The Black Renaissance
Celebrate Black History Month at Georgia State
Black History Month (BHM), or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by Black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, multiple U.S. presidents have officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Traditionally, the month focuses on the experiences of Black people and leaders in the United States. However, it is important that we create space to honor the legacies, histories and contributions of Black people across the Diaspora.
The university celebrates not only the past accomplishments of Black pioneers, but also recognizes present excellence, and those who continue to blaze an extraordinary trail forward.
The BHM Planning Committee seeks to celebrate Black love, Black joy, Black culture, Black resilience, Black history & Black futures. With the understanding that Black is not a monolith, we aim to amplify the voices of Black people throughout the diaspora and showcase the beauty in our diversity and intersectional identities. Below is a listing of BHM events across campuses and departments.
2023 Events
Note: All events are subject to change. We will work to keep this listing updated frequently as possible.
Black Mental Health Matters
Thursday, Feb. 2, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Veterans Memorial Hall
Black Student Achievement; Counseling Center, Student Health Promotion, Student Victim Assistance
Join the Counseling Center, Black Student Achievement, Student Health Promotion, and Student Victim Assistance as we explore common mental health concerns that impact the African American community and how to destigmatize mental health. Take a Mindwise Mental Health screen, enjoy a snack, and learn about resources to assist yourself or someone you know.
Social Justice Summit - Not All Superheroes Wear Capes
Thursday, Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. through Friday, Feb. 3 at 4 p.m.
Student Center East
Leadership Programs, Multicultural Center, Residence Hall Association
Never fear, the 2023 Social Justice Summit is here! Your registration will include a variety of panels, wisdom exchanges, and breakout sessions to support your personal and professional development this spring. Hosted by Leadership Programs, Multicultural Center and Residence Hall Association! Keynote Speaker, the Super Social ft a live DJ, over 10 Workshops & Trainings & so much more!
Martha Graham Dance Company
Sunday, Feb. 5, 3 to 5 p.m.
Rialto Center for the Arts
The Martha Graham Dance Company has been a world leader in the evolving art form of modern dance since 1926. The Company last performed in Atlanta on February 25, 1939, at the Erlanger Theatre. The Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University is proud to present the Martha Graham Dance Company’s return to Atlanta after 84 years!
Hot Wings Hot Topics
Monday, Feb. 6, 4 to 5:15 p.m.
Student Center East, Room 205
Black Student Achievement, Black Student Alliance
A bi-weekly discussion for students, faculty and staff to engage in hot topic conversations! In celebration of Black History Month, we will center contemporary themes and issues within the diaspora while simultaneously reflecting on the accomplishments of pivotal Black figures.
Cinefest Movie Showings - Till
Monday, Feb. 6 through Wednesday, Feb. 8, 3 p.m.-9:5 p.m. (see link at blue button for details about showtimes)
Cinefest, Student Center West
Spotlight Programs
Join Spotlight for a series of movies showcasing Black History every week in the month of February. Movie showing of Till held at Cinefest, 2nd floor, Student Center West. All shows are general seating. The movie theater lobby opens 10 minutes prior to the scheduled screening. Seating is first-come, first-served.
Black History Month Celebration Concert - 'Til The Victory Is Won
Wednesday, Feb. 8, Noon to 1 p.m.
Kopleff Recital Hall
School of Music
Join us for a noon-hour concert that honors and celebrates Africana music and its indelible impact on Georgia State University, the City of Atlanta, and the world.
Groundbreaker Lecture with Jelani Cobb
Wednesday, Feb. 8, 4 p.m.
Senate Ballroom, Student Center East
Office of the Provost
The Office of the Provost is pleased to announce the speaker of the 2023 Groundbreaker Lecture, Jelani Cobb, Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism, and Dean of the Columbia Journalism School on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023.
The event will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the State Ballroom in Student Center East, and is open Georgia State students, faculty and staff. Register for the lecture at this link.
A livestream will be available to Georgia State students, faculty and staff; register to obtain the link.
Cobb is a staff writer at The New Yorker, writing on race, history, justice, politics, and democracy, as well as Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism and next Dean of Columbia Journalism School. He recently co-edited The Matter of Black Lives, a collection of The New Yorker’s most ground-breaking writing on Black history and culture in America, featuring the work of legendary writers like James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. Publishers Weekly writes, “Beyond the stellar prose, what unites these pieces, which range widely in length, tone, and point of view, is James Baldwin’s insight, paraphrased by Jelani Cobb, that ‘the American future is precisely as bright or as dark as our capacity to grapple with [the legacy of racism].’”
Cobb is the recipient of the Hillman Prize for opinion and analysis journalism, as well as the Walter Bernstein Award from the Writer’s Guild of America for his investigative work on Policing the Police. He is the author of Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. He was appointed the Dean of Columbia Journalism School in 2022.
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The Groundbreaker Lecture Series was founded in 2020 to honor three brave women — Barbara Pace Hunt, Iris Mae Welch and Myra Payne Elliott — who sued in the 1950s for their right to enroll and attend Georgia State’s predecessor institution.
Despite the legal victory, the women were still blocked from enrolling at Georgia State by the legislature and the Board of Regents. Further, the women faced bigotry from high-profile political leaders and personal threats from the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists.
Their case helped establish key legal precedents for subsequent litigation against racial discrimination in higher education across the United States.
The Viola Desmond Lecture with Dalton Higgins
"Drake and the New Hip-Hop"
Wednesday, Feb. 8, 6 p.m.
Auburn Avenue Research Library
Co-Sponsors: Department of Africana Studies, Elizabeth J. West (Professor and Amos Distinguished Chair in English Letters, Amos Chair Endowment) Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora, Department of Political Science, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, with support from the Consulate General of Canada
Dalton Higgins, a hip-hop scholar, activist, author and journalist will serve as the speaker for The Viola Desmond Lecture to kick off the Beyond the Culture II conference.
Higgins is a publicist, author of six books, National Magazine Award-winning journalist, and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Music-Prof-in-Residence. Higgins teaches the popular university course “Deconstructing Drake and The Weeknd” that has been featured on CNN, New York Times, NPR, and BET among many other media outlets. His best-selling books include Far from Over: The Music and Life of Drake which is carried in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame & Museum collection in Cleveland, and Hip Hop World which has been carried in Harvard University’s hip hop archive since 2009. Among his numerous achievements and biography of work, Higgins recently co-produced the New York Festivals award-winning “This Is Not A Drake podcast” series which explores the evolution of hip-hop and gender dynamics within the culture.
Co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Canada, the lecture is named after Viola Desmond, who was jailed in 1946 for refusing to leave a whites-only area of a movie theater in the Canadian city of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Her court case inspired the pursuit of racial equality across Canada.
Beyond the Culture II Conference
Wednesday, Feb. 8 through Friday, Feb. 10
Auburn Avenue Research Library
Co-Sponsors: Department of Africana Studies, Elizabeth J. West (Professor and Amos Distinguished Chair in English Letters, Amos Chair Endowment) Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora, Department of Political Science, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Consulate General of Canada (Desmond Lecture), WomenLead
In 2023, celebrate with the Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University as we discuss the role of Black popular culture in the fight for social justice at the 2nd biennial Beyond the Culture: Black Popular Culture and Social Justice conference at Georgia State University. The conference will be held in Atlanta on February 8-10, 2023 at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History.
The purpose of this three-day national conference is to critically examine the intersections between popular culture and social justice, while also commemorating Hip-Hop’s 50th Anniversary.
Healthy State: Love Your Body
Thursday, Feb. 9, 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Student Center West, Room 466/468
BeWellPanthers
The Healthy State events focus on providing students an opportunity to learn ways to take care of their bodies and mind. So join us for a February self-love session! We will be showing 3 short films aimed at encouraging self-love and body positivity, and give the opportunity to have meaningful conversations.
Culture Cafe at the Intersection: Black History Month
Monday, Feb. 13, 1 to 3 p.m.
Student Center East, Room 210 (Intersection Lounge)
Multicultural Center
Join us for free coffee, cocoa or tea, coupled with conversation about cultures, communities, and inclusion. Connect with others around identity, intersectionality and intercultural engagement. Bring a friend for a chance to win giveaways and prizes!!! RSVP required.
Cinefest Movie Screenings: Bones and All
Monday, Feb. 13 through Wednesday, Feb. 15, 3 p.m., 9:45 p.m. (see link in button below for more information about showtimes)
Cinefest, Student Center West
Spotlight
Join Spotlight for a series of movies showcasing Black History every week in the month of February. Movie showing of Bones and All held at Cinefest, 2nd floor, Student Center West. All shows are general seating. The movie theater lobby opens 10 minutes prior to the scheduled screening. Seating is first-come, first-served.
Black Card Revoked (Game Night)
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 5 to 7 p.m.
Student Center East, Room 205
Black Student Achievement
Join BSA for an evening of fun as we play all your favorite games and test your knowledge of the culture! No matter your competition level, hop on the spades table, debate Uno rules, slam a dominoe or two, and so much more!
Hot Wings Hot Topics
Monday, Feb. 20, 4 to 5:15 p.m.
Student Center East, Room 205
Black Student Achievement
A bi-weekly discussion for students, faculty and staff to engage in hot topic conversations! In celebration of Black History Month, we will center contemporary themes and issues within the diaspora while simultaneously reflecting on the accomplishments of pivotal Black figures.
Cinefest Movie Screenings - Strange World
Monday, Feb. 20 through Wednesday, Feb. 22, 3 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. (Check link at the button below for further details about times and screenings)
Cinefest, Student Center West
Spotlight
Join Spotlight for a series of movies showcasing Black History every week in the month of February. Movie showing of Strange World held at Cinefest, 2nd floor, Student Center West. All shows are general seating. The movie theater lobby opens 10 minutes prior to the scheduled screening. Seating is first-come, first-served.
Mario A.J. Bennekin Black History Symposium
Feb. 20-24
Dunwoody Campus Auditorium
This year's symposium, Black Empowerment in America: Organization, Mobilization and the Struggle for Equality, features Black women's and labor history scholar Eshe Sherley as the keynote speaker in an impactful week-long conference celebrating its third year. The Bennekin Black History Symposium is named for Mario Bennekin, a beloved history professor at Perimeter who taught for 20 years before passing in 2019 when he chaired the History and Political Science department. Bennekin was instrumental in bringing the African-American Studies, now Africana Studies, curriculum to Perimeter. This year’s theme is “A Black History Movement: Knowing the Past Opens the Door to the Future.”
Presidential Appointees Panel
Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2 to 3:30 p.m
New Location: Veterans Memorial Hall at Dahlberg Hall
Location changed from original (The Intersection Lounge at Student Center East)
Black Student Achievement
Join Black Student Achievement for an enlightening conversation centering four U.S. Presidential Appointees! These Black men are leading some of the most influential offices in the country, so stop by and learn their stories and what it took to get where they are today. Refreshments will be served!
CSAD Presents The Inaugural Global Read-a-Thon – Four Countries. Seven Hours.
Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023
Virtual, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (presented from CMII)
Presented by Former CNN Anchor and White House Correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux
Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora, Creative Media Industries Institute, Africana Studies
In honor of Black History Month, The Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora ( CSAD) brings together The Gambia, Germany, Jamaica, and New York to celebrate books from Africa and the African diaspora. The inaugural Read-a-Thon is a global, virtual, webinar-style event streaming from our Atlanta campus. For seven hours authors, scholars, students, performers, and community leaders from four countries will come together to celebrate works that illuminate Black history, culture, and the imagination of the African diaspora.
The CSAD Global Read-a-Thon is a tribute to Black History Month and the historical impact of Black literature and literacy worldwide. Featured readers include award-winning author, Tayari Jones, Atlanta television legend, Monica Kaufman Pearson, and more!
What book influenced you the most? What are your favorite works? Tune-in to see whether your most cherished book is on the list! #csadreads
A link will be posted soon.
34th Annual Benjamin E. Mays Lecture with Na’ilah Suad Nasir
Learning is Life-Long and Life-Wide: Reflections on Learning, Leadership and Education Research
Wednesday, Feb. 22, 6:30 p.m.
Virtual
Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence, College of Education & Human Development
Na’ilah Suad Nasir, president of the Spencer Foundation, will deliver the 34th annual Benjamin E. Mays Lecture on Feb. 22 at 6:30 p.m. in a virtual format.
At this event, hosted by Georgia State University’s Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence, Nasir will give a presentation entitled, “Learning is Life-Long and Life-Wide: Reflections on Learning, Leadership and Education Research.”
Prior to joining the foundation, Nasir held a faculty appointment in education and African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where she also served as the chair of African American studies, then later as the vice chancellor for equity and inclusion. She also served on the Stanford Graduate School of Education's faculty. Nasir’s research examines the racialized and cultural nature of learning and schooling, with a particular focus on the experiences of African American students in schools and communities. She recently co-edited "The Handbook of the Cultural Foundations of Learning" (Routledge) and "We Dare Say Love: Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys." She is the author of "Racialized Identities: Race and Achievement for African-American Youth," published by the Stanford University Press in 2012. She is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. Nasir formerly served as president of the American Educational Research Association (2021-2022).
Benjamin E. Mays was a minister, educator, sociologist, social activist and president of Morehouse College in Atlanta from 1940 to 1967. He also was president of the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education and supervised the desegregation of Atlanta’s public schools. The annual Mays Lecture encourages the discussion of issues facing urban educational leaders, honors the memory of Mays and promotes his philosophy of excellence in the education of those typically least well served by the larger society.
Further information will be posted at the Crim Center website below.
Black History Month Bingo
Thursday, Feb. 23, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
3775 Brookside Pkwy, Alpharetta, GA (AB 105/112)
Panther Activities Council, Student Government Association, Perimeter College Student Life
Come out for a game of BINGO ... Black History Month BINGO! Enjoy games, food, fun, and learning wrapped all in one!
SAA Presents: Black History Month Trivia
Thursday, Feb. 23, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Centennial Hall
Join SAA for our annual Black History Month Trivia Night on Thursday, February 23 from 6pm-8pm in Centennial Hall! Prizes will be awarded to the teams who win first, second, and third place. Snacks provided!
Black People's Dialogue
Monday, Feb. 27, 6 to 8 p.m.
Student Center East Salon (changed from SCW 460)
Black Student Achievement and the Counseling Center
Black People's Dialogue is annual discussion during Black History Month centering the issues affecting our community. This includes the intersection of identities including race, gender, sexuality, culture and economics.
Additional Black History Month Resources
Black Student Alliance
The Black Student Alliance seeks to break the cultural barriers between race and ethnicity in order to connect people of the African Diaspora.
Faculty of the African Diaspora
The Faculty of the African Diaspora Association (FADA) exists to support and enrich the experiences of Black students, staff, and faculty at Georgia State University, through advocacy, networking, mentorship, and engagement with surrounding communities.
Office of Black Student Achievement
The Office of Black Student Achievement provides university-wide services and support programming in many areas, such as cultural enrichment, racial awareness, ethnicity, diversity, leadership training and organizational development.
National Black Law Student Association
The Black Law Students Association strives to promote the educational and professional needs and goals of Black law students. BLSA seeks to influence the legal community to bring about meaningful change that addresses the needs and concerns of the Black community.
Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora
The Center for Studies on Africa and its Diaspora (CSAD) aspires to increase worldwide understanding of the resilience of people from Africa and the African diaspora and their ongoing contributions in addressing contemporary issues with global implications.
Department of Africana Studies
The Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University is dedicated to preserving, fostering, and expanding the interdisciplinary study of Black people and all those of African descent. Building on a tradition of academic excellence and social responsibility, we provide critical service to the intellectual community, the larger society and the world.
Cultures, Communities & Inclusion
Cultures, Communities, and Inclusion celebrates the U in GSU! CCI provides a variety programs, initiatives, and workshops that educate, fosters community-building, enriches the overall campus experience for the campus community, and prepare students for the world that awaits them post-graduation.
Multicultural Center
The Multicultural Center supports Georgia State University’s mission of educating students to participate in a global economy with individuals different from themselves. To assist students in successfully engaging in this global process, the Multicultural Center provides opportunities for intentional, meaningful programming and dialogue to assist students to learn more about themselves and others.
Search the Diversity Database for Programs
The DEI Diversity Database brings together more than 140 programs and initiatives, searchable by keyword, identity/community, and more.
Honoring the Ground Crew (Mini-Documentary)
Watch a mini-documentary about three brave women - Myra Payne Elliott, Barbara Pace Hunt, and Iris Mae Welch - who sued for the right to enroll at Georgia State in the 1950s and whose case laid the ground work for the future integration of Georgia State and other colleges and universities. (The video is at the bottom of the page).
Search the Resource Library
Find policies, publications, guidelines, articles, directories, procedures, multimedia, and more.
Diversity Dialogue: Leadership and Collaborative Connections
Watch a recording of a conversation about leadership with dynamic African American administrators at Georgia State, as well as with leaders in the Atlanta community and how they rose to their leadership roles. As Georgia State observes its MLK Commemoration in January and Black History Month during February, this dialogue includes a conversation on ways Georgia State and the greater Atlanta community can connect and collaborate for the greater good of the region.