Music, spoken word, and public lectures on Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King — Black History Month at The University of Nottingham will explore different elements of black art, history and culture.

A full programme of events, taking place both on campus and in the city, will be complemented by the University’s Black History Month blog. This will give event info as well as featuring academic comment from staff and students.

Highlight events from the programme include:

• A music and spoken word event at Nottingham Lakeside Arts on Tuesday 7 October, featuring Nottingham-based singer Blessing Magore
• A night of soul music DJed by our very own Soul Professor — Professor Patrick Callaghan, Head of the School of Health Sciences — on Thursday 2 October
• A performance by Gambian kora player Sura Susso at a Read Hear event on Saturday 18 October
• A public lecture by Annette Gordon-Reed, Professor of History and Law at Harvard University, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History, on Wednesday 29 October
• An evening of readings and conversation with Margaret Wrinkle, author of Wash, a novel on American slavery, on Wednesday 15 October
• A series of public lectures on Martin Luther King, taking place at ACNA in St Ann’s, by Professor Peter Ling, Head of the University’s Department of American and Canadian Studies.

All events are free and open to the public. For a full events programme and information on how to register for individual events, have a look at the poster gallery on the blog.

Val Watson is the Chair of the University’s BME Staff Network. She said:

Black History Month gives us an opportunity to celebrate black culture at the University and beyond. We’ve got a really varied programme this year, and want to encourage as many people as possible to attend events or read the blog.

“Black history and culture are often still seen as somehow ‘separate’ from the mainstream. Hopefully, people will discover or learn something new in October that will change the way they think and start to address this.”

For more information on Black History Month at The University of Nottingham, visit the blog at blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/blackhistorymonth