Safe Spaces and Diverse Faces!

Here are some events coming up that would be great for some IRC representation!


"In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era"

Friday, February 20th at 4pm Room 758 Schermerhorn Extension

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC


with

Richard Iton, Associate Professor, African American Studies and Political Science-Northwestern University

Speaker Bio

Richard Iton is Associate Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Northwestern University. He is the winner of the 2001 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book award and the 2000 Best Book Award on the Social, Cultural, and Ideological Construction of Race from the American Political Science Association for Solidarity Blues: Race, Culture, and the American Left . Iton (Solidarity Blues) examines the link between black popular culture and black politics, the symbiosis between creative artist and political activist in the post?civil rights era. From Cold War era artists and activists (Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry) to Amiri Baraka; from Ella Fitzgerald to Erykah Badu; Dizzy Gillespie to Nas; Richard Pryor to Chris Rock? Iton traces cultural and political developments, engaging with novelists, filmmakers, musicians, standup comedians and visual artists. Always attentive to the dynamics of sexuality, gender and race roles, Iton's work possesses the depth of wide reading in modernist theory and the breadth of wide-open eyes and ears for the popular. Gargantuan sentences coupled with current critical jargon may deter the general reader, but specialists in popular culture, African-American studies, political science and American studies will find Iton's argument that political intention adheres to every cultural production challenging, illuminating and groundbreaking. For both lay reader and academician, it may well compel a revision of our notions of the political.

Thursday, February 19
Columbia Water Center Seminar: Will China Run Out Of Water?
Speaker: Chunmiao Zheng, Professor of Hydrogeology; SSPA Faculty Fellow; 2009 Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer, University of Alabama
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.
Location: Columbia University, Morningside Campus, 924 Seeley W. Mudd Building
Contact: Columbia Water Center, watercenter@columbia.edu or call (212) 851-5695
RSVP: Register
Wednesday, February 18
Millennium Villages Student Research Showcase
Speakers: Various
Time: 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Location: Columbia University, Morningside Campus, Alfred Lerner Hall, Room 555
Contact: Scott Andrews, sandrews@ei.columbia.edu or call (212) 854-1298

Freedom School Presents: Special Guest Speaker
Ebony Kirkland
Founder of Money School Tanzania

Join us Monday, Feb. 23 as we welcome our first guest speaker of the year, Ms. Ebony Kirkland, founder of Money School Tanzania in Dar Es Salaam. Ebony was born in Brooklyn and grew up in the Bronx. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a Master's in Education. Seeking a career path rooted in social justice, she took her life savings and went to Tanzania to found a school, uncertain of exactly what she would find there. Upon arriving, she helped her students use education as a means to think critically and address the issues facing their communities. A question and answer period will be followed by a general discussion, and as always food will be provided.

Monday, February 23rd 6:00PM

IRC Conference Room

552 W. 114th Street

Food will be provided.