Black Women in the Arts in the 21st Century

Three prominent African-American artists — Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison, singer and social activist Bernice Reagon Johnson and poet and playwright Sonia Sanchez — will share the stage in a public conversation about Black Women in the Arts in the 21st Century on Thursday, February 13 from 7-9:30 p.m. in the Mullins Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

Hosted by the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, the event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. 

The program, which is part of the annual celebration of Black History Month, will feature the three women sharing their views and thoughts on topics such as the importance of the artist in society, the changing role of the black female artist and the contribution of the artist in defining what it means to be human in the 21st century.

The evening’s program also will include musical selections by The New Africa House Ensemble, the Voices of New Africa Choir directed by Evelyn Harris, and a guest performance by composer and saxophonist Frederick Tillis, director emeritus of the UMass Fine Arts Center.