Programs and Events

Thank you for your interest in the Center for Africana Studies' annual programs.  To view recordings of our events, please visit our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpnfSLphqxoRoQXTI-c1n8w

Dr. Oumar Cherif Diop, Professor Department of English 

“Silence and Silencing in Selected African Literature” 
  
The study shows that silence is a multifaceted device in African literature, with thematic, narrative, and rhetorical functions, conveying complex social, political, cultural, and psychological meanings. 

Date: Tuesday February 7th 

Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm 

Location: Prillaman Hall, Indoor Plaza, HS 1001 

For those unable to attend in person, please join via this link: 

ksuhub.com/casfebbrownbag

Gustavo Melo Cerqueira, Federal University of Bahia 

Human Rights and Afro-Brazilian Religions 
 
Candomblé, Umbanda, and Jurema are some among several denominations of Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Indigenous religions in Brazil. Although many elements of Afro-Brazilian religions are deeply intertwined in Brazilian culture as whole, Afro-Brazilian religious communities and their members are constantly threatened by the growth of religious racism in Brazil. In this lecture, Dr. Melo Cerqueira will talk about the formation of Afro-Brazilian religions, how antiblack racism structures social, political, and institutional relations in Brazil and the efforts that Afro-Brazilian religious communities, in partnership with local, national, and international organizations, have been doing to fight for religious freedom in Brazil. 

Date: Tuesday February 18th

Time: 12:30pm – 1:45pm 

Location: English Building 221 

For those unable to attend in person, please join via this link: 

https://ksuhub.com/casfeb18 

Historical African American Narrative & Art Exhibition 

Narrative Historical Art, Reading Wood and Mulberry Crossing Angel of Hope House present a collaborative effort with Kennesaw State University. 

The artist, Dr. Yvette Stephens Crossing dedicates her work to her Great Cloud of Witnesses who have passed on as she is wisely and patiently guided by her family, supportive friends, historians, griots, and her other angels on this earth. 

REDISCOVER, REMEMBER and REJOICE IN OUR HISTORY introduces the attendee to interesting people and places in African American History which/who are seldom talked about and interesting facts about people we know. 

Come with us on a journey of REDISCOVERING, REMEMBERING and REJOICING IN AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY. 

Date: Monday, February 24th

Time: 12:15pm – 1:45pm 

Location: Prillaman Hall Indoor Plaza, HS1001 

For those unable to attend in person, please join via this link: 

https://ksuhub.com/casfeb24

Dr. Abdelaziz El Bakkali, Media and Cultural Anthropology, Associate Professor, Fulbright Scholar, ASU, USA

“Morocco on the Screen: Hollywood Portrayals of a Middle Eastern Culture” 

The lecture deals with how Hollywood reinvents Moroccan cultural identity through "new" constructs. It discusses the circulation of such images as an attempt to define the country’s identity within its Arab, Muslim, and African roots. Showing how these images circulate and are consumed can provide an avenue for rethinking the role of American culture in the Arab world by positing and producing alternative possibilities of new perceptions and encounters between the two cultures. 

Date: Tuesday February 25th

Time: 11:00am-12:15pm 

Location: English Building 182

For those unable to attend in person, please join via this link: 

https://ksuhub.com/casfeb25

Film Review, Lectures, Performances, Student Conference.

Join us each day!

Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, Film Review, Lecture & Q&A 

Film Review - "We Were Here" - The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, exhibited in the Central Pavilion directed by Adriano Pedrosa at the 60ᵗʰ International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, sheds light on the overlooked presence of African and Black individuals in Renaissance Europe, highlighting their depiction in masterpieces by some of the era’s most celebrated artists. How did they come to Europe? Why were they portrayed? Were they truly all servants or slaves? If the Black faces portrayed in these Renaissance masterpieces could speak, what would they tell us? 

Date: Monday, March 17th

Time: 1:00pm - 3:00pm 

Location: Carmichael Student Center, University Rooms

For those unable to attend in person, please join via this link: 

https://ksuhub.com/casmarch17

Lola Okunola, Lecture, Q&A, Gallery Opening, Reception 

“Threads of Identity: African Textiles in Mixed Media.” Lecture & Gallery Opening, Reception. 

This exhibition by Lola Okunola showcases her vibrant mixed media art, inspired by the rich heritage of African fashion and culture. Using African textiles and prints, she creates captivating pieces that celebrate the diversity and unity of the Pan-African experience, blending tradition and contemporary expression. 

Date: Tuesday March 18th

Time: 11:00am-12:15pm 

Location: J.W. Wilson Building, Stillwell Theater

For those unable to attend in person, please join via this link: 

https://ksuhub.com/casmarch18 

The Center for Africana Studies presents Senegalese artist, singer, poetess, songwriter and music producer, T.I.E. focusing on her research in experiential discovery questioning the function of the notion of gender in the balance of power in society, and Senegalese art and culture. Performance, Lecture & Q&A 

For This performance, T.I.E., has chosen to address traumatic memories and the dynamics of domination by using "ritual as a bond, action as ritual," that “invites us to invest a gesture with an intention and questions our presence in the world in connection with our environment”. 

Date: Wednesday, March 19th

Time: 12:00pm-2:00pm (12:30-1:45,

Location: Prillaman Hall Indoor Plaza HS1001) or JW Wilson Building, Stillwell Theater (Tentative)

For those unable to attend in person, please join via this link: 

https://ksuhub.com/casmarch19 

BLCK Student Research and Community Engagement Conference 2025 

Theme: “Black Studies: Where Knowledge Meets Joy” 

Keynote Address: Dr. Chika Unigwe, Georgia College & State University  

Date: Thursday, March 20th

Time: 11:00am – 12:15pm  

Location: ALC2106

For those unable to attend in person, please join via this link: 

https://ksuhub.com/casmarch20 

Center for Africana Studies Annual Cultural Festival, “Celebrating the Ties that Bind” 

Join us this year as we celebrate and honor the cultural connections between Africa & the Diaspora. Enjoy a “Taste of the Diaspora” by feasting on featured appetizers!  And visit vendors providing a wide variety of goods & services available for purchase! 

Performing this year: African dance & drumming instructor, Samba Diallo, AYOKA PRODUCTION. Performance, lecture & Q&A. 

We hope to see you there!  

Date: Thursday, April 17th 

Time:  12:00pm-3:00pm 

Location: Carmichael Student Center University Rooms 

Dr. Chika Unigwe’s “On Black Sisters’ Street” Book Club  

On Black Sisters’ Street tells the haunting story of four very different women who have left their African homeland for the riches of Europe—and who are thrown together by bad luck and big dreams into a sisterhood that will change their lives. Raw, vivid, unforgettable, and inspired by a powerful oral storytelling tradition, this novel illuminates the dream of the West—and that dream’s illusion and annihilation—as seen through African eyes. It is a story of courage, unity, and hope, of women’s friendships and of bonds that, once forged, cannot be broken. “Powerful….The author’s raw voice, unflinching eye for 

Date: Wednesday, April 23rd

Time: 11:00am-1:00pm - Dr. Unigwe joins the discussion, 12:00pm – 1:00pm 

Location: ALC 5104 

For those unable to attend in person, please join via this link: 

https://ksuhub.com/casapril23