UR to mark Black History Month with arts festival, guest speakers, poetry reading and other events

The University of Richmond will celebrate Black History Month during February with a variety of events, including an arts festival, talks about sit-ins and blacks in the Civil War, readings of original reflections written by students, faculty and staff, and performances by university groups. All events are open to the public.

The month kicks off Feb. 2 with a dinner in Heilman Dining Center from 4 to 8 p.m., featuring performances by student groups at 6 p.m. Cost of dinner is $9.50 for the public.

The month’s events continue with the following:

• Feb. 4, 7 p.m., Weinstein Hall, Brown-Alley Room, “How the Sit-ins Changed America: A 50th Anniversary Retrospective,” Andy Lewis, former Richmond faculty member and author of “Shadows of Youth – The Remarkable Journey of the Civil Rights Generations.”
• Feb. 11, 7 p.m., UR Downtown, 626 E. Broad St., viewing of PBS documentary “Locked Out,” followed by discussion about massive resistance.
• Feb. 19, 12:30 p.m., Weinstein Hall, Brown-Alley Room, Brown Bag discussion, “The Mortgage Crisis, Communities of Color and the Ways Forward,” with a panel of community leaders.
• Feb. 20, 4-8 p.m., Tyler Haynes Commons, lower level, Black Student Alliance Arts Festival, with vendors; performances by D-Squad, a student hip-hop dance and step group, and Umoja Gospel Choir; a hip-hop violinist; and other activities; followed at 9 p.m. by “Tuesday Versus Poetry Night,” sponsored by the Multicultural Student Union.
• Feb. 21, 2 p.m., Tyler Haynes Commons, Alice Haynes Room, “Fact or Fiction: The Active Involvement of Blacks in the Civil War,” with Harold Jones, curator of the Black Civil War Museum in Washington, D.C.
• Feb. 25, 7 p.m., Tyler Haynes Commons, Rooms 305 and 310, Black Identity Monologues, written by University students, faculty and staff about their own life stories and reflections.

For more information, call 804-289-8032.