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From insight on Santa Clara County’s Black pioneers to a discussion on how African American music has impacted the world, numerous Midpeninsula groups have organized several events that aim to educate the community in celebration of Black History Month. Read on for a list of virtual events all through February:
To mark Black History Month, Menlo College hosts an online conversation with Dr. Clarence Jones, scholar in residence at the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University and founding director the University of San Francisco Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice. Jones discusses social justice in the time of Black Lives Matter, particularly in the realm of higher education, and the lessons to be learned from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The event is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 11, 5:15 p.m. For more information, go to blog.menlo.edu.
The Palo Alto City Library is celebrating Black History Month and its 2021 theme “The Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity” with themed storytimes, anti-racist resources connected with its Palo Alto Reads program and, of course, book, film and music recommendations. These library resources are available year-round. For more information, go to library.cityofpaloalto.org.
The Redwood City Public Library is offering a series of themed virtual events including community storytimes, an African dance class (scheduled for Friday, Feb. 13) and more to come throughout February. For more information, go to redwoodcity.org.
Curieus is hosting virtual conversations with African American scientists. One with Dr. Odette Harris, director of brain injury care and a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford, is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 13 at 10 a.m. She made history in 2018 when she became America’s first Black female tenured professor of neurosurgery. Another event with Stanford engineering professor Dr. Kunle Olukotun, who is known as the “father of the multi-core processor,” is set for Saturday, Feb. 20 at 11 a.m. For more information, go to curieus.org/events.
The Menlo Park Library is hosting a virtual presentation by the Museum of the African Diaspora titled “Early Black Family Photos.” Docents from the museum will share photographs of Black families in the United States from the mid-19th century to early 20th century, discussing esthetics, cultural context and the capacity of photography in forming social representation. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 16, 3-4 p.m. For more information, go to menlopark.org.
Stanford’s Envisioning the Future of Teacher Education Speaker Series features professor Marcelle Haddix for a talk that explores Black-centered remembrances in teaching and teacher education from the past, present and future in a Zoom presentation. The event will be held Wednesday, Feb. 17, at noon. For more information, go to ed.stanford.edu.
The Santa Clara County Library District hosts a Zoom event with author Jan Batiste Adkins, discussing the rich history of people of African heritage in the Santa Clara Valley from 1777 onward. Throughout the month, the library district is also offering themed storytimes, craft activities and more. The event with Adkins is set for Saturday, Feb. 20, 2-3:15 p.m. For more information, go to sccl.bibliocommons.com.
Adkins will also present research from her book “ African Americans of San Jose and Santa Clara County,” followed by a Q&A session, at a virtual event hosted by the Los Altos History Museum on Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 5 p.m. For more information, go to losaltoshistory.org.
Stanford’s Leadership for Society: Race & Power Series is a webinar and podcast series about how systemic racism manifests itself in institutions and daily life. In an upcoming episode titled “The Roots of our Rhythm,” Bruce Conforth, founding curator of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, is scheduled to talk about the contributions Black people have made to almost every popular music genre and the impact African American music has had on the world. The event will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 6:15 p.m. For more information, go to gsb-courses.stanford.edu.
Stanford’s McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society hosts authors William A. Darity Jr. & A. Kirsten Mullen for a discussion of their book titled “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century” in a virtual event scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25, 4-5:15 p.m. For more information, go to ethicsinsociety.stanford.edu.
Among the Black History Month events hosted by Foothill College are “Black Love Is …” an online spoken word and poetry event with the National African American Read In program, featuring Foothill professor Sam White on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2-4 p.m., and the Theatre Arts Department’s virtual staged reading of playwright Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” on Feb. 26-28. For more information, go to foothill.edu.