Dr. Drew Morton, assistant professor of Mass Communication and 2015 Scholar of the Year at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, will screen Marlon Riggs’ 1992 documentary “Color Adjustment” on Monday, Oct. 3, at 6 p.m. in University Center 210 on the A&M-Texarkana campus, 7101 University Ave., Texarkana, Texas, as part of the 2016-17 Program for Learning and Community Engagement SuperLecture series. The event is free and open to the public.
Narrated by acclaimed actress Ruby Dee (“A Raisin in the Sun,” “Do the Right Thing”), “Color Adjustment” analyzes American race relations through an analysis of African-Americans on television from “Amos ’n’ Andy” and “The Jeffersons” to “Roots” and “The Cosby Show.”
Featuring interviews with such notable talent as Diahann Carroll (“Julia”) and Norman Lear (“All in the Family”) and scholars like Herman Gray and Henry Louis Gates Jr., this rarely screened documentary won a Peabody Award and was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Prior to the screening, Dr. Morton will provide a brief lecture entitled “Fade to Black” on the contemporary state of racial diversity in Hollywood, the practice of “white washing” and the #OscarsSoWhite boycott that defined the 2016 Academy Awards.
PLACE is a faculty-led program designed to create a community of learners comprising A&M-Texarkana students, faculty, staff and the community at large. PLACE chooses an annual theme around which to organize a lecture series and other activities that provide focal points for learning and discussion. This year’s theme is “Race and Ethnicity.”
Future PLACE events include the following:
October
- Thursday, Oct. 6, 2-3:30 p.m. – Dr. James Presley – “Superfund Drama in Texarkana: The Battle of Carver Terrace” – University Center 210
- Tuesday, Oct. 18, 12-2:30 p.m. – Dr. Kim Murray – “Cultural Appreciation or Cultural Appropriation? A Conversation about Halloween Costumes” – Eagle Lounge, University Center
- Wednesday, Oct. 26, 11 a.m.-12 p.m. – Dr. Corrine Hinton – SuperLecture, “‘God decreed it so’: The Rhetoric of Destiny in 1963” – University Center 210
- Thursday, Oct. 27, 7-8:30 p.m. – Dr. Daniel Fairbanks – Everyone Is African: How Science Explodes the Myth of Race – Eagle Hall, University Center
November
- Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2:30-3:45 p.m. – Dr. Doug Julien SuperLecture, “Digitally Mapping Race in Texarkana” – University Center 210
- Tuesday, Nov. 1, 6-10 p.m. – Screening and Discussion with Dr. Drew Morton – “Do the Right Thing” – University Center 210
- Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1:30-3 p.m. – Dr. Kevin Ells – SuperLecture, “Verifying Sources in Science Reporting or How NOT to Broadcast about Race” – University Center 210
- Thursday, Nov. 17, 7-9 p.m. – Dr. Leo Chavez – “The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation” – Eagle Hall, University Center
