Rice to host Black List Project to coincide with Black History Month

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

As part of its commemoration of Black History Month, Rice University will host volumes 2 and 3 of the Black List Project, a photographic exhibit and documentary featuring portraits of prominent African-Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

	As part of its commemoration of Black History Month, Rice University will host volumes 2 and 3 of the Black List Project, a photographic exhibit and documentary featuring portraits of prominent African-Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

Photographer and filmmaker Greenfield-Sanders will kick off the celebration Feb. 3 with a screening of a compilation of vignettes from the first three volumes of the Black List Project at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC) at the corner of Main Street and University Boulevard. The film begins at noon, with Greenfield-Sanders in attendance and available to take questions.

An exhibit of the photographs will open on the same day (Feb. 3) at the Rice Media Center and will remain on display through Feb. 25.

Historically, “blacklist” denotes a group of people marginalized and denied work or social approval. In an effort to redefine the word, 25 noted African-Americans provide insight on the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in the United States. These “portraits” are both pictorial and verbal, and they represent some of the most dynamic and inspiring personalities in the fields of politics, music, business, civil activism, literature, the arts and athletics.

Featured photographs include those of political activist and university professor Angela Davis; musician John Legend; Michael Lomax, chairman and CEO of the United Negro College Fund; artist Kara Walker; and actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, novelist and composer Melvin Van Peebles. The Black List Project was conceived by Greenfield-Sanders with Elvis Mitchell, National Public Radio correspondent and former New York Times film critic.

Volume 1 of the Black List was exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2008.

In addition to the artistic and academic components of the exhibit, Rice’s Humanities Research Center will incorporate K-12 initiatives into the project by organizing field trips for middle and high school students in Houston. These visits will include viewing the photographs, watching segments of the documentary and listening to a talk by Rice faculty or undergraduates on topics with related themes. The Black List Project incorporates an educational component into its mission, creating rich and empowering media vehicles that can ignite meaningful discourse and change. Discussing these themes with students can inspire discussions relating to writing, the individual voice, history, identity, mentoring, education, race and achievement.

The Black List Project was brought to Rice by HumanArt, a collaboration between Rice’s Humanities Research Center and its Public Art Program. HumanArt is designed to integrate artistic endeavor into every layer of Rice’s learning community. For more information on the Black List Project, go to www.humanart.org.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Humanities Research Center, Rice Public Art, the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts and the dean of the School of Humanities.