Through film, spoken word, dance, history, community, and music, Castle of Our Skins‘ “I AM A MAN 2019” project is an educational and artistic examination of this famous civil rights declaration. As human dignity continues to be challenged throughout the world, “I AM A MAN 2019” serves as a reminder that such challenges have been overcome in the past, and will be overcome in the future. Encouraging people to have strength to stand up to injustice, “I AM A MAN 2019” discusses contemporary concerns of Black masculinity and human dignity, while celebrating the past and present contributions of men fighting for equality.

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EVENTS: JUNE 2 THROUGH 8 @ HIBERNIAN HALL

Play Songs & Games  + Community Gather & Sing
– June 2nd @ 2:30PM – 4:30pm, Hibernian Hall
Join us for a family-friendly, two-part afternoon of fellowship, song, history, and food.

2:30-3:00PM: Play Songs & Games is an interactive educational workshop for young children and families exploring African American and Caribbean children’s songs and games. Come move, sing, and learn! Appropriate for toddlers through elementary-aged youth, parents, and families.

3:00-4:30PM: Lend your voice in this Community Gather & Sing of traditional African American civil rights songs. Appropriate for all ages. Light food and drinks provided.

Community Gather & Sing
Building fellowship and community through song

Lend your voice in this community sing-along of traditional African American civil rights songs. Join us for fellowship, song, history and food.

Free, family-friendly, appropriate for all ages. Light food and drinks provided.

– June 4th @ 6:00PM, Dewitt Center

Community Conversation
Engaging youth and community to discuss masculinity in 2019

“What do you think it means to be a man?”

Join us in a conversation exploring this central question, one that’s relevant today now more than ever. From our collective responses, we’ll work together to create a poem which will be performed live in our Saturday, June 8th Finale Concert at Hibernian Hall. Participants will be acknowledged as creative contributors at the Saturday evening performance and receive free admission. Free, appropriate for teens and families. Light food and drinks provided.

– June 5 @ 4:00PM, Hibernian Hall

Seth Parker Woods, cello
Recital featuring contemporary classical music by Black composers

About Seth Parker Woods: Hailed by The Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace” who possesses “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” Seth Parker Woods has established a reputation as a versatile artist straddling several genres. IN addition to solo performances, he has appeared with the Ictus Ensemble (Brussels, BE), Ensemble L’Arsenale (IT), zone Experimental (CH), Basel Sinfonietta (CH), New York City Ballet, Ensemble LPR, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s (US). A fierce advocate for contemporary arts, Woods has collaborated and worked with a wide range of artists ranging from the likes of Louis Andriessen, Elliott Carter, Heinz Holliger, G. F. Haas, Helmut Lachenmann, Klaus Lang, and Peter Eötvos to Peter Gabriel, Sting, Lou Reed, Dame Shirley Bassey, and Rachael Yamagata to such visual artists as Ron Athey, Vanessa Beecroft, Jack Early, Adam Pendleton, and Aldo Tambellini.

– June 6 @ 7:00PM, Hibernian Hall
Beginning at 6:30pm, there will be self-guided “edu-stations”: interactive, hand-on learning stations focused on the historic 1968 Memphis sanitation strike that birthed the I AM A MAN declaration.

I Am Not Your Negro
Free film screening

A free screening of I Am Not Your Negro by Raoul Peck, a documentary about writer and activist James Baldwin.

Light food and drinks provided.

About the film: Master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.

“Whatever you think about the past and future of what used to be called “race relations” this movie will make you think again, and may even change your mind.” – A.O. Scott, The NYTimes

– June 7 @ 6PM, Hibernian Hall

Finale Concert: I AM A MAN
Featuring spoken word, dance, and music performed by Castle of our Skins

Featuring spoken word, dance, multimedia, and music by Black male composers, including a world premiere by Castle of our Skins 2018-2019 Composer-in-Residence Brian Raphael Nabors. The concert will be followed by a reception.

– June 8 @ 7:00PM, Hibernian Hall
– Pre-concert composer talk with Brian R. Nabors @ 6:00PM, ​Hibernian Hall