Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center

Vanderbilt has grown up alongside its hometown to play a leading role in the life of the larger community—employing nearly 25,000 people; providing a Level 1 trauma center and top-ranked hospitals that admit around 65,000 patients a year; and generating millions of dollars for the local economy through athletics, cultural events, and a vast array of intellectual offerings. And that’s just for starters. Read More

"Carrie Mae Weems: Afro-Chic" (video still), 2010. (courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York) Vanderbilt University will host programming on campus and sponsor an event at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in conjunction with the opening at the Frist of Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades… Read More

"Carrie Mae Weems: Afro-Chic" (video still), 2010. (courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York) Vanderbilt University will host programming on campus and sponsor an event at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in conjunction with the opening at the Frist of Carrie Mae… Read More

A tradition among first-year students to read and discuss a common text has inspired a campuswide initiative called “Human Identities: Global, Local, Personal,” designed to raise nuanced dialogue about gender and sexuality across the Vanderbilt community. Read More

A distinguished writer noted for his leadership in the translation and preservation of ancient Vietnamese poetry is among those featured at Vanderbilt’s two-day “L’invitation au voyage”: A Symposium on Poetry and Translation. John Balaban will deliver the opening address, “On Translating Vietnamese Poetry,” from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on March… Read More

Vanderbilt’s Black Art Series is under way through March 18, with a week of activities culminating in a production of George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum. In past years, the Black Art Series has hosted such productions as The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and For Colored Girls Who… Read More

Frances Fox Piven Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Political Science at City University of New York’s Graduate Center, will discuss “Class War in 21st-Century America: Can Occupy Wall Street Beat Back the Corporate Assault?” Her lecture is scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday, March 26, in the… Read More

Spirit of Uganda With standing drums, dramatic choreography, layered rhythms and gorgeous call-and-response vocals, Spirit of Uganda brings to life the sounds and movements of East Africa. The group will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at Langford Auditorium as part of the Great… Read More

(Image courtesy of the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco) A range of issues relative to the challenges, possibilities and tensions that have emerged from the migration and settlement of black people in North America, the Caribbean and Europe will be discussed at a symposium co-hosted by Vanderbilt… Read More

(Image courtesy of the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco) Vanderbilt and Fisk universities will co-host the Black Migration Symposium Feb. 10-11 on both university campuses. Sessions will be held Friday, Feb. 10, at Vanderbilt’s Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center. Sessions… Read More

Renowned experts on preservation of African and Afro-descended slave records will gather at Vanderbilt Feb. 2 - 4 to launch the university's new Ecclesiastical and Secular Sources for Slave Societies digital archive and website. Read More

Cultural writer Lewis Hyde, who has a strong interest in the public life of the imagination, will speak at Vanderbilt University’s Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center Jan. 19. Read More

U.S. Congressman and legendary civil rights activist John Lewis will deliver the keynote address Jan. 16 at an event commemorating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Read More

International Education Week at Vanderbilt is Nov. 2-16. The week-long series of events are co-sponsored by International Student and Scholar Services, Global Education Office, and Vanderbilt International Office in coordination with Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Holocaust Lecture… Read More

Pictured (l-r) Professor of Spanish and editor of "Afro-Hispanic Review" William Luis, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, NAHCC's Mario Moreno, Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center Director Frank Dobson and NAHCC's Yuri Cunza. (Photo courtesy of NAHCC)     Hispanic Heritage Month kicked off Sept. 15 at the Bishop Joseph… Read More

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Read More

There will be a presentation on the financial impact of health care coverage on retirement planning noon to 1 p.m. April 21 in the auditorium of the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center. Read More

Watch video of a Feb. 8 talk by Mandy Carter, one of the leading African American lesbian activists in the country. In “Justice or Just Us?” she discusses the LGBTQI movement’s difficulty in acknowledging paths blazed by the women’s movement and the Black Civil Rights movement, challenging everyone to… Read More

Watch video of the Feb. 24 talk by Adam Hochschild, author and journalist, titled “‘Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch . . .’: What Scholars Can Learn from Novelists–and Journalists–about Storytelling.” Hochschild is an award-winning author of six books, including King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial… Read More

Scholars from Duke, UC-Berkeley and Columbia will look at slavery and its afterlives during a daylong symposium at Vanderbilt University. Read More