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Staff Picks

Thematic selections of library resources curated by ECU Library Staff.

Black History Month & Beyond

For Black History Month we are featuring items in the library collection honouring the stories, work and histories of Black writers, artists, theorists, educators and librarians. We believe in celebrating Black individuals and communities all year long. You can find these resources and many more in our library catalogue at any time. We are adding new material regularly so check back often - let us know if you have any suggestions and we can add them to our reading list.

We are adding new material regularly so check back often.

O Happy Day. Directed by Charles Lofton, Frameline, 1996. (6 min.)
"O Happy Day” is a 1996 short film by Charles Lofton. Using found footage “O Happy Day” juxtaposes images of Black Panther Party demonstrations with Gay Liberation Movement protests and intertwines them all with sensual homoerotic images of black men. Punctuating the films soundtrack with a 1970 quotation from Black Panther leader Huey Newton, Lofton re-imagines an intertwining of the two movements as an expression of black queer love and power: "There's nothing to say that a homosexual cannot also be a revolutionary. Quite on the contrary, maybe a homosexual could be the most revolutionary..." If you missed seeing this when it was exhibited at Centre Pompidou, you can find it in the “Black Power Movement 1966-1975” Channel in the streaming database: Academic Video Online/Alexander St Video found in our Databases A-Z.

 

Ujamii Uhuru Schule : Community Freedom School. Directed by Don Amis, 1974. (9 min.)
Check out the work of the L.A. Rebellion held in the open access database of the UCLA Library Film and Televison Library! Ujamii Uhuru Schule (Swahili for Community Freedom School) is a portrait of an Afrocentric primary school located in South Los Angeles. Filmed in 1974, Don Amis’s 9 min documentary contains beautiful radical imagery and truths of what learning can mean outside of an inherently oppressive Eurocentric/white paradigm.

 

The Missing Chapter(s): Some History About Black Graphic Design, July 22, 2020 (1 hr 38 min) hosted by Vermon College of Fine Arts

Three micro lectures and a panel discussion: the Missing Chapter(s): Some History About Black Graphic Design with faculty Tasheka Arceneux-Sutton, Silas Munro and alumnx Pierre Bowins.

  • Pierre Bowins presents on "A Sin of Omission: Immoral Unbalance"
  • Silas Munro presents on "A Wounded Fire: Queerness in Black Publications From the Harlem Renaissance"
  • Tasheka Arceneux-Sutton presents on "Black Women in Graphic Design"

African Arts

African Arts published by the James S. Coleman African Studies Center, UCLA and MIT Press

African Arts presents original research and critical discourse on traditional, contemporary, and popular African arts and expressive cultures. This is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, published quarterly, since 1967.

NKA Contemporary African Art

NKA Contemporary African Art published by Duke University Press

Nka focuses on publishing critical work that examines contemporary African and African Diaspora art within the modernist and postmodernist experience and therefore contributes significantly to the intellectual dialogue on world art and the discourse on internationalism and multiculturalism in the arts. Nka mainly includes scholarly articles, reviews (exhibits and books), interviews, and roundtable discussions. Published two times a year since 1994.

These databases feature material on Black History

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