New Event: Fossieck Lecture Wednesday

NEW EVENT

Department of History: Janice D. and Theodore H. Fossieck Lecture
April 23, 2014 12:30 PM
Science Library - Standish Room
Free and open to the public.

Featured speaker is Karolyn Smardz Frost who will discuss "Planting Slavery in Nova Scotia's Promised Land, 1759-1783." Frost's landmark biography of fugitive slaves Thornton and Luci Blackburn, I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad (2007) has won wide recognition and numerous prizes including Canada's top literary prize. Professor Frost is an archaeologist, historian, educator and award-winning author who specializes in the study of African American/Canadian transnationalism.  She holds a BA in Archaeology, a Master’s in Classical Studies and a PhD in the History of Race, Slavery and Imperialism.  She is the Senior Research Fellow for York University’s Harriet Tubman Institute.  She was appointed the Canadian Bicentennial Visiting Professor at Yale University for the 2012-2013 academic year.

More:  http://www.albany.edu/history/events.shtml

Read More......

A Slave on His Father's Land

Salgado Maranhao's childhood as an illiterate field-hand on his white father's plantation is the subject of Elizabeth Floyd Mair's interview with translator Alexis Levitin in the Times Union.

Maranhao and Levitin will visit the Writers Institute tomorrow, Oct. 2 at 4:15 p.m. in the Standish Room of the Science Library.

Q: How did he learn to read [at the age of 16]?

A: Before he entered a regular school, his mom moved the whole family to the city of Teresina, the capital of the state of Piaui, so that he could get an education. His whole family was extremely intelligent, he says, although all of them were illiterate. They were all kind of lost, he says, since there was no schooling and no way to develop your intelligence or make use of it. His mother wanted to prove that he was as good as his father's side of the family.
     He spent three months with a family that kind of gave him a special intensive tutorial to prepare him for school. And then he also discovered a library. The discovery of the library was key, because from then on he read all the time.

More.

Read More......

Doug Blackmon's Slavery Book Banned in Alabama Prison

A current court case concerns the decision of Alabama prison officials to bar inmates from reading Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon, who visited Friday, Feb. 3rd.

CNN) — The Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II," by Douglas Blackmon, tells the story of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction south who were imprisoned and forced into involuntary servitude after being convicted of trifling crimes.

Now a modern-day prisoner in Alabama is suing for his right to read the book.
The lawsuit, filed in September, alleges that when officials at the Kilby Correctional Facility in Mt. Meigs, Ala. denied prisoner Mark Melvin access to the book, it was a violation of his rights to "freedom of speech, equal protection and due process." The case is currently in the discovery phase.

The Alabama Department of Corrections declined comment for this story, citing the pending litigation. In their answer to the lawsuit, they admitted that Melvin had been denied access to the book, but denied any violation of his rights.

The Department said the book was in violation of its rules about what kind of reading material can be sent to inmates — namely that "the book, its title, its contents and/or its pictures could be used (or misused) by the plaintiff or other inmates to incite violence or disobedience within the institution." They also noted that the book, which describes the forced labor of African Americans in detail, "could also be used (or misused) in a manner which is inconsistent with legitimate peneological objectives, for instance the rehabilitation of inmates through prison work details and/or the inculcation of a work ethic." More.

Read More......

Wikileaks Lawyer vs. U.S. Attorney General

In a chance encounter at a Sundance screening of Slavery By Another Name (which will be shown 2/3 at UAlbany's Performing Arts Center) Jennifer Robinson, the attorney for Julian Assange of Wikileaks, ran into U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder and had a tense exchange.

Robinson writes about her experience today on Salon.com.

Doug Blackmon, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book upon which the film is based, and Sheila Curran Bernard who wrote the screenplay, will be on hand for you to encounter after the UAlbany screening.

Read More......

Two Minute Standing Ovation at Sundance

Sam Pollard, director of Slavery by Another Name, received a two-minute standing ovation earlier this week at the Sundance Film Festival competition according to Cherie Saunders of the Eurweb Electronic Urban Report:

"Sundance audiences are embracing the work (with one woman so overcome with emotion during a post-screening Q&A with Pollard that she was unable to speak)." More.

The film will be screened on 2/3 with a talkback by the screenwriter, Sheila Curran Bernard, and the Pulitzer-winning author of the book, Doug Blackmon.

Read More......

Slavery Film at Ford's Theatre

Slavery by Another Name, written by Visiting Writer Douglas Blackmon, and written by UAlbany professor Sheila Curran Bernard, will be screened on January 30th at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC (where President Lincoln was assassinated).

Blackmon and Bernard join us for a talkback after the Albany premiere on Friday, February 3rd in the Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus.

Read More......

Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Clip

The Hollywood Reporter posts an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip about the making of Slavery By Another Name, which premieres at Sundance on 1/23, before coming to a theater near you (the UAlbany Performing Arts Center) on 2/3.

"The documentary Slavery by Another Name will have its premiere Monday, Jan. 23, at noon at the Temple Theatre as part of the official 2012 Sundance Film Festival competition program. Sam Pollard, who was a longtime editor on Spike Lee’s films, directed the project, which takes a hard look at the many ways involuntary servitude continued for African Americans long after the abolition of slavery."

"THR here hosts an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip that features Pollard, executive producer Douglas Blackmon and several of the descendants whose stories are told in the film."

See the clip.

Read More......