Black History Month 2023 events at Tulane University

February commemorates Black History Month. Events nationwide — as well as on the Tulane campus — span the breadth of the Black experience. Read more about Black History Month here and check out these events for Tulanians.

Feb. 3
Women & Movement No. 11: African-American Women Affecting the Arts in New Orleans
Designed to engage women scholars and artists from the Gulf South in discussions about place, performance, social-political issues and more, Women and Movement welcomes panelists Greer Goff Mendy, Ausettua Amor Amenkum, Mariama Curry, Kai Knight and Jarrell Hamilton with moderator Lauren E. Turner Hines. This event takes place Friday, Feb. 3, at 11 a.m. in Lupin Theater and is sponsored by New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, and the Skau Music and Art Fund Grant from Newcomb Institute. Find more details on the Facebook event page.

Feb. 3-5
Black Law Alumni Reunion weekend
Tulane Law School will welcome its Black law alumni back to campus for this event Friday, Feb. 3, through Sunday, Feb. 5. There will be an awards presentation, a keynote lecture by lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill and other events. Click here to read the schedule.

Feb. 4-25
TU After Dark
Showtimes are 8 p.m. in the 1834 Lounge in the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life.
Saturday, Feb. 4: The Woman King
Saturday, Feb. 11: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Saturday, Feb. 25: Till

Feb. 4
Black History Month Fest
On Saturday, Feb. 4, join the Nu Mu Citywide Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and the Tulane Black Student Union for the inaugural Black History Month Fest in the Kendall Cram Lecture Hall of the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life. The fest includes activities like a business expo and starts at 1 p.m. with the theme of “The Future of Black Art and Entrepreneurship.”

Feb. 5
Archive Walk
Tulane Black Student Union, in partnership with Tulane University Special Collections, will host a gallery walk on Sunday, Feb. 5, about Black history, including various historical documents, writings and collections showcasing the Black experience at Tulane. The event takes place in Jones Hall from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Refreshments from a local Black-owned restaurant will be provided. Masks and social distancing are required.

Feb. 7
Black History Month Scavenger Hunt
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library will host a team scavenger hunt on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 5:30 p.m., for works of literature about and by well-known Black Americans. For more information and to sign up, go to the HTML website event page. This month, Tulane University Libraries also recommends “films that spotlight the critical influence of Black music, art and culture in the local customs and traditions of Mardi Gras.” Follow Tulane Libraries on Instagram for these recommendations and find the list here, as well as a reading list.

Feb. 7
Embodied Afrobeats
Tulane University Campus Recreation offers Embodied Afrobeats on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 4:30 p.m. on Brown Field. The event features beats mixed by DJ Chill and movements facilitated by Jinaki Flint, assistant director for Outreach and Prevention at the Counseling Center. Campus Recreation also offers some Black History Month reading.

Feb. 8
Ashager Araro presentation
Tulane Hillel presents a discussion with Ashager Araro, an Israeli-Ethiopian Jewish activist and influencer, who will talk about the intersectionality of her identities as a Black Jewish woman and the history of Ethiopian Jews. The presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at Tulane Hillel, 912 Broadway St. RSVPs are encouraged; click here to sign up.

Feb. 23-24
Tulane University School of Liberal Arts, in partnership with the Folger Shakespeare Library, presents “Rac(e)ing the Shakespearean Archive: Antebellum, Civil War and Reconstruction New Orleans.” This first-ever event will examine the relationships between race, environment, audience, and the playwright and his works, and features a keynote address on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 6 p.m. by Kara Tucina Olidge, associate director for Collections and Discovery at Getty Research Center, and Ayanna Thompson, Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Rogers Memorial Chapel on the uptown Tulane Campus. On Friday, Feb. 24, at 6:30 p.m., “Eight Othellos: An Interactive Interrogation of Performance Text” takes place at Andre Cailloux Center for the Performing Arts and Cultural Justice, 2541 Bayou Road. Both events are free of charge and open to the public. For more information, email the organizers, English Professor Michael Kuczynski, or John “Ray” Proctor, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance.

Feb. 24
Fireside chat with former HHS Secretary Dr. Louis Sullivan and Dean Thomas LaVeist
Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Louis W. Sullivan will appear in person in the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine’s Diboll Auditorium in a fireside-chat-style conversation with Dean Thomas LaVeist on Friday, Feb. 24, at noon, followed by a book signing. Sullivan was also the founding dean of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Read more about the event at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine website.

Feb. 25
Legacy Bowl
The HBCU Legacy Bowl, presented by the Black College Football Hall of Fame, is a postseason all-star game showcasing the best NFL draft-eligible football players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The game will be played Saturday, Feb. 25, at 3 p.m. at Yulman Stadium.