Black History Month 2023 — February 1 – 28, 2023

BHCC Library and Learning Commons

Explore the collections from the BHCC Library that honors and celebrates the achievements by African Americans and the important role of Blacks in U.S. history. See the expanded LibGuides: Educational Resources for Teaching and Learning.

BHCC Museum Partnerships with related Current Exhibits

Learn more about the BHCC Museum pass program. 

Museum of Science
Black History Month Celebration Weekend, February 4 – 5, 2023
Join in for a weekend of cultural connections!

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Stacy Lynn Waddell: Home House, Through February 7, 2023
American artist, Waddell, explores the storytelling power of portraits and how society articulates its values and social hierarchies visually through portraiture. She focuses on the correspondence between art historical narratives and economic, political, and social structures, probing the contradictions and misperceptions of American culture through the allegory of her own personal story.

Museum of African American History
Selections from the Collection
With over 3,000 items accrued over fifty years, Selections from the Collection features samples of the museum’s historical artifacts and art collection providing a lens unique to the narrative of African-descended people, places and events in America.

Jubilee, Juneteenth & Thirteenth
February 1 – 28, 2023
A documentary screening showing throughout the month highlighting the historical context, significance, and often overlooked influences of Boston’s Black community in moving America’s trajectory toward freedom and equality that led to the abolition of slavery in the U.S.

No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era
February 15, 2023, 12 p.m.
Book reading and discussion on author and award-winning historian Dr. Jacqueline Jones’ new book hosted by award-winning historian and Historian-In-Residence at MAAH, Dr. Kerri Greenidge author of The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family.

Institute of Contemporary Art
To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood, Through February 26, 2023
Sweeping survey of 20th and 21st –century art featuring works by Nijideka Akunyili Crosby, Francis Allys, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jordan Castel, Paul Klee, Glenn Ligon, Oscar Murillo, Faith Ringgold, and more. This exhibition features an international and intergenerational group of 40 artists whose works in painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and video offer distinctive viewpoints and experiences.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Frank Bowling’s Americas, Through April 9, 2023
British Guiana-born artist Bowling’s first exhibition dedicated to the transformative years he spent in the U.S., and the first major survey of his work by an American institution in more than four decades. The exhibition brings together a range of Bowling’s powerful works in the country of their making. It offers an essential contribution to a more cross-cultural and global understanding of modern art.

Touching Roots: Black Ancestral Legacies in the Americas, Through May 21, 2023
This exhibition traces narratives of Blackness across the Atlantic world by bringing together work from artists who absorbed and reinterpreted African artistic practices, sacred customs, and cultural expressions.

Black Power in Print – Beyond the Gallery, Image Gallery
In the late 1960s and ‘70s the Black Power movement utilized graphic imagery to promote its political platform and communicate the Black experience to broad communities. The images tell fragments of the story.

Art of Africa and Oceania Permanent Collection, Benin Kingdom Gallery
From shrine figures to palace pillars to historic men’s masks, the permanent collection of art includes important works from the 16th to 21st century that span two continents including bronze altarpieces, relief plaques, and regalia from the Kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria which are the subject of global debate.

The Mary L. Fifield Art Gallery, Bunker Hill Community College, Charlestown Campus
See! Historias Mezcaldas – Eduin Fraga – Mixed Stories
Experience the powerful storytelling of these immersive and biographical collage-paintings that reflect the dignity, humanity, and creativity of regular people in both Cuba and beyond. Reflect on the tensions between lived realities and hegemonic narratives that are explored through the works’ dynamic images, compelling narratives, and collective memories. Share in the complex lives and tangible experiences detailed in remarkably unembellished depictions of our contemporary realities.

Art asks us to – Experience. Reflect. Share.

Wednesday, February 1  |  6 p.m.
Embracing King’s Legacy

Engage with the mission and objectives of Embrace Boston, the vision of The Embrace Memorial, Embrace Ideas, and the new Center for Economic Justice. Q & A to follow the presentation.

Welcome by Denise Turner, Manager, the Office of College Events and Cultural Planning

Facilitated by Camila de la Vega Maldonado, Executive Manager & Special Projects, Embrace Boston

Join by Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85606213523?pwd=dVNSRDFBMFV5UEsvazgrUlBXM2k3dz09 
Meeting ID: 856 0621 3523
Passcode: 004409
Dial by location: +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 856 0621 3523
Passcode: 004409

Thursday, February 2  |  6 p.m.
Legacy of Love

A 30-minute documentary about MLK, Jr. and Coretta Scott King produced by Roberto Mighty. Join in on this watch party and conversation with the Boston filmmaker, as this documentary brings to light the mostly unknown story of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott’s formative years in 1950s Boston, where they met as students, fell in love and started on their journey toward becoming iconic leaders in the civil rights movement. Film introduction by Roberto. Q & A will follow after the screening.

Welcome by Denise Turner, Manager, the Office of College Events and Cultural Planning

Facilitated by Roberto Mighty, MFA, Founder and Principal of Celestial Media LLC

Join by Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82795854612?pwd=dHF2aGNDbmk5dXpaRGNNK3llT0NuQT09 
Meeting ID: 827 9585 4612
Passcode: 549837
Dial by location: +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 827 9585 4612
Passcode: 549837

Thursday, February 9  |  6 p.m.
Eduin Fraga – Mixed Stories – The Art of Resistance and Resilience

Welcome back Cuban-born contemporary artist Eduin Fraga and experience the powerful storytelling of his immersive and biographical collage-paintings still on view in the Mary L. Fifield Art Gallery that reflect the dignity, humanity and creativity of regular people in both Cuba and beyond. Reflect on the tensions between lived realities and hegemonic narratives that are explored through the works’ dynamic images, compelling narratives, and collective memories and share in the complex lives and tangible experiences detailed in remarkably unembellished depictions of our contemporary realities.

Welcome by Kevin Wery, Senior Director, the Office of College Events and Cultural Planning

Remarks by Professors Carlos Maynard, Behavioral Science Department and Julio Flores, Chairperson, Visual Media Arts Department

Sponsored by Visual Media Arts Department and the Mary L. Fifield Art Gallery 

Join by Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84733478045?pwd=RWVMbWM5MkFvczdSMUdqOXovSXhnZz09 
Meeting ID: 847 3347 8045
Passcode: 832735
Join by Phone: +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 847 3347 8045
Passcode: 832735

Tuesday, February 14  |  6 p.m.
Analysis of Dr. King’s ‘Beloved Community’ in Relation to the 21st Century Social Reality

Join author and BHCC Professor George Walters-Sleyon as he explores Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s argument and analysis in his book: Search for the Beloved Community. In it, he describes a social reality in the United States and the world that de-emphasizes the focus on race as the fundamental lens through which human beings are perceived. On the one hand, he provides a deconstruction of a racial consciousness as central to the United States socio-political, legal, economic, and religious engagements. On the other hand, he advances the argument for a community of simply human beings engaging one another as human beings.

Presenter Dr. George Walters-Sleyon, Adjunct Professor, Behavioral Science Department

Remarks by Denise Turner, Manager, the Office of College Events and Cultural Planning

Sponsored by the Division of Behavioral, Social Sciences & Global Learning

Join by Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89312660292?pwd=UklzcWpFaHlsYjhZYVdiSExudnI5Zz09 
Meeting ID: 893 1266 0292
Passcode: 644436
Dial by location: +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 893 1266 0292
Passcode: 644436

Thursday, February 16  |  6 p.m.
Whose Imagination Created You?
Ancestors in the Archives featuring "Guess Which Ancestor"
Series 1 of 3

Welcome back facilitator, author and multi-hyphenated creative Julia Mallory, who will examine the possibilities of working in (and against) private and public archives. This first session of a three-part series, will feature a demonstration of "Guess Which Ancestor," a teaching tool created by the guest artist that uses elements of gamification to explore genealogy and family folklore. Q & A to follow the presentation.

Facilitated by Julia Mallory, Founder of the creative literary arts brand, Black Mermaids
Welcome by Denise Turner, Manager, the Office of College Events and Cultural Planning
Sponsored by the Office of College Events and Cultural Planning

Join by Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87273079750?pwd=SXJqMUlvODJhZEZlK3pTclRjVnY3QT09 
Meeting ID: 872 7307 9750
Passcode: 082245
Dial by location: +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 872 7307 9750
Passcode: 082245

Thursday, February 23 |  1 p.m.
The Journey Forward: Where Do We Go From Here?

The Journey Forward looks to explore education in the United States from a historical lens. The trials and tribulations enslaved peoples faced, to integration efforts, and now modern challenges and barriers. Come explore education as it relates to African Americans and learn about where we go from here! The keynote speaker, Dean of Africana Studies at the Berklee College of Music, Dr. Emmett G. Price III, will lead this engaging discussion along with guest panelists, renowned therapist, mental health advisor and best-selling author, Celeste Viciere, BHCC Academic Advisor, Ashlee Owens, Associate Director of the HOPE Initiative, Misael Carrasquillo, and Executive Director and Chief of Police, Robert Barrows.

C202 Lecture Hall – This is an in-person event.

Sponsored by the HOPE Initiative, the Office of College Events and Cultural Planning, and the Office of Student Activities