & Design Visitors Series talk by award-winning artist and scholar John Jennings (MA ’95, MFA ’97). The talk will be held on April 20, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. in the lower level auditorium of the Krannert Art Museum (500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign).

John Jennings is an award-winning artist, visual culture scholar, designer, storyteller and cultural activist.
His work has helped reenvision how Black subjectivity is constructed, viewed and theorized in popular media, fine art, and the academy.
In this talk, Jennings will examine how the West African concept of “sankofa” has been a lens through which his critical making practice, his pedagogy and his community-focused organizing has been centered.
About the Artist
John Jennings is a professor, author, graphic novelist, curator, Harvard Fellow, New York Times Bestseller, 2018 Eisner Winner, and all-around champion of Black culture.
As Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside (UCR), Jennings examines the visual culture of race in various media forms including film, illustrated fiction, and comics and graphic novels. He is also the director of Abrams ComicArts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on the experiences of people of color.
His research interests include the visual culture of Hip Hop, Afrofuturism and politics, Visual Literacy, Horror, and the EthnoGothic, and Speculative Design and its applications to visual rhetoric.
Jennings is co-editor of the 2016 Eisner Award-winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art (Rutgers) and cofounder/organizer of The Schomburg Center’s Black Comic Book Festival in Harlem. He is cofounder and organizer of the MLK NorCal’s Black Comix Arts Festival in San Francisco and also SOL-CON: The Brown and Black Comix Expo at The Ohio State University.
At Krannert Art Museum, Jennings co-reated with Damian Duffy the 2008 exhibition and its exhibition catalogue Out of Sequence: Underrepresented Voices in American Comics.

CultureTalk | Nikky Finney and Ruth Nicole Brown
2023-04-19 19:30 - 20:30 | Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory, Urbana, IL
CultureTalk | Nikky Finney and Ruth Nicole Brown

Sponsor
Cosponsored by the College of Fine and Applied Arts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Center for Advanced Study, Spurlock Museum, and HRI
Location
Spurlock Museum, Knight Auditorium in person; livestream at go.illinois.edu/culturetalk
Virtual

Date
Apr 19, 2023 7:30 pm
Speaker
Nikky Finney and Ruth Nicole Brown

Contact
Humanities Research Institute

E-Mail
info-hri@illinois.edu

Nikky Finney (John H. Bennett, Jr., Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters, University of South Carolina) and Ruth Nicole Brown (African American Studies, Michigan State University and Founder, Saving Our Lives, Hearing Our Truths – SOLHOT) in conversation, with Janice Harrington (Creative Writing, Department of English) moderating. Join us in person at Spurlock Museum or watch the livestream.
Cosponsored by the College of Fine and Applied Arts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Center for Advanced Study, Spurlock Museum, and HRI.
To request disability-related accommodations for this event, please contact Brian Cudiamat at cudiamat@illinois.edu or (217) 244-5586.
About the Speakers

Nikky Finney was born by the sea in South Carolina and raised during the Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Arts Movements. She is the author of On Wings Made of Gauze; Rice; The World Is Round; and Head Off & Split, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2011. Her new collection of poems, Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry, was released in 2020 from TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press.
Dr. Ruth Nicole Brown is at her best when disciplinary norms are disrupted in favor of creating ideas that swing.
Brown’s research documents and analyzes Black girls’ lived experiences and the practical ways they make Black girlhood with those who love them. Her previous work has explored how Black girl’s conceptualize freedom, creativity, and relationships in Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT). Brown founded SOLHOT in 2006 as a collective space to celebrate Black girlhood and to date it remains her most cherished and consistent practice of meeting Black girls face to face and heart to heart. SOLHOT has received support from The Novo Foundation (2018-2021), campus grants, Champaign-Urbana institutions, and those who actively participate. A Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Fellow (2019-2020), Brown’s Black Girl Genius Week (BGGW) exhausts the rituals of SOLHOT to widen the cipher and experience the imaginative capabilities and artistry that only occurs when Black girls and women are together as homegirls. BGGW has taken place in central Illinois (2014, 2016, & 2019), Columbia, SC (2019 & 2020), and Chicago, IL (2019 & 2020).
Brown is the Inaugural Chairperson of the Department of African American and African Studies at Michigan State University. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in Political Science with graduate certificates in World Performance Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies.
Images (left to right): Nikky Finney (by Forrest Clonts) and Ruth Nicole Brown

Food for the Soul/Inside Scoop with Nikky Finney
2023-04-19 12:00 - 13:00 | Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, 1212 W. Nevada St., Urbana, IL, 61801
Food for the Soul/Inside Scoop with Nikky Finney

Sponsor
Humanities Research Institute, hosted and cosponsored by the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center
Location
Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center
Date
Apr 19, 2023 12:00 pm
Speaker
Nikky Finney

Contact
Humanities Research Institute

E-Mail
info-hri@illinois.edu

Food for the Soul/Inside Scoop lunch with Nikky Finney, John H. Bennett, Jr., Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters, University of South Carolina
Hosted and Cosponsored by the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center
About the Speaker
“So—you can write pretty,” Toni Cade Bambara tells the twenty-one-year-old Nikky Finney during a monthly writing circle that Bambara held in her Atlanta home during the 1980’s. “But what else can your words do besides adorn?” This flat-footed question, put to the young poet by the great short story writer, at the beginning of her career, sets her sailing toward a life of aiming her words to do more than pearl and decorate the page. She follows the path, beyond adornment, that Bambara lived and taught—a writing life rooted in empathetic engagement and human reciprocity. Nikky Finney has been a faculty member at Cave Canem summer workshop for African American poets; a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, a particular place for poets of color in Appalachia; poet and professor for twenty-three years at the University of Kentucky; and visiting professor at Berea and Smith Colleges. She won the PEN American Open Book Award in 1996 and the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award for the Arts in South Carolina in 2016. She edited Black Poets Lean South, a Cave Canem anthology (2007) authored On Wings Made of Gauze (1985), Rice (1995), Heartwood (1997), The World Is Round (2003), and Head Off & Split, winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry. Her acceptance speech has become a thing of legend, described by the 2011 NBA host, John Lithgow, as “the best acceptance speech ever–for anything.” In her home state of South Carolina, she involves herself in the day-to-day battles for truth and justice while also guiding both undergraduates and MFA students at the University of South Carolina where she is the John H. Bennett, Jr., Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters, with appointments in both the Department of English Language and Literature and the African American Studies Program, which she proudly notes is forty-six years strong. Nikky Finney’s work, in book form and video, including her now legendary acceptance speech, is on display in the inaugural exhibition of the African American Museum of History and Culture in Washington, D.C. You will find her in the poet’s corner, directly across from Chuck Berry’s 1973 candy apple red Cadillac Eldorado. Finney’s work includes the arenas of Black girl genius unrecognized, Black history misplaced and forgotten, and the stories of women who prefer to jump instead of ride the traditional tracks of polite and acceptable society. In her full body of poetry and storytelling, she explores the whispers and shouts of sexuality, the invisibility of poverty in a world continually smitten by the rich and the powerful, the graciousness of Black family perseverance, the truth of history, the grace and necessity of memory, as well as the titanic loss of habitat for all things precious and wild.
The new decade is here and so is Nikky’s new book. Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry (pub date April 15, 2020) is her first poetry collection since winning the National Book Award in 2011. In addition to the poems, there are hotbeds, a horticulture term introducing her readers to her journals, the place where most of her poems have always found their calcium and strong knees. There are also artifacts, images and photographs, that assist the words in composing how the poet’s poet-life came to be. Over the last 30 years each and every Nikky Finney book has always been wonderfully different but this long awaited new minglement of word and image crafts a new kind of American poesy.
Photo by Forrest Clonts

News, Brews & Beatz: Parenting Black Children & Teens Today
2023-04-17 18:00 - 19:00 | Pour Bros. Taproom, 40 E. University Ave., Champaign, IL, 61820
Illinois Public Media invites you to News, Brews and Beatz 8 as we discuss parenting Black children and teens today. The public recording will be held on April 17 at the Pour Bros. Taproom (40 E. University Ave., Champaign) at 6:00 p.m.

Topics we will cover:
• “Old school” vs. “new school” parenting styles;
• Exploring how you were brought up vs. how you parent your children;
• Having “The Talk” regarding policing, race, and racism;
• Addressing your child’s cultural identity and self-esteem in predominantly white spaces;
• And navigating the challenges of social media with today’s peer pressures.
Cohosts:
• Reginald Hardwick, IPM Public Media News & Public Affairs Director
• Tracy Parsons, Comm. Relations & Facilitator Community Coalition, City of Champaign
Panelists:
• Dr. Carolyn Randolph-Kato, Visiting Assoc. Director of Arts Impact Assessment University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Todd Kato, Assistant Director in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Illinois (Todd and wife Carolyn are married and raising three children)
• Cynthia Smith, Resource Specialist, Child Care Resource Service (Cynthia is raising her three granddaughters)
• Erik L. Felix, Coach, Referee, Entrepreneur from Danville (Erik is a single parent of seven children, ages 14-31)
• Robert A. White II, Adult & Senior Programs Coordinator at Douglass Annex (Robert is a single parent of three children, including a set of twins)
• Dr. Dynesha D. Grissom, Psychologist at YMG Psychological Services, PLLC.

Performances by Spoken Word Artist Missy Richland, and Ryan Byfield & Nuclei Trio Band.

These quarterly conversations focus on different aspects of the gun violence crisis and what individuals and community groups are doing to combat it. News, Brews & Beatz events are free and open to the public.

UI Black Chorus
2023-04-15 07:30 - 21:00 | Foellinger Great Hall, 709 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL, 61801
The University of Illinois Black Chorus will perform at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts. The chorus will be conducted by Ollie Watts Davis.
Tickets will go on sale Wednesday, January 25, at 10 a.m., online only. More information is available here: https://krannertcenter.com/events/ui-black-chorus-0.

Table Talk Book Club: Brighter by the Day
2023-04-13 18:30 - 19:30 | Champaign Public Library – Main Library, 200 W. Green St., Champaign, IL, 61820
Join the Champaign Public Library’s casual monthly get-togethers to talk about books by contemporary African American writers. New members are welcome; call 217/403-2090 for more information.
On April 13, 2023, the book club will discuss Brighter by the Day by Robin Roberts. This will be a joint meeting with the library’s other book clubs and will be held at the Main Library.
“Diane, Michelle, Kenya, and Lynette have known each other since they were small children. They grew up in different neighborhoods, but they also grew up in the same church (which is how they first met), and while they each attended different colleges, they never lost touch with each other. So much so, they regularly planned trips to come home on the same weekends, and outside of time spent with their family and dating, they enjoyed all their summers together as well. Now many years later, at age forty, they are still best friends forever and they meet for lunch on the first Saturday of every month, but their lives couldn’t be more different”– Provided by publisher.
Books for this season are:

Apr 13, Brighter by the Day by Robin Roberts *Note: This is a joint meeting with the library’s other book clubs and will be held at the Main Library.
May 9, No book discussion. We will meet to select the books for next season.

Ann Johnson: Converse & Real Talk
2023-04-06 17:30 - 18:30 | Krannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign, Illinois, 61820
Join us for a School of Art & Design Visitors Series talk by artist Ann Johnson on April 6, 2023 at 5:30 p.m. The talk will be held in the lower level auditorium of the Krannert Art Museum (500 E. Peabody Dr., Champaign).

Reflecting on her 2022 Lawndale Contemporary Art Center installation See Me, Ann “Sole Sister” Johnson is matter-a-fact about the intent: “This is about being seen. Seeing the women in the shadows.”
Incorporating experimental printmaking on found objects to produce “work that breathes conversation” and “question humanity,” Ann “Sole Sister” Johnson occupies that threshold between ancestral legacies and historical futures.
The artist, Ann Johnson, occupies a space—on, among, and with ancestral spirits—that is at once both “magical and distressing,” to bring forth artistic work that examines family, community, and Black Womanhood. In so doing, it interrogates what it means to survive in a world when that world itself “is too damn much.”
She presents us with an intricate photopolymer intaglio process “on cotton, leaves, feathers and infuses an assimilation of found objects with contemporary imagery.
With other poignant processes Johnson honors those women in the shadows and captures “layers and levels of womanhood” via a “transfer printmaking process on vintage and aged-metal ironing boards.”
She discerns and embraces the intimacies of family portraits and personal stories by rendering them legible against the surfaces of objects that hold symbolic and historical significance.
Johnson is currently exhibiting at Plains Art Museum in Fargo, ND. | Unseen Traces
About the Artist
Born in London, England, UK, and raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA, Ann Johnson received a BS in Home Economics from Prairie View A&M University where she has taught for over 20 years. She earned an MA in Humanities (University of Houston-Clear Lake) as well as an MFA from the Academy of Art University (San Francisco) with a concentration in printmaking.
Johnson’s work has been exhibited at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; The Museum of Printing History, Women and Their Work Gallery, Austin, TX; Claire Oliver Gallery in Harlem, NY; Project Row Houses, Houston, TX; Tisdale Beach Institute, Savannah, GA; Charles H. Wright Museum, Flint, MI; The Apex Museum, Atlanta, GA; The High Point Centre for Printmaking, MN; The Contemporary Art Museum Houston; and the California African American Art Museum located in Los Angeles, CA. She is represented by Hooks Epstein Galleries in Houston, TX, and Spillman Blackwell Fine Art in New Orleans, LA.

Celebrating Gwendolyn Brooks: A Workshop for Young Poets
2023-03-30 15:30 - 17:00 | University of Illinois’ Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, 1408 W. Gregory Dr., Room 346, Urbana, IL, 61801
The University of Illinois Rare Books and Manuscripts Library and Illinois Humanities welcome students in grades 5-8 for an afterschool celebration of poetry and the life Gwendolyn Brooks. Participants will examine materials that belonged to Gwendolyn Brooks (including a spice box filled with keys!) and write poetry using her words and their own imaginations. If you love to read, write, and act out poems, then join Janice N. Harrington, the author of The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County, for this innovative poetry and biography workshop.
Students will be invited to submit their poems to the Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards, a statewide youth poetry competition founded by Gwendolyn Brooks herself when she was Illinois’s poet laureate. Illinois Humanities has been proud to present the competition since 2017.
This workshop is presented by Illinois Humanities and the University of Illinois’ Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. It will be hosted at the Independent Media Center by Janice N. Harrington, a professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Food and drinks will be provided.
This event is free and open to students in grades 5 through 8, but space is limited. To register, follow this link: https://www.ilhumanities.org/events/celebrating-gwendolyn-brooks-a-workshop-for-young-poets/#register

Table Talk Book Club: Sister Friends Forever
2023-03-14 18:30 - 19:30 | Champaign Public Library – Douglass Branch, 504 E. Grove St., Champaign, IL, 61820
Join the Champaign Public Library’s casual monthly get-togethers to talk about books by contemporary African American writers. New members are welcome; call 217/403-2090 for more information.
On March 14, 2023, the book club will discuss Sister Friends Forever by Kimberla Lawson Roby.
“Diane, Michelle, Kenya, and Lynette have known each other since they were small children. They grew up in different neighborhoods, but they also grew up in the same church (which is how they first met), and while they each attended different colleges, they never lost touch with each other. So much so, they regularly planned trips to come home on the same weekends, and outside of time spent with their family and dating, they enjoyed all their summers together as well. Now many years later, at age forty, they are still best friends forever and they meet for lunch on the first Saturday of every month, but their lives couldn’t be more different”– Provided by publisher.
Books for this season are:

Mar 14, Sister Friends Forever by Kimberla Lawson Roby
Apr 13, Brighter by the Day by Robin Roberts *Note: This is a joint meeting with the library’s other book clubs and will be held at the Main Library.
May 9, No book discussion. We will meet to select the books for next season.

Un/Doing Lecture: "Black Freedom on Native Land: Reconsidering Reconstruction"
2023-03-09 19:30 - 21:00 | University of Illinois, Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana, Illinois, 61801
The University of Illinois Human Research Institute and Department of History present the Un/Doing Lecture, “Black Freedom on Native Land: Reconsidering Reconstruction,” by Dr. Alaina E. Roberts from the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Roberts describes her research interests as focusing on the intersection of Black and Native American history from the nineteenth century to the modern day with particular attention to identity, settler colonialism, and anti-Blackness. This specialization stems from her own family history: her paternal ancestors were Black and Native people enslaved in the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations.
Dr. Roberts has written for mainstream outlets like TIME magazine, the Washington Post, and High Country News, and published academic essays in the Western Historical Quarterly, the Journal of the Civil War Era, American Indian Quarterly, Southern Cultures, and the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
In her first book, I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021), Dr. Roberts uses archival research and family history to upend the traditional story of Reconstruction, connecting debates about Black freedom and Native American citizenship to westward expansion onto Native land. As Black, white, and Native people constructed ideas of race, belonging, and national identity, this part of the West became, for a short time, the last place where Black people could escape Jim Crow, finding land and exercising political rights, until Oklahoma Statehood in 1907.
I’ve Been Here All the While was awarded the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize by the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in history.
Her second book will explore public history, memorialization, and the legacy of slavery and anti-Blackness in the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Cherokee Nations.

Speake Café: Black Herstory Slam!
2023-03-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Krannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign, Illinois, 61820
Speak Café stands for Song, Poetry, Expression, Art, and Knowledge. It is an open-mic public performance space at Krannert Art Museum organized and hosted by local artist and poet, Shaya Robinson.

Join Krannert Art Museum for SPEAK Café in the KAM Cafe this month for a showcase of poetry, spoken word, music, and artistic expression that highlights Black women’s history, present and future.
This performance, featuring women from our community, is designed to promote creativity and connection! Our featured poet this month is Danyla Nash, Urbana’s inaugural Youth Poet Laureate!
Speak Café is a creative space to share your craft, express thoughts, recite poetry, rap, or even show artwork.
Bring friends to the former café space in the KAM lobby to listen or to share your art.
Visit Know Before You Go to see guidelines for visiting the museum. Admission is always free and all are welcome.

Blaxtravaganza: DJs N the Library
2023-03-08 19:00 - 20:00 | Music and Performing Arts Library, 1114 W. Nevada St., Urbana, IL, 61801
The History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library invites the community to The Blaxtravaganza, a series of events highlighting the research, creativity, and brilliance of Black professors on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus March 2-8. All events are free and open to the public.

La Fête
DJs N the Library
bla(CK)mau-aka Stacey Robinson, Chris Kinson, and Kamau Grantham
ClosIng celebration
8 March 2023 | 7PM| Music and Performing Arts Library, 1114 W. Nevada Street.

Blaxtravaganza: Interactive Design and the Black Spatial Imagery Workshop — Creating Black-Affirming Public Spaces
2023-03-07 16:00 - 17:00 | University of Illinois, Main Library, 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Room 220, Urbana, IL, 61801
The History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library invites the community to The Blaxtravaganza, a series of events highlighting the research, creativity, and brilliance of Black professors on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus March 2-8. All events are free and open to the public.

Nekita Thomas
Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, School of Art + Design Design and the Black Spatial Imaginary Workshop: Creating Black Affirming Public Spaces
7 March 2023 | 4PM| Main Library,
1408 W. Gregory Drive, Room 220

La Fête
DJs N the Library
bla(CK)mau-aka Stacey Robinson, Chris Kinson, and Kamau Grantham
ClosIng celebration
8 March 2023 | 7PM| Music and Performing Arts Library, 1114 W. Nevada Street.
