NOTE: due to inclement weather, this event is now being held virtually on Zoom

FREE
Virtual via Zoom

The Du Bois Legacy Festival honors W.E.B. Du Bois Day, Monday, February 23, and will observe the day with an abbreviated Festival program via Zoom. The Du Bois Legacy Festival organizers will be reading excerpts of Dr. Du Bois’ 1926 essay Criteria for Black Art, with an African dance and drumming presentation led by Sister Noel Staples-Freeman & Uprising Dance Theater artists Jamemurrell Stanley and Brandon Guillermo and possible selections from vocalists Wanda Houston, a recent recipient of the Du Bois Award from the Berkshire County NAACP, and Dr. MaryNell Morgan-Brown, PhD. with a musical interpretation/selection of the “Sorrow Songs” of Dr. Du Bois’ Souls of Black Folk. Rev. Dr. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes will close us out with her keynote address. Dr. Townsend Gilkes is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African American Studies Emerita at Colby College, and a Hutchins Fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute at Harvard University. Her scholarly interests include African American women, religion, social change, and the legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois in the fields of sociology, African American studies, and religious studies. Her research, teaching, and writing have specifically focused on the role of African American women in generating social change. After the keynote, there will be a moderated question-and-answer session with Legacy Committee member Dr. Alexandria Russell.