The MTSU Black History Month Committee invites you to “read all about it.”

“Reading the Black Experience” is a new event in which participants will read an excerpt from a book about Black life in advance of four separate discussion periods during the month of February.

The excerpts are available to download at www.mtsu.edu/studentsuccess/students.php.

Dr. Frances Henderson

Dr. Natalie Griffin

“Each week in February, a faculty member will facilitate a discussion around a different fiction or nonfiction book,” said Dr. Natalie Griffin, an assistant professor of early childhood education and one of the event’s organizers.

The books, discussion dates and locations are:

• “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 6 to 8 p.m., in Room 164 of the College of Education building, facilitated by Griffin.

• “Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot” by Mikki Kendall, Thursday, Feb. 10, 4 to 6 p.m. (Updated new time), in Room 330 of the  Student Union, facilitated by Dr. Frances Henderson, a master instructor of English and an event co-organizer.

Dr. Vincent Windrow

Dr. Aaron Treadwell

• “The Miseducation of the Negro” by Carter G. Woodson, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 6 to 8 p.m., in Room 164 of the College of Education building, facilitated by Dr. Vincent Windrow, associate vice provost for student success.

• “Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans” by Gayraud S. Wilmore, Friday, Feb. 25, 7 to 8:30 p.m., in Cantrell Hall, Tom H. Jackson Building. The book will be incorporated into a panel discussion titled “The State of the African-American Union Address” facilitated by Dr. Aaron Treadwell, an assistant professor of history, and will feature Bishop Anne Henning Byfield, president of the African Methodist Episcopal Council of Bishops, and virtual participation from the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Goldsboro, North Carolina; president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach; co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival; Bishop with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries; and Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary. Also helping moderate the panel will be members of the MTSU NAACP Student Chapter and the National Pan-Hellenic Council. (Editor’s note: This updates previous location of COE Room 164)

Bishop Anne Henning Byfield

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber

In addition, students will be able to enter drawings to win free copies of each of the featured books. Three students will be eligible to receive a copy of each book courtesy of the event co-sponsor, MTSU’s College of Liberal Arts.

For more information, contact Griffin at natalie.griffin@mtsu.edu, Henderson at frances.henderson@mtsu.edu or Daniel Green, director of the Office of Intercultural and Diversity Affairs and chair of the Black History Month Committee, at daniel.green@mtsu.edu.

— Gina K. Logue (gina.logue@mtsu.edu)