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A Grammy-nominated Afro-Puerto Rican ensemble and an art exhibition featuring the latest work of a Moroccan-born artist will be among the fall programs at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.

A Grammy-nominated Afro-Puerto Rican ensemble and an art exhibition featuring the latest work of a Moroccan-born artist will be among the fall programs at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill center also will host international visiting fellows from the Instituto Universitario de Barlovento (IUB) of Venezuela for a weeklong residency that will include meetings on a proposed study abroad program. 

The center will present films and discussions that explore its fall semester theme, “Passion and Remembrance: Dislocation/Relocation/Diaspora (D/R/D).”  The films will highlight contemporary and historical movements of people and the conflicts that tend to define their daily lives. 

The center, founded in 1988, is dedicated to broadening the range of intellectual discourse about African diaspora cultures. The following programs will be free and open to the public in the center unless otherwise noted. For more information, call the center at (919) 962-9001.

Sept. 4-11, International Visiting Fellows, a one-week residency with Geronimo Sanchez and Alejandro Correa from the Instituto Universitario de Barlovento (IUB) of Venezuela. IUB is one of the few historically black universities in Venezuela. The fellows will participate in discussions of a proposed study abroad program and other joint educational projects. Those interested in the project or meeting with Sanchez or Correa should contact the center.

Sept. 16, 7 p.m. “My Name is Albert Ayler” (2005), part of the center’s ongoing Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film. The documentary chronicles the life of 1960s avant-garde jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, from his native Cleveland to Sweden and then to New York. 

Sept. 24, Noon, “Kwame” (2009), part of the center’s new Hekima Film Discussion series. An exiled Ghanaian deals with his feelings about living in exile in the United States after fleeing a coup in his own country.

Sept. 30, 7 p.m. “13 Months of Sunshine” (2007), part of the Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film. A young Ethiopian agrees to marry the cousin of a friend to help her acquire a green card to become a U.S. citizen. Conflict and passion ensue as the two grow closer during the naturalization process. 

Oct. 7, 7 p.m. The Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film continues with the screening of two films:

•     “The Neo African Americans” (2009). An upward trend in black migration from other countries to the United States urges an aspiring filmmaker to examine the meaning of the term “African-American.” This compelling documentary rouses important and timely dialogue about identity, culture, race, geography, America and the global movement of African peoples.

•    “Ladylike” (2008). Two black women, one Muslim and the other secular, initially see each other as the antithesis of a proper woman. Through an incident involving one of them, they learn there is not only common ground between them, but fertile ground for building a friendship.

“Juxtapositions,” from the Hamid Kachmar exhibition
Oct. 8 – Dec. 4 “Dislocation/Relocation/Diaspora: The Art of Hamid Kachmar,”
a mixed-media art exhibit featuring work by Moroccan-born artist Kachmar. He combines techniques such as weaving and woodcarving with physical materials including goatskin and silkscreen to create multi-faceted pieces.  A free opening reception will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 8 in the center’s Robert and Sallie Brown Gallery and Museum. The gallery will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays (closed University holidays).

LP21 Oct. 16, 7 p.m. Los Pleneros de la 21 (LP21), a Spanish Harlem-based ensemble that performs traditional Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance, will give a free performance in Memorial Hall’s Beasley-Curtis Auditorium. The Stone Center is hosting LP21 for a two-day residency to coincide with the Carolina Creative Campus Initiative, a yearlong University-wide project initiated by the Office of the Executive Director for the Arts. The 2009-10 Creative Campus Initiative will explore diasporas and examine ideas on migration, nationality and the politics of home. Check with the center at (919) 962-9001 about workshops with LP21.

Oct. 27, Noon “Us: A Love Story” (2009), part of the Hekima Film Discussion series. This short film, presented in flashbacks and dream sequences, examines the relationship of an interracial couple from a historical perspective and that of the current state of blacks and whites in America.

Nov. 5, 7 p.m. 17th annual Sonja Haynes Stone Memorial Lecture by Farai Chideya, Chideya is an author, journalist and cultural critic. Chideya formerly hosted National Public Radio’s “News and Notes,” a daily national program about African-American and African diaspora issues. She has written three books on race and ethnicity, including “The Color of Our Future: Race in the 21st Century” (Harper Perennial, 2000). A reception will follow the lecture.

Nov. 10, Noon “Performance” (2008), a short film that concludes the Hekima Film Discussion series.  An African-American journalist who writes about hip-hop reluctantly accepts an assignment to interview a retired black actor who played a stereotypical character in the mold of Stepin Fetchit.  In the process, she is forced to confront her notions about hip-hop images and her own professional image.

Nov. 12, 7 p.m. “Rain” (2008), concludes the Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film. A young Bahamian girl leaves her sheltered life on Ragged Island and sets sail to Nassau, where she hopes to reconcile with her mother who abandoned her years earlier. The life-changing journey leads the girl on a voyage of discovery. Tanya Shields, UNC assistant professor of women’s studies, will moderate a post discussion.  

Stone Center Web site: http://sonjahaynesstonectr.unc.edu/

Stone Center contact: Olympia Friday, (919) 962-7265 or ofriday@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589

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