WIBS 2007

Telling the Story: Blacks in America and the Pacific

The Faculty of African Descent (FAD) at the University of Hawai`i - Mānoa presented the Second Winter Institute on Black Studies, January 11-12, 2007, at the East-West Center’s Imin International Conference Center on the Mānoa campus. The Winter Institute brought together distinguished scholars and professionals to discuss the history of race in America, insights connecting indigenous issues to broad racial concerns and the struggles of the peoples of the Pacific. A general discussion open to all Institute attendees examined the most promising means for promoting racial understanding in contemporary society.

The event included, on January 11, a keynote address by Lonnie G. Bunch, Founding Director, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Bunch is a past-President of the Chicago Historical Society and has held numerous teaching positions at universities including The American University in Washington, D.C, The University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and George Washington University. He has also produced several historical documentaries for public television. The topic of his presentation was "The Fire This Time: The Challenge of Interpreting African American Culture in American Museums."

In addition to Bunch, the Institute also featured Dr. James O. Horton, Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History at George Washington University and Visiting Professor, Department of American Studies, UH Mānoa; poetry reading by Kathryn Waddell Takara, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, UH Mānoa; and musical entertainment by Star Williams & Company. Three roundtable discussions on January 12 brought together fifteen distinguished panelists including Spencer Crew, Director, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; Beverly A. Morgan-Welch, Executive Director, Museum of Afro-American History; Ralph Regenvanu, Director, Vanuatu Cultural Center; Daniel Martinez, Historian, National Park Service; Noelle Kahanu, Education Specialist, Bishop Museum and Organizer of the Native Hawaiian Arts Market of Maoli Arts Month; and, David W. Blight, Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery, Antislavery and Resistance, Yale University.