Cultivating Conversations

TONGUES UNTIED at 35

Join us at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music for a two-day commemoration of the 35th anniversary of Marlon Riggs’ groundbreaking documentary, Tongues Untied, a film that Riggs famously described as an effort to “shatter the nation’s brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference.”

Community Day: New Haven, Yale, and Slavery Exhibition at New Haven Museum

A special community day at the New haven Museum, 115 Whitney Avenue, will be held Saturday, February 15, 2025, offering tours and conversation around the New Haven Museum’s exhibition, “Shining Light on Truth: New Haven, Yale, and Slavery,” prior to its closing on Saturday, March 1, 2025. Presented by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Library, the exhibition highlights the essential role of enslaved and free Black people in New Haven and at Yale.

Mondays at Beinecke: Belle da Costa Greene and Modern Art with Deborah Parker

In the new book “Becoming Belle da Costa Greene: A Visionary Librarian through Her Letters” (Florence: I Tatti - The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies , 2024), Deborah Parker chronicles the making and empowerment of a female connoisseur, curator, and library director in a world where such positions were held by men. Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950) was Pierpont Morgan’s personal librarian (1908–1913) and the first Director of the Morgan Library (1924–1948). She was also the daughter of two mixed-race parents and passed for white.

Mondays at Beinecke: Reflections on Shining Light on Truth with Michael Morand, David Jon Walker, and Charles Warner

A discussion with the curatorial and design team for the exhibition, “Shining Light on Truth: New Haven, Yale, and Slavery,” on view through March 1 at the New Haven Museum. The exhibition opened nearly one year ago on February 16, 2024. It presents evidence of the essential role of enslaved and free Black people in New Haven and at Yale. It celebrates Black resistance and community building. And it illuminates knowledge kept alive in archives and memory for more than three centuries—even when the dominant culture chose to ignore, bury, or forget.

Mondays at Beinecke: Robert Nathaniel Dett with Nathaniel Gumbs, Jason Max Ferdinand, and Perry So

A talk in conjunction with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s Connecticut premiere of Robert Nathaniel Dett’s “The Ordering of Moses” (in concert on Sunday, February 9, at 3pm in Woolsey Hall). The talk will include Nathaniel Gumbs, Director of Chapel Music at Yale University; Jason Max Ferdinand, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Maryland, College Park; and Perry So, Music Director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

Zoom webinar registration link: https://bit.ly/3WjFjCk

2025 University MLK Commemoration featuring Bishop William J. Barber II

Monday, January 27, 2025 | 6:00pm to 7:00pm (Doors open at 5:15 p.m.)

This event is free and open to the public, and it will also be livestreamed. Registration is required to attend.

The Yale University and Greater New Haven communities are invited to attend this year’s MLK Commemoration that honors the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We are pleased to announce that this year’s commemoration will feature Bishop William J. Barber II.

The Rev. Dr. William Joseph Barber II

Artist Talk: Maren Hassinger in Conversation

In celebration of the Yale University Art Gallery’s acquisition and installation of Maren Hassinger’s Monument (Pyramid) (2022), the artist joins Margaret Ewing, the Horace W. Goldsmith Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, in a conversation about her groundbreaking work. Underrecognized until recently by museums, Hassinger has worked steadily in sculpture, installation, and performance, becoming one of the leading artists of our time.

Screening and Q&A: The Quilters

The Quilters (2024), directed by Jenifer McShane, follows the daily lives of several quilters inside the sewing room at South Central Correctional Center, a Level 5 maximum security prison in a small town in Missouri. In tracking several quilts from design to completion, audiences come to know these men, witnessing their struggles, triumphs, and sense of pride as they create something beautiful in this windowless sacred space, deep within the prison walls. The film was recently shortlisted for the Documentary Short Film category for the 97th Academy Awards.

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