Blackness When You Least Expect It!

Evanston Public Library is partnering with the Alice Kaplan Humanities Institute at Northwestern on a series of three lectures related to African American culture. The first lecture, "Blackness When You Least Expect It: Understanding Racial Diversity in the 21st Century", will take place on Tuesday, October 8 at 7PM in the Community Room of the Main Library. The lecturer is Dr. Michelle M. Wright, Associate Professor of Black European and African Diaspora Studies.

According to Dr. Wright, "We tend to treat Blackness as if it were a "thing", or a "what", even though there is no such thing as a Black "gene", nor is there one thing that links all Black people exclusively to one another across the globe...Blackness simply isn't a useful or insightful identity for most Black Africans who live outside the West." She will discuss the odd yet obvious role time and space play in our assumptions about and engagement with racial identities, especially Blackness.

Throughout the upcoming year, the Evanston Public Library will honor African American contributions to the American landscape. The Humanities Institute is proud to participate in this endeavor with three prominent guest speakers, including Michelle Wright, Huey Copeland (in March 2014) and Darlene Clark Hine (in April 2014).