All Events
Cup of Culture Series
OffCenter
MCC Theater
OffCenter is an experimental documentary emphasizing the attitudes and experiences of unconventional African American, Latinx, LGBTQ people in Texarkana, a twin city in East Texas and Arkansas. It explores the racial, sexual, and gender identity of five main interviewees rebelling against Southern conservatism. OffCenter portrays the existence of marginalized people, their encounters with racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and internalized oppression. Post-film discussion with the director Aylin Sözen, and cinematographer Cesar Jaralillo to follow. 1h 18m
Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women E. Patrick Johnson
MCC Theater
E. Patrick Johnson is the chair of African American Studies, Carlos Montezuma Professor of Performance Studies, and African American Studies at Northwestern University. As a scholar and artist, Johnson performs nationally and internationally and has published widely in the areas of race, gender, sexuality, and performance. Johnson’s performance work dovetails with his written work; this performance/staged reading is based off his latest nonfiction text titled Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women.
Diversity Lecture Series
'Fros, Berets, and Leather: The Revolutionary Solidarity of the Young Lords Johanna Fernandez
MCC Theater
Johanna Fernández is the author of The Young Lords: A Radical History (UNC Press, February 2020), a history of the Puerto Rican counterpart to the Black Panther Party. She teaches 20th Century US history and the history of social movements in the Department ofHistory at Baruch College (CUNY).
Resilient Love Series
From “The Central Park Five” to “The Exonerated Five” Yusef Salaam
Corwin Pavilion
On April 19, 1989, a young woman was brutally raped in New York City’s Central Park. Five boys—four black and one Latino—were unjustly and wrongly convicted of the crime in a frenzied case that rocked the city. Decades later, the convictions of the boys, now men, were eventually overturned and they were exonerated. One of those boys, Yusef Salaam, was only 15 years old when his life was upended and changed forever. Since his release, Yusef has committed himself to advocating and educating people on the issues of false confessions, police brutality and misconduct, press ethics and bias, race and law, and the disparities in America’s criminal justice system.
