News & Events

March 26, 2013

By Cathy Cockrell, NewsCenter | March 26, 2013 BERKELEY — There’s the joke about a fast-food-chain hire hunting high and low for something referred to in the employee manual as a “spatula.” And the one about paying Western Union $9 to send Michelle Obama $5 for her husband’s election campaign. As Edwin Okong’o knows firsthand, the immigrant experience includes “a lot of suffering,” but it’s also “a gold mine” for humor. Put fellow Africans “through the journey” again — whether as featured funnyman on the Africa Channel’s “Africa Laughs,” or as the night’s entertainment at an African-immigrant community event —…

March 12, 2013

Film - Documentary | March 14 | 6-8 p.m. | Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall (CITRIS) Sponsors: English Department, African American Studies Department, Geography Department, Townsend Center Panelists: Deborah Thomas (film director; Anthropology, UPenn); Nadia Ellis (English, Berkeley); Joshua Jelly Schapiro (Geography, Berkeley); Donald Moore (Anthropology, Berkeley) In 2011 renowned anthropologist and African Diaspora scholar Deborah Thomas co-directed Bad Friday, a film documenting a largely forgotten event in modern Jamaican history and the development of Rastafari culture. During the so-called Coral Gardens “incident” in 1963, Jamaica’s newly independent government rounded up, jailed, and tortured a large group of Rastafarians. Thomas…

March 12, 2013

By Sean Wagner-McGough | Staff It’s not everyday Isiah Thomas and Jason Kidd are in the same room. It happened on Sunday night though, right here at Cal. In Memorial Stadium, the two NBA greats lent their voices in an effort to raise money for the African American Studies department and the campus for the Renaissance Night Gala. While the two stars were tasked to speaking to the guests at the Gala, the two were made available to a shockingly small media gathering. Both their messages were simple throughout the gala: value your education. “We as athletes, celebrities, role-models —…

March 5, 2013

The Department of African American Studies presents a talk by visiting scholar   Heike Raphael-Hernandez University of Maryland University College, Europe / University of Potsdam, Germany    "Literate Agency: Black Caribbean Empowerment & 18th c. Moravian Church Mission Documents"   Discussant: Professor Ugo Nwokeji, Department of African American Studies Abstract: A letter written in 1739 to the Danish king, Christian VI., by enslaved Afro-Caribbean Moravians, in which they protest plantation owners’ continued harassment and mistreatment of their missionary work among fellow slaves… Interviews about their former daily lives back in Africa before their captivity… Letters of encouragement and greetings to…

February 20, 2013

Hip Hop artist Jinho "Piper" Ferreira plays 15 characters that show the intersections between law enforcement, the media, and the Black community.

February 14, 2013

Keynote speaker:  Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins Chief Executive Officer of Green For All   The theme for this year's graduation is: Proclaiming our Freedom: Paving the Way for a Better Black America. Student Speaker auditions begin Friday, May 10, 2013, 10:30–12:00pm 652 Barrows Hall For more information visit the Black Graduation page

February 13, 2013

February 13, 2013

UC Berkeley African American Department Honors Athlete Scholars Host: Marc Lamont Hill- Celebrity Personality Keynote Speaker: Isiah Thomas- NBA Hall of Famer Special Guests * Amar'e Stoudemire- New York Knicks * Shareef Abdur-Rahim- Former NBA Players & Sac Kings Asst Coach 6:00pm -Pre- Reception7:00pm- Dinner Program For more information contact D. R. Roberts Event Mgmt 510 654-5335 or email droberts@robertsevents.com

February 13, 2013

The schedule for the talks is below: * February 5 - Jordan Camp * February 12 - Simone Browne * February 19 - Nikki Jones * February 26 - Joao Vargas The topics are: Jordan Camp - Interpreting the Crisis: Race,Housing, and the Carceral Turn in Los Angeles Simone Browne - B(R)anding Blackness: BiometricTechnology and the Surveillance of Blackness Nikki Jones - "The camera rolls": What VideoRecords Can Teach Us About Routine EncountersBetween Young Black Men and the Police Joao Vargas - "War Theater: Police Operations and Sport Mega Events in Rio de Janeiro

February 13, 2013