February 11, 2014
On January 30, 2014, Melissa Harris-Perry, professor at Tulane University and host of the Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC, addressed students, staff, faculty, and members of the local community at Rackham Auditorium to kick off Black History Month at the University of Michigan as the keynote speaker. A list of upcoming events for Black History Month can be found here.
This event was brought to the University community in large part by the Black History Month Committee, which is made up of 15 students, as well as staff from the office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, the Spectrum Center, National Center for Institutional Diversity, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, and the Center for Educational Outreach. A full list of the sponsors can be seen on MESA's website.
Five staff members and students from the Spectrum Center attended the speech, and found it to be powerful and profound.
"Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry blew me away! From the first leap on stage to the last selfie she took, Dr. Harris-Perry was not only full of energy but also wisdom, wit, and a presence that I find to be unmatched when it comes to academic talks. At all times she seemed very real: switching between informal asides to formal addresses, avoiding questions and talking about this avoidance; Dr. Harris-Perry was herself on stage, to the audience, and to the individuals with which she interacted. I was most impressed by her breakdown of theoretical concepts--affect, epistemological variances, etc.--so they were intelligible on a foundational level, then a historical level, and then a political level. Every aspect of her talk was intersectional, not just when talking about identity, and I really appreciated that. She also managed to bring attention to key, contemporary issues: rape culture, transphobia, the interconnected nature of race, capitalism, and democracy. It was an amazing way to spend an evening, surrounded by friends, co-workers, peers, and someone so inspiring as Dr. Harris-Perry. " -Taylor Portela, Spectrum Center's Community Engagement Student Lead