Feb

Celebrate Black History Month at the Smithsonian

Celebrate Black History Month at the Smithsonian with free performances, family activities exhibitions and more throughout the month of February.

“The Mutiny on the Amistad,” 1939
Hale Woodruff
(Collection of Savery Library, Talladega College, Talladega, Alabama / National Museum of African American History and Culture)

Feature Event

The Smithsonian’s kickoff celebration of Black History Month will be a Family Day hosted by the National Museum of American History, Saturday, Feb. 7, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Inspired by the exhibition “Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega College,” the family day will include hands-on activities, family gallery tours, musical performances and a genealogy workshop led by Karen Bennett Harmon, the artist’s grandniece and a genealogist for the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Lectures

The Anacostia Community Museum will host discussions with Carla Kaplan, author of Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance (Saturday, Feb. 7 at, 2 p.m.), and with Heather Butts, author of African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.: Healing the Capital During the Civil War Era (Friday, Feb. 27, at 2 p.m.). Book signings will follow the talks. Information and registration are available at www.anacostia.si.edu or 202-633-4844.

Art critics and artists will discuss the life and career of Hale Woodruff, renowned muralist and community leader, at the National Museum of American History, Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. The panelists include Edmund Barry Gaither, director of the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists, and Amalia Amaki, curator of the Paul R. Jones Collection at the University of Delaware.

Smithsonian American Art Museum curator Leslie Umberger will sit down with enigmatic local artist Mingering Mike (in costume) to open the exhibition “Mingering Mike’s Supersonic Greatest Hits,” Friday, Feb. 27, at 6:30 p.m.

Film

The Anacostia Community Museum will screen The Loving Story, an award-winning documentary that tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a couple whose landmark 1967 Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, invalidated a Virginia state law prohibiting interracial marriage, Saturday, Feb. 14, at 2 p.m. A discussion with a museum educator will follow the screening. Information and registration are available at www.anacostia.si.edu or 202-633-4844.

Family Activity

The National Air and Space Museum will celebrate African American contributions to flight and space exploration with two family days: Saturday, Feb. 21, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the National Mall building, and Saturday, Feb. 28, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The days will include hands-on activities and stories from African American astronauts and fighter pilots.

Tours

The Smithsonian American Art Museum will offer special walk-in tours that highlight African American artists in the museum’s collection, every Wednesday and Thursday in February, and Sunday, Feb. 8, at 12:30 p.m. Visitors should go to the F Street lobby.

Anacostia Community Museum educator Tony Thomas will walk visitors through the exhibition “How the Civil War Changed Washington,” then lead them on a “map study” of Anacostia/Uniontown on the museum’s shuttle, Saturday, Feb. 14, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. This event is presented in collaboration with the National Park Service. Information and registration are available at www.anacostia.si.edu or 202-633-4844.

The Big "D" & Mingering "Boogie Down at the White House" (Relations Records, 1975) Album cover

The Big “D” & Mingering
“Boogie Down at the White House” (Relations Records, 1975)
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mike Wilkins and Sheila Duignan and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment

Exhibitions

The Anacostia Community Museum is proud to present two exhibitions: “How the Civil War Changed Washington” offers a glimpse into the impact of African Americans during and after the Civil War as part of a review of the capital city during this period, on view from Feb. 2 to Oct. 18. “Hand of Freedom: The Life & Legacy of the Plummer Family” examines the life and legacy of the Plummer family in Prince George’s County, Md., in the 19th century, on view from Feb. 23 to Dec. 27. Both exhibitions are open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The National Postal Museum is presenting a new exhibit entitled, “Freedom Just Around the Corner: Black America from Civil War to Civil Rights.” A chronicle of the African American experience told from the perspective of stamps and mail, the exhibition includes letters carried by enslaved Americans, mail to and from famous leaders of the civil rights movement, and a significant selection of original artwork for the USPS Black Heritage stamp series from the Postmaster General’s Collection. The exhibition is on view from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through Feb. 15, 2016.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum presents “Mingering Mike’s Supersonic Greatest Hits,” an exhibition of album covers (made of painted cardboard), song lyrics, liner notes and self-recorded singles, all made in the 1960s and ’70s by a Washington artist known only as Mingering Mike. The exhibition is open daily from Feb. 27 to Aug. 2, from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

New Releases

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will release New Orleans Brass Bands: Through the Streets of the City, the seventh title in the Smithsonian Folkways African American Legacy Series, co-presented with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Feb. 10. The album brings together for the first time three musical generations representing three dominant brass-band styles. Folkways will also release Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, a 140-page, large-format book that includes five CDs with 108 tracks accompanied by historic photos and extensive notes about the American music icon, Feb. 24. Information about both releases is available at www.folkways.si.edu.

“Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection,” the first career-spanning box set dedicated to the American music icon, will be released on February 24, 2015.