February is Black History Month, but why not celebrate it all year? Check your local listings for specific locations and times.
General Web sites
Resource guide to black history and culture from the Library of Congress
Collection from the Library of Congress that highlights rare books, government documents, maps, musical scores, plays, etc
African American ancestry records can be accessed for free over any three days in February
Association of African American Museums
A listing of museums focused on African American history, art, and culture
Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
Read about the founders of Black History Month and their work
Series from the Washington Post that explores one black man’s experience in U.S. society today
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Nonprofit, community-based social service and civil rights organization
Comprehensive listing of walking tours, museums, and events in the U.S., the Caribbean, and internationally
UK Events
For events and news features, please click here
U.S. Events, Celebrations, Exhibits
ALABAMA
Birmingham
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Sixth Annual Mardi Gras Celebration
February 20, 2007
Mobile
Mardi Gras 2007
Mobile Bay is one of the first-known Mardi Gras celebrations in North America
February 20, 2007
CALIFORNIA
Berkeley
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
This production promotes the uniqueness of the African American cultural experience and the preservation and enrichment of the American modern dance
Zellerbach Hall, University of California, Berkeley
February 28–March 4, 2007
Los Angeles
15th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival
Magic Johnson Theatres and the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza
February 8–19, 2007
San Francisco
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, a play by August Wilson
The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre
February 1–25, 2007
COLORADO
Denver
Denver Museum of Art
Traveling Exhibition: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend
April 13, 2007–July 6, 2008
Steamboat Springs
National Brotherhood of Skiers Summit
February 24–March 3, 2007
FLORIDA
Fort Lauderdale
Sistrunk Historical Parade and Festival-in-the-Park
27th Annual Parade
February 24, 2007
GEORGIA
Atlanta
ATL Blues Festival
Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center
February 24, 2007
I Have a Dream Exhibit: The Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection
Through May 13, 2007
ILLINOIS
Chicago
Joe Turner’s Come And Gone, by Congo Square Theatre Company
Through February 18, 2007
INDIANA
Indianapolis
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Everything Is Separated by Water
February 25–June 3, 2007
LOUISIANA
New Orleans
The “official” Mardi Gras
Events throughout the entire month of February
July 5–7, 2007
MARYLAND
Baltimore
Meditation on African Art: Light
Through April 1, 2007
Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture
MASSACHUSETTS
Amherst
Interrupted Life: Incarcerated Mothers in the US
Harold Johnson Library, Art Gallery, Hampshire College
Through March 2, 2007
Boston and Nantucket
Museum of African American History
MICHIGAN
Detroit
The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
Black history month events through February 28, 2007
Detroit and Ann Arbor
Sphinx10! The 10th Annual Sphinx Competition
Classical music competition for Black and Latino youth
MISSOURI
Kansas City
St. Louis
February 2–20, 2007
Black History Heritage Month
Exhibit: Dred Scott: Legacy of Courage
A month long program at the Old Courthouse and Gateway Arch
March 3, 2007–March 2, 2008
NEW YORK
New York City
Jazz and Art
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Rose Theater
February 22–24, 2007
Black Women Behind the Lens, a tribute to films directed by black women
Film Society at Lincoln Center
Walter Reader Theater
See Separate Cinema for more information
See Web site for traveling exhibitions
New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War
November 17, 2006–September 3, 2007
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
New York Public Library
Ongoing programs and exhibits
Queens
Ongoing exhibits and tours
OHIO
Cincinnati
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Columbus
Textural Rhythms: Constructing the Jazz Tradition
Quilt exhibition
The King Arts Complex
February 8–March 31, 2007
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia
African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP)
Lecture: “A Conversation with Black Women Writers”
March 24, 2007
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs
The Franklin Institute Science Museum
TENNESSEE
Memphis
Ongoing events
Stax Museum of American Soul Music
TEXAS
Fort Worth
Crumbs from the Table of Joy, by Lynn Nottage
Through February 25, 2007
Houston
Sam Gilliam: A Retrospective
Through May 6, 2007
VERMONT
Middlebury
Resonance from the Past: African Sculpture from the New Orleans Museum of Art
Middlebury College Museum of Art
September 14–December 10, 2007
VIRGINIA
Fredericksburg
The United States National Slavery Museum
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
National Museum of African Art
Smithsonian Institution
Two Hundred Years of Black Paper Dolls
The Anacostia Community Museum
Through April 29, 2007
WASHINGTON
Seattle
Rainier Valley Cultural Center
Black History Month Film Festival
Through February 23, 2007
Television and Film
Note: Check local listings.
Black Entertainment Television (BET.com):
- Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel
- “One Night Only Marathon”: Reality docu-soap: Six New Orleans high school kids and their drama teacher race to mount (what does this mean?) the “Dreamgirls” play in the aftermath and the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina
- The MC: This is why we do it
- Black & Blue: Legends of the Hip-Hop Cop
- The Art of 16 Bars
HBO (hbo.com):
- Bastards of the Party. Former Bloods gang member Cle “Bone” Sloan looks at the history of Black gangs in Los Angeles
- When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Spike Lee’s documentary on Hurricane Katrina
- Ithuteng (Never Stop Learning)
History Channel:
- A Distant Shore: African Americans of D-Day
- Digging for the Truth—Ramses: Visions of Greatness
- Egyptian Warfare
PBS (pbs.org):
- Independent Lens—Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
- Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change
- The Story of Oscar Brown, Jr.
PBS Encore Presentations:
- Deford Bailey: A Legend Lost
- African American Lives
- America Beyond the Color Line with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- American Experience “Eyes on the Prize”
- Fannie Lou Hamer: Courage And Faith
- Point of View “Chisholm ‘72—Unbought & Unbossed”
- Slavery and the Making of America
