Trending
PITTSBURGH -- The Smithsonian-affiliated Senator John Heinz History Center interprets and preserves African American history and culture year-round through a variety of events and exhibitions curated by the museum's African American Program.
In recognition of Black History Month, the African American Program of the Heinz History Center will present a series of programs throughout February:
• From Slavery to Freedom Film Series: "Through a Lens Darkly," 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Feb. 15. Presented as a virtual program as part of the From Slavery to Freedom Film Series, "Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People" explores the role of photography in shaping the identity, aspirations and social emergence of African Americans, from slavery to today.
Deborah Willis, photo historian and author of "Reflections in Black," which the film is based upon, will join the broadcast following the screening to discuss the film. Willis is a professor and chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of Art at New York University. She is a recipient of the MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships. The series is presented by the history center's African American Program and is supported by Highmark and Allegheny Health Network. Admission to the virtual program is free with advance registration.
• 10th-annual Black History Month Lecture: "Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration" with Nicole Fleetwood, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 21, at the center.
Presented by the history center's African American Program, this in-person lecture led by NYU professor and MacArthur Fellow Nicole Fleetwood will discuss how art can heal and humanize in the age of mass incarceration. More than 2 million people are behind bars in the United States. According to Fleetwood, incarceration not only separates the imprisoned from their families and communities, but it exposes them to deprivation, abuse and arbitrary cruelties of the criminal justice system. Despite that, many of America's prisons are filled with art. Despite the isolation and degradation they may experience, the incarcerated are driven to assert their humanity in the face of a system that dehumanizes them. As a writer, curator, art critic and author of the award-winning "Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration," Fleetwood will reveal her unique perspective on how the imprisoned use art to express the visual culture of incarceration and its current impact on contemporary art. Fleetwood's lecture will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience and a book signing. This program is presented with the support from Carnegie Mellon University.
To purchase tickets to Black History Month programs, visit heinzhistorycenter.org/events.
In addition to Black History Month programming, African American history is on display daily inside the history center's six floors of exhibitions, including the award-winning From Slavery to Freedom exhibition, which explores more than 250 years of African American history in Western Pennsylvania. The long-term exhibit highlights the enslavement of Africans and its effect on the American economy, the history of the anti-slavery movement, the Underground Railroad and the impact of 19th-century activism on the modern quest for civil and human rights in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation exhibition honors several African Americans who made trailblazing breakthroughs, including Dr. Velma Scantlebury, the nation's first African American woman transplant surgeon and student of UPMC's late Dr. Thomas Starzl.