Community Calendar

Hala Al-Karib is the Regional Director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) and is the Donia Human Rights Center’s inaugural Raoul Wallenberg Human Rights Practitioner Fellow. In her lecture, Ms. Al-Karib will reflect on her experiences advocating for human rights in the African context and how it mirrors the fight for civil rights in the United States.

"I grew up in the diminishing shadows of the African liberation movements. My childhood recollections were filled with long political debates among my parents, their friends, older cousins, and uncles about memories of leaders like Biko of South Africa, Senghor of Senegal, Nkrumah of Ghana, Nyerere of Tanzania, Nasser of Egypt, and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo. Naturally, this history has shaped my political consciousness.

Later in my life, I discovered that at the same time, another liberation movement was unfolding across the Atlantic, where young men and women of African descent were challenging a system that disregarded their humanity; they also vigorously strived for equality, justice, and human rights. In this conversation I am going to have with you, I will seek to illustrate how the quest for liberation and decolonization in Africa parallels the civil rights movement in America; both movements are reflecting our extended struggle to cross over that bridge towards a peaceful and just society."

Commentator

Carina Ray
A.M. and H.P. Bentley Chair and Associate Professor of African History, Department of History, U-M

This is event is free and open to the public and is in-person only. For questions, please reach out to umichhumanrights@umich.edu.

Kerrytown Concert House is honored to bring back the enormously popular lecture series, The Great American Songbook: What Makes it Great? featuring the incomparable Brent Wagner (University of Michigan Emeritus Professor of Musical Theatre) with pianist Tyler Driskill (U-M Asst. Prof of Musical Theatre).

Exploring Stephen Sondheim’s work is a natural ‘sequel’ to the fall Rodgers and Hammerstein presentation, since Oscar Hammerstein was Sondheim’s teacher and mentor. With Sondheim’s passing just 4 years ago, major revivals and reassessments are proliferating, as we all appreciate Sondheim’s monumental achievements anew. He was surely the most impactful and inventive writer since Oscar Hammerstein himself.

Part One highlights Sondheim’s early years, including his work with composers Jule Styne (Gypsy), Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story), and Richard Rodgers (Do I Hear a Waltz?), along with his scores for the madcap farce A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the zany, eccentric Anyone Can Whistle. All of these were leading to his 1970 landmark, Company.

Kerrytown Concert House is honored to bring back the enormously popular lecture series, The Great American Songbook: What Makes it Great? featuring the incomparable Brent Wagner (University of Michigan Emeritus Professor of Musical Theatre) with pianist Tyler Driskill (U-M Asst. Prof of Musical Theatre).

Exploring Stephen Sondheim’s work is a natural ‘sequel’ to our Rodgers and Hammerstein presentation, since Oscar Hammerstein was Sondheim’s teacher and mentor. With Sondheim’s passing just 4 years ago, major revivals and re-assessments are proliferating, as we all appreciate anew Sondheim’s monumental achievements. He was surely the most impactful and inventive writer since Oscar Hammerstein himself.

Part Two: Sondheim’s own “Golden Age” encompasses his work with director Hal Prince, including Company, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, and continuing with his collaborations with James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods). These works continue to stimulate, entertain, and… astonish!

Hill Auditorium is an iconic part of U-M’s campus, but it is much more than just a site for musical performances and university events. Since its opening a century ago it has hosted a wide array of speeches, concerts and protests both welcomed and opposed by members of the university community. Join us to hear from the Inclusive History Project’s Hill Auditorium Research Team as they share their discoveries, future plans, and the ongoing struggle to make Hill truly an auditorium “For Everyone.”

The University of Michigan has forged a worldwide reputation for its teaching and research, but less well known is the long history of international ties forged by its student athletes. Join us and Bentley archivist jay winkler as he shares stories of U-M’s sports teams’ global travels starting with the football team’s forays to Canada in the 1880s to the baseball team’s voyages to Japan in the 1920s to the “lost” history of basketball legend Cazzie Russell in Egypt and beyond.

Archives are often imagined as dusty repositories of a community or country’s history, but building on its work to document Michigan and its oldest University, staff at the Bentley Library have changed that. Join us to hear former Bentley Director Fran Blouin discuss how Bentley archivists forged connections with colleagues in China, Denmark, post-apartheid South Africa, the Vatican, and many more countries and how those ties helped build both the Bentley and U-M’s international fame.

Refreshments will be provided.

The University of Michigan’s campus has a long and deep history and every generation has cherished particular places, such as the campus zoo or the famous “Sleepy Hollow.” Many of these locations are now gone, but not forgotten. Join us to hear from Professor Jim Tobin as he traces U-M’s “lost campus” and how the campus’ changing spaces reflect broader patterns in university history.