Atlanta History Center Family Program Commemorates Black History Month
WHAT: Struggles and Strides, annual Family Program
Throughout the program guests explore the African American experience from the Great Migration to the Civil Rights Movement. Engaging museum theatre performances and interactive activities provide insight into stories of personal struggle and triumph. Activities include a special guest lecture by Allyson Hobbs.
WHEN: Saturday, February 7, 2015; 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
WHERE: Atlanta History Center; 130 West Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, GA
INFORMATION: 404.814.4000; AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/Family
ADMISSION: Admission is free to members; included in the cost of general admission for nonmembers. Purchase advance admission tickets online AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/Family.
This event falls on a Bank of America Museums on Us Weekend. All Bank of America/Merrill Lynch customers receive free admission to the Atlanta History Center.
SUPPORT: Funding for this program is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the guidance of Fulton County Arts Council.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Allyson Hobbs, A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life
4:00 pm
Allyson Hobbs speaks about her book, A Chose Exile, which discusses the countless African Americans who passed as white, leaving behind families and friends, roots and community during the eighteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. It was, as Allyson Hobbs writes, a chosen exile, a separation from one racial identity and the leap into another. This revelatory history of passing explores the possibilities and challenges that racial indeterminacy presented to men and women living in a country obsessed with racial distinctions. It also tells a tale of loss.
Allyson Hobbs is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Stanford University. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and she received a Ph.D. with distinction from the University of Chicago. She has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the Clayman Institute for Gender Research.
Walking Through the Valley: A Journey Towards Freedom
11:30 am, 2:30 pm
Travel to 1963 in this museum theatre performance. Attitudes about equality and justice are slowly shifting the American landscape, but change is not happening fast enough for many young people in the Civil Rights Movement. A young activist has been asked to alter the language in a speech he has written for, what will soon become, a historic event. He envisions a conversation with four historic freedom fighters in an effort to decide if a compromise with the "powers that be” will in fact serve a greater good.
Atlanta Music Project
1:00 pm, 3:30 pm
Enjoy a performance by the talented Atlanta Music Project. Founded in 2010, the Atlanta Music Project provides intense music education for underserved youth right in their neighborhood. Atlanta Music Project believes the pursuit of musical excellence leads to the development of confidence, creativity, and ambition, thus sparking positive social change in the individuals and the communities they serve.
Grant Carter, Inman Chauffer Performance, Swan House
11:15 am, 1:15 pm, 3:15 pm
Hear from Mr. Carter, the Inman family’s longtime chauffeur, as he shares his life story and experiences that led him to work for one of Atlanta’s most celebrated families.
Binah Lockett, Inman Maid Performance, Swan House
11:30 am, 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm, 3:30 pm
Meet Binah as she explains what the duties of a domestic servant entail. Find out what goes on both upstairs and downstairs in one of Atlanta’s most famous homes, the Swan House.
Akbar Imhotep, Storyteller, Smith Family Farm
1:00 pm, 2:00 pm, 3:30 pm
Local actor and storyteller Akbar Imhotep brings to life Frederick Douglass, an African American social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing.
Crafts & Harlem Renaissance Activities
Ongoing
Food for Sale
Coca Cola Café
11 am – 2 pm
Food available for purchase from Coca Cola Café, serving a limited Chick-fil-A menu.
Tags:
