West LA Times

Santa Monica College (SMC) continues its ongoing Black History Series this February with a selection of free events that include author readings, a documentary screening and Q&A, and informative talks and discussions. The series, launched in 2016, opens each February in honor of Black History Month and continues through the spring semester. The events will be held online or on SMC’s main campus at 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. Seating for on-campus events is strictly on a first-arrival basis.

Unless otherwise noted, the Black History Series is sponsored by the SMC Associates (smc.edu/associates) and SMC's Black Collegians Program.

For spring 2023, SMC’s Black History Series events are:

• Monday, February 13 at SMC Student Services Center 2nd Floor: National Academy of Sciences Exhibition: "The Creative Mind”: Renowned traveling exhibition from the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS) explores significant achievements, discoveries, inventions, and other contributions made by the Black community to medicine, engineering, mathematics, and the sciences.
• Friday, February 24 at 11 a.m. Online (live link on event date/time at smc.edu/calendar): Tananarive Due: "Navigating Real-Life Horrors Through Writing Horror: A Reading by Tananarive Due": Award-winning author Tananarive Due, a leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. She is an executive producer on Shudder's groundbreaking documentary "Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror." Projects with her husband and collaborator, Steven Barnes, include "A Small Town" for Season 2 of Jordan Peele’s "The Twilight Zone" on Paramount Plus and two segments of Shudder’s anthology film "Horror Noire." The duo also co-wrote the upcoming Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan, and they co-host the podcast "Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!" Part of the SMC Literary Talks & Readings series. Additional sponsor: SMC English Department. 
• Tuesday, February 28 at 3 p.m. in SMC Student Services Center Orientation Hall (SSC 183): Mr. Soul! Documentary Screening and Q&A: A free screening and discussion of the documentary Mr. Soul! explores the story of Ellis Haizlip, the co-creator, producer, and co-host of the first nationally broadcast show featuring Black performers on public television, "Soul!" An audience Q&A follows the screening. Additional sponsor: SMC’s Racial Justice Center. 
• Tuesday, March 21 at 11:15 a.m. Online (live link on event date/time at smc.edu/calendar): Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah: "A Reading by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah": Ghanaian American Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the New York Times–bestselling author of Friday Black (2018), a collection of edgy, yet charming tales. He was the winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and selected by Colson Whitehead as one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honorees. Adjei-Brenyah's work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Esquire, Literary Hub, the Paris Review, Guernica, and Longreads, and he recently completed his debut novel Chain-Gang All-Stars (Penguin Random House 2023). Part of the SMC Literary Talks & Readings series. Additional sponsor: SMC English Department.
• Thursday, March 23 at 11:15 a.m. in SMC Student Services Center 3rd Floor Lounge (SSC 391): HBCU Day: The SMC Transfer Center and Black Collegians Program Umoja Community will host a short, highly informative presentation on the nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Additional sponsors: SMC Transfer Center. 
• Thursday, May 18 at 12:30 p.m. in SMC Core Performance Center (CPC 304/308): Laura Ann Smyth: "Contemporary Jazz Fusion": Los Angeles-based dancer, choreographer, and educator Laura Ann Smyth will lead a class on rhythm-driven movement that honors African American vernacular jazz roots while sampling contemporary dance practices, and pushes participants to perform, find musical precision, and experience the joy of storytelling through movement. Smyth — a member of Donna Sternberg & Dancers and of JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble — is a full-time faculty member at Loyola Marymount University and currently a PhD Candidate in dance at Texas Woman’s University, where her scholarship focuses on the intersection of Black jazz-informed dance practices and embodied rhetoric. Part of the Masters of Dance series. Additional sponsor: SMC Dance Department. 

All events are subject to change without notice, and additional events may be added to the series. For more information, please call SMC’s Office of Public Programs at 310-434-4100. 

Original source can be found here.