A variety of speakers and storytellers took to the front of the multipurpose room at UTPB Tuesday as part of the annual African American Read-In.
Held in the multipurpose room at the Mesa Building, it is one of many events planned to mark Black History Month.
Iris Fordjour-Hankins, spoke virtually about gospel presentation and performance, and the keynote address was from storyteller Sue Roseberry.
“I’m excited about the opportunity anytime to share what I’m passionate about, which is storytelling, so I’m going to combine love of storytelling, and my love of reading with Black History Month so how can you lose,” Roseberry said.
She will be part of another Black History event called “Noways Tired” at 2 p.m. Feb. 25 at 1705 W. Missouri Ave., in Midland. For limited seating free admission tickets, visit nowaystired.eventbrite.com
You can follow Roseberry on all the social media platforms, plus YouTube and TikTok.
This is the first year visiting Lecturer in the Department of Literature and Language Leslie Malland has helmed the event. Previously, it was Myra Salcedo, senior lecturer in the Department of Literature and Language, and Rebecca Babcock, William and Ordelle Watts professor in the Department of Literature and Language.
Babcock was presented with a surprise award for starting the program with Salcedo, who was unable to attend. Tanya Lowery, chief compliance officer and interim chief diversity officer, made the presentation. Babcock accepted Salcedo’s award on her behalf.
Malland said they both stepped down and stepped back from the read-in.
“We just wanted to say thank you for getting this started … It’s been a real joy for me to take it over,” Malland said.
She added that she volunteered for it.
“Dr. Salcedo said in an email to our department that she was kind of taking a step back and I just kind of jumped in and said, you know what, I’ll do it. (It) was something of interest to me. I saw what they did last year with it and I thought oh, that just looks like a really fun thing to be a part of and I would love to do that for this community,” Malland said.
She added that Hankins does a lot of work with Black female gospel composers and is a professional soloist and performer herself.
“I really wanted to get her views, as this year’s theme is … hope and progress, and also a celebration of all Black authorship. That’s where I saw the history of gospel fitting in as just one example of all the beautiful things Black authorship can be,” Malland said.
About 50 people were in attendance, but she was expecting more.
During the open mic sessions, everyone was invited to read and share their stories and celebrations.
Outside of the performances from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Malland said it would be come and go and attendees could find community resources, volunteer and internship information for students.
Asked if there would be discussions in addition to the performances, Malland said she wanted to keep it more celebratory this year rather than lecturing.
“Part of that is because one of my colleagues, Mr. Clark Moreland, has put together two very extensive lectures for Black History Month and I really want to encourage everyone to attend those. Those are on (Microsoft) Teams and they are in the university’s Black History Month event calendar, so the public can find them on our websites,” Malland said.
He’s introducing a new one on Malcolm X.
You can attend the lectures in person or watch them on Teams.
