“Hotel Rwanda”

8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8, Highsmith University Union Grotto – This Oscar-nominated film tells the true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed more than 1,000 Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda. The screening is free and open to the public and is sponsored by UNC Asheville’s Black Student Association. For more information, please contact Lamar Hylton at 828.251.6585.

“Barely Seen and Rarely Heard: Political Invisibility of Asheville’s Black Community 1865-1900”

12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, Ramsey Library, Whitman Room – This talk by Darin Waters, lecturer in History, is part of the series, Brown Bag Talks with UNC Asheville Faculty, and is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit the Brown Bag series website.

“State of the Black Student”

7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, Humanities Lecture Hall – This panel discussion, presented by UNC Asheville’s Office of Multicultural Student Programs, is free and open to the public, and features:

Omar Tyree, author and consultant

Marc LaMont Hill, host of “Our World With Black Enterprise” on TV ONE, and affiliated faculty member, Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University

Eve Wright, vice president/associate general counsel of the NBA’s Miami Heat

Hezekiah Griggs III, founder of HG3 Media and CEO of H360 Capital

For more information, please contact Lamar Hylton at 828.251.6585.

“Land, Labor, and Citizenship: The Problem of Freedom”

11:25 a.m. Friday, Feb. 10, Lipinsky Auditorium – This lecture by Sarah Judson, associate professor of History, part of the Humanities course, “The Modern World,” is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit the Humanities Program website.

“Civil Rights/Black Protest Thought”

11:25 a.m. Friday, Feb. 10, Humanities Lecture Hall – This lecture by Cathy Whitlock, lecturer in Mathematics, part of the Humanities course, “The Individual in the Contemporary World,” is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit the Humanities Program website.

“Soul Café”

8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, Highsmith University Union Grotto – This live performance by Immovable Force, featuring music, poetry and spoken word, is presented by UNC Asheville’s Office of Multicultural Student Programs, and is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Lamar Hylton at 828.251.6585.

“Soul Food Junkies”

7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20, Highsmith University Union room 143 – Filmmaker Byron Hurt will screen and discuss his film, “Soul Food Junkies, that explores the health advantages and disadvantages of soul food. This event is presented by UNC Asheville’s Black Student Association and is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Lamar Hylton at 828.251.6585.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet Natasha Trethewey

7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, Humanities Lecture Hall – Trethewey, who will offer a reading and discussion, finds inspiration and source material for her poems in African-American history. The title poem of her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, “Native Guard” (2006, Houghton Mifflin) recalls one of the first black Confederate regiments mustered during the Civil War, while other poems examine feelings in Mississippi about her parents’ interracial marriage. Her forthcoming collection is concerned with colonialism in the Americas. “My obsessions stay the same – historical memory and historical erasure,” says Trethewey. This event is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities Professorship at UNC Asheville, and is free and open to the public. For more information, please see the news release.

Reuter Center Singers in Concert

3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, St. Matthias Episcopal Church, 1 Dundee Street, Asheville – The N.C. Center for Creative Retirement choir, directed by Milton Crotts, will feature music by African-American composers in honor of Black History Month. The program will include “Come Sunday” by Duke Ellington, selections from Scott Joplin’s opera, “Treemonisha,” and selections from Robert Ray’s “Gospel Mass.” The concert is free and open to the public; a free-will offering will be taken. For more information, please call the N.C. Center for Creative Retirement at 828.251.6140.

The university’s Office of Multicultural Student Programs has also organized Black History month events for students only, including a trip to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro.

(Image provided by Sierra Nevada.)

Looking for more happenings in the area? Check out asheville.com's comprehensive visitor center.