For immediate use
UNC-Chapel Hill Sonja Haynes Stone Center to explore the life and legacy of Amiri Baraka with exhibition and symposium opening Sept. 16
(Chapel Hill, N.C.— Aug. 27, 2015) – The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will explore the life, work and legacy of playwright and activist Amiri Baraka with a special exhibition, “Meetings and Remarkable Journeys,” opening Sept. 16. The exhibit’s debut will be accompanied by a daylong symposium featuring film screenings and panel discussions on Sept. 17.
Baraka, born Everett LeRoi Jones, enjoyed a storied and sometimes controversial career as a playwright and literary figure as well as a political activist and cultural critic. His career serves as a chronicle of several literary and artistic movements, including the Black Arts Movement.
The exhibit, which will be on display through Nov. 30, will feature over 150 documents, photographs, publications and original drawings and paintings by Baraka. Opening night festivities will include a 6 p.m. reception followed by a screening of a filmed version of Baraka’s seminal 1964 drama, “Dutchman.” This explosive and deceptively nuanced play is widely acknowledged as a foundational work of the Black Arts Movement and literary figure Larry Neal credited it as the artistic and spiritual sister of the Black Power movement.
On Sept. 17, symposium screenings and discussions will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The speakers participating in symposium panels, which include Sonia Sanchez and Woodie King Jr., are drawn from a number of disciplines and have helped people understand the social history and cultural politics of the Black Arts Movement and Baraka’s place within that phenomenon through their own work.
The exhibition and symposium were made possible with support from a number of UNC-Chapel Hill departments, centers and institutes including the Center for the Study of the American South, the Department of Communication Studies, the Department of African, African American and Diaspora Studies, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the Department of Dramatic Art, the Institute for African American Research, the Department of Jazz Studies and the Stone Center Library. Additional sponsors include the Alden and Mary Kimbrough Collection in Los Angeles, California, the Friends of the Robert and Sallie Brown Gallery and Museum and the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History.
All exhibition and symposium activities are free and open to the public. To RSVP or for more information on the exhibition or symposium, including a full participant line-up, call (919) 962-9001, email stonecenter@unc.edu or visit http://sonjahaynesstonectr.unc.edu/.
-Carolina-
About the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation’s first public university, is a global higher education leader known for innovative teaching, research and public service. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, Carolina regularly ranks as the best value for academic quality in U.S. public higher education. Now in its third century, the University offers 78 bachelor’s, 112 master’s, 68 doctorate and seven professional degree programs through 14 schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. Every day, faculty, staff and students shape their teaching, research and public service to meet North Carolina’s most pressing needs in every region and all 100 counties. Carolina’s more than 308,000 alumni live in all 50 states and 150 countries. More than 167,000 live in North Carolina.
Stone Center contact: Clarissa Goodlett, (919) 962-9001, cgoodlet@email.unc.edu
Communications and Public Affairs contact: MC VanGraafeiland, (919) 962-7090, mc.vangraafeiland@unc.edu