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Showing Tag: "african" (Show all posts)

Preserving Black Culture and History, One Cemetery at a Time: Oberlin Cemetery, Raleigh NC

Posted by on Thursday, November 10, 2016, In : Black Lives Matter 


Photo: Irma McClaurin

How people bury their dead tells you something about who and what they valued in life. African American cemeteries are few and far between because often, after Reconstruction and during the era of Jim Crow and segregation, black property was confiscated or destroyed, and sometimes Black cemeteries were covered over to make room for highways and urban development. This makes the presence and preservation of Oberlin Cemetery in Raleigh, NC very special and very necessary.

Ef...


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History and Imagination Drive Singer Zena Carlota's Afro-Folk Sound

Posted by on Monday, May 30, 2016, In : Arts and Culture 
I would never have imagined that my daughter, Zena Carlota, would grow into the amazing artist and performer that she is today.  It is one thing for me to celebrate her talents--that's what parents do.  But when others recognize the talent, then you feel redeemed by the investments you've made as a parent.  At the end of the day, the talent is all hers.  Learn about how Zena Carlota  uses her heritage as a person of the African Diaspora,  a descendant of enslaved Africans and the mixture of g...
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SCIENCESpeak: Hands-On Science-STEM REACH 2020 Seeks To Develop The Next Generation Of Black And Hispanic Science Giants

Posted by Irma McClaurin on Monday, May 30, 2016,
use_0685-copyHow do you entice a bunch of squirming children to settle down, take turns asking questions, introduce themselves and explain how to program a robot? Engage them in hands-on science. That is precisely what took place on Friday, March 11, 2016 at Howard University as part of Black Press Week in Washington, D.C.

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Foundation held a ground-breaking summit “Best Practices in STEM” with a Fiber Optics inventor, two NASA Roboticists and a women...


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SCIENCESpeak: Brown And Black Giants Of Science: Making The Invisible Visible (Part 1)

Posted by on Monday, May 30, 2016, In : Public Engagement 

“There is no American History without Black American History.” Lonnie Bunch, Director, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
If it is true that there can be no American history without Black American history, then it is also true that there can be no history of science in America without recognition of the contributions that Africans, African Americans and Hispanics have made to the development of science, technology, engineering and math. Yet these c...


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Remembering Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015)

Posted by Irma McClaurin on Monday, October 19, 2015, In : Leadership 

bond julian 300On hearing the announcement that Julian Bond had passed on to the ancestors, I knew greatness had left us. The event gave me pause and I tried to remember when I first found myself in the sphere of influence of this great American leader. 


Remembering Julian Bond took me back to my college days. It was there I had t crossed his path and come into his political orbit. He was this great Black leader that my very white college invited to speak on campus as part of the "Program in Practical Politi...
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Artspeak: A sister on "Sistas The Musical," Off Broadway

Posted by on Monday, October 19, 2015, In : Arts and Culture 
img 3337Sistahtime--hanging out with my girrrrlfriends--is always quality time. But when I get to hang out with my real sister, it's the bomb—in the words of MasterCard, "priceless." 

From the opening song of "Wade in the Water" to the closing with the Sister Sledge classic "We are Family," "Sistas-the Musical" takes us through an arc of love, conflict, faith, loss of faith, sexual abuse, recovery, being single, interracial relations, coming of age, coming full circle to family (sistas) love and sup...
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Artspeak: Anthropology honors the mentoring legacy of Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole

Posted by on Thursday, December 13, 2012, In : A Moment in Time 
This presentation was delivered at the annual meeting of the American Anthropology Association on November 15, 2012 in San Francisco, where several sessions and panels were held to honor Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole. She is best known as the only woman to have served as President of two historically Black women’s colleges—Spelman College in Atlanta, GA (1987-1997) and Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, NC (2003-2008). 

Upon retiring from Spelman, Dr. Cole went on to become an intellectu...
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Travelin' the world ....lookin' for somethin

Posted by Irma McClaurin on Thursday, December 6, 2012, In : Public Engagement 
Pictured: Malik of African & Caribbean Culture Centre, McClaurin, Centre visitor
 Sweet Dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
I travel the world and the seven seas.
Everybody's lookin' for somethin'.
Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams are Made of This

People often ask me why I travel. And it's only after I return home that I can truthfully answer that question. Perhaps, like the Eurythmics' lyrics suggest, I am looking for something. And that is true, then what?

Travel, for me, is an adventure. It...


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ARTSPEAK: DWB-- Diving while Black

Posted by on Thursday, December 6, 2012, In : A Moment in Time 




Irma McClaurin with Dive Master Eric Wederfoort. Photo Credit: ©2011 McClaurin Solutions
 My first memory of moving underwater wasn't real. At 8 years, old I participated in a special science summer program for what we would now call "gifted" children; I wrote a play in which the setting was the sea. The main character was a young girl who finds a seahorse that takes her on a magical journey underwater.

Never mind that I had not even visited the ocean or the sea, and never mind that I...


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Why Anthropology?

Posted by on Sunday, July 18, 2010, In : Why Anthropology 


"A friend asked me how being an African American woman is like being an anthropologist? I had not thought the two bore any resemblance to each other, but upon reflection, I see connections. Anthropologists have the task of inserting themselves into communities where they do not fit automatically. In this respect, I have spent the vast majority of my life adapting to and intruding myself upon places where unwelcome signs abounded. As anthro...

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A Doll Like Me...

Posted by on Tuesday, July 6, 2010, In : Black Beauty & Health 


Black women are rarely praised for our beauty. We exist in a world that constantly reminds us that we don't fit the

normative. So how would it feel to have someone design a doll that looks like you, reflects your personality?  Wonderful!.

Meet Amandina. She is based on photographs of me, and was designed by Kristen Belton Willis who, "created Abena's Family to help the diverse children and adults around the world find a doll that looks like them."

I named my doll "Amandina,"  a Tanzan...
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