Events Archives
ALC Observes Black History Month with lecture on African American Women’s Autobiographies
February 22, 2008
As part of the Black History Month celebration, the American Language Center (ALC) hosted guest speaker Dr. Brenda Berrian, professor of Africana studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Lecturing on “African American Women’s Autobiographies,” Dr. Berrian addressed an audience of 50 at the American Cultural Center on Friday, February 22, 2008.
Dr. Berrian described four autobiography forms, namely a slave narrative, a civil rights activist autobiography, a sickness narrative of an African American woman who suffered from breast cancer, and a cross-cultural narrative of an African American married to a Nigerian. Dr. Berrian gave her talk in English to an audience composed of Burkina military officers, US embassy employees, University of Ouagadougou English Department students, local English teachers, and professional students of the ALC, among others. The talk was followed by a question and answer session with Dr. Berrian.
The Burkinabe audience was intrigued and impressed with these literary works written by African American women and what their stories revealed about the African American experience. There was a lot of interest expressed in getting the titles and authors’ names from the works she cited in her lecture.
This event fostered increased understanding of the issues of race in American society and more broadly, how the African American story fits into the bigger American story. The audience appreciated Dr. Berrian’s approach to revealing the African American story by presenting it specifically through the vision, experience, and language of women. Audience members enjoyed this event that gave them an opportunity to use English to learn about and discuss African American history through the eyes of African American women.
Following Dr. Berrian’s talk, the ALC sponsored a book give-away in which ten audience members won free copies of the booklet entitled, African American Women in Literature and 20 audience members won free copies of the book Essays on African-American History, Culture and Society.