Friday, February 22nd
The Hate You Give Brower Park Library, 725 St. Marks Ave., 3:30-5:30pm, FREE. Amandla Stenberg won the 2018 Breakout Performance Award given by the African-American Critics Association for her performance in this film. She plays Starr Carter, a 16-year-old Black girl who lives in the fictional Black neighborhood of Garden Heights but attends a white school, Williamson Prep. Her already-complex world is turned upside down by a tragedy that gives birth to the activist inside.
Saturday, February 23rd
Black History Month Program Magnolia Tree Earth Center, 677 Lafayette Ave., 2-9pm, FREE. Join 500 Men Making A Difference for this celebratory afternoon and evening. The program features live performances, food and fun, including a lecture, “Revolution or Reform,” by Assemblyman Charles Barron, Black history displays, yoga, dinner and networking. For information contact 917-297-2365.
Brooklyn Poetry Workshop & Slam Brownsville Heritage House, 581 Mother Gaston Blvd., 6-10pm, $5 suggested donation (no one turned away). Join Green Earth Poets Cafe for this annual Black History Month event where the grand prize slam-winner will go home with $100. Workshop teacher and host is the poet Definition. DJ Namibia will be on the ones and twos and the evening features special musical guest Dizzy SenSe and poet Mecca Verdell. Lite fare provided, stay for free raffle for cash and prizes.
Sunday, February 24th
What Mongrel-Baby? The Dwyer Center, 258 St. Nicholas Ave., Manhattan, 3-6pm, $20 in advance, $25 @ the door, reception included. Enjoy this intimate, rehearsed and staged reading of a sure-to-be-intriguing play by the great Je franklin. In it, a baby whose “race” is questionable, is threatened with removal from a Colored village. Directed by Eric Coleman, the play features Stephen Gleason and Sandra Reeves-Phillips and introduces Nyae Lewis as Margie. Also featuring the Aesop Spitters and poets Anoush Ter Taulian. Presented by The Race Aid Project, an Art-centric Model for Dialogue on Race. Tickets at Eventbrite.
Tuesday, February 26th
Vote for NYC Public Advocate Your neighborhood polling place, 6am-9pm, absolutely FREE! Do your civic duty and get to the polls for this special to fill the seat vacated when Brooklyn’s Letitia James won her bid for Attorney General. The Public Advocate presides over City Council meetings, can conduct investigations into complaints against agencies and can introduce legislation, but not vote on such. The Public Advocate is also next in line of succession to the mayor. There are 17 candidates running. Do your research.
Wednesday, February 27th
12 Years of Freedom Weeksville Heritage Center, 158 Buffalo Ave., from 6-9pm, FREE. Join in a special Black History Month event sponsored by Council member Robert E. Cornegy, Jr. and the NYC Commission on Human Rights, with support from Carver Federal Savings Bank. Attendees are invited to consider the time between President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the beginning of Jim Crow. Featuring a panel discussion and performances courtesy of Green Earth Poets Cafe, Vibe Theater, the Noel Pointer Foundation and the Dwana Smallwood Performing Arts Center. Reserve your ticket at Eventbrite.
Sister in Selma Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration, 1360 Fulton St., 6-8:30pm, FREE. Join the Brooklyn NAACP at their February general membership meeting and enjoy this brief one-act play with music inspired by Sister Mary Antona Ebo’s March in Selma, Alabama in 1965. Written by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj and directed by Adam Mace, the inspiring and absorbing play features actor Teisha Duncan. [RSVP at brooklynnaacp.org]
Race Macon Library, 361 Lewis Ave., 4-6pm, FREE. See this film based on the incredible true story of Jesse Owens, the legendary athletic superstar whose quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler’s vision of Aryan supremacy. Race is an enthralling film about courage, determination, tolerance and friendship.
Thursday, February 28th
Mondo Tragic National Black Theater, 2031 5th Ave., Manhattan, 7:30pm, $20. This play, written by Eric Micha Holmes and directed by Miranda Haymon, investigates how shockumentaries (or “mondo” films) from the 60s and 70s shaped a biracial man’s racial journey. When the lead character becomes captivated by the prospect of documenting the life of a public figure, he is forced to reckon with memory and fantasy, film and documentary, and Blackness and Africanness. Playing through March 3rd. Tickets at ovationtix.com.
Friday, March 1st
Afrikan Spirit Awards Founders Auditorium, Medgar Evers College, 1650 Bedford Ave., 6:30-10pm, $20, students and elders, $10. The People of the Sun Collective and the Medgar Evers College Student Government and Women’s Center presents this Black History Month and Women’s History Month event. Honored will be Habte Selassie, activist and WBAI-FM Radio host, poet Ras Osagyefo and Dr. Iola Thompson, a recent and longtime dance instructor at the college. For information call 718-659-4999.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Thursday, March 7th
The Feature Is Female Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont St., 6:30-8pm (doors at 6, seating is first-come, first-served), FREE. Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed by filmmaker Shola Lynch will be introduced by City Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo for the first of four screenings of documentaries about inspiring women presented in honor of Women’s History Month. Follow Shirley Chisholm’s pioneering 1972 presidential bid.
Friday, March 15th
Women of Color Political Conference Brooklyn College Student Center, 2900 Bedford Ave., 9am-4pm, FREE. Breakfast and lunch will be provided at this event hosted by Women of Color at Brooklyn College and The Shirley Chisholm Project. The conference, which encourages women to be politically active and civically engaged, will feature keynote speakers, panel discussions and workshops. Attendees must RSVP at Eventbrite to be allowed entry.
Saturday, March 23rd
Playwrights and Screenwriters at the Crossroads Founders Auditorium, Medgar Evers College, 1650 Bedford Ave., 11am-6pm, $20, seniors, students and faculty (from ALL schools & colleges), $5 w/ID. Panelists Ifa Bayeza, Ladee Hubbard and Keith Josef Adkins speak on the theme of the 2019 National Black Writers Conference Biennial Symposium. What are the challenges, subjects and processes for getting the published written word from one medium to the other? How do racial politics influence not only literary writing, but also playwriting and screenwriting? Tickets at Eventbrite.