The John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies at the University of Texas will host its first Documentary Film Showcase with three films exploring the relationship between storytelling and activism. The directors for the three films will be on hand to answer questions.

The films are “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners,” which focuses on Angela Davis’ 1970 trial for murder; “The Past is Not Our Future: Walter Rodney’s Student Years,” which documents the early period of Walter Rodney’s life of activism; and “This Little Light: A Black Feminist Worker’s Story,” which tells the story of Wendi Moore-O’Neal, a Black Feminist freedom singer who was fired from her community organizing job after marrying her wife.

More information and RSVP online, or contact  blackstudies@austin.utexas.edu.

Location: University of Texas at Austin campus, CLA 1.302E, Julius Glickman Conference Center (first floor, RLP Building). Paid parking in the Brazos Garage, 210 E. MLK Blvd.

Michael Brandon McCormack will deliver the 14th Annual Bishop E.T. Dixon Lecture, “On Black Life Insisted from Death: A Critical Meditation on Queen & Slim.” McCormack is an Associate Professor of Pan-African Studies and Comparative Humanities at the University of Louisville, where he specializes in black religion and cultural studies.

“Queen & Slim,” the critically acclaimed 2019 film, follows two African Americans who go on the run after killing a police officer in self-defense during a traffic stop gone wrong.

More information online.

Location: Huston-Tillotson University, Agard-Lovinggood Auditorium, 900 Chicon St, Austin, 78702

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, will speak on “The Descent of Democracy and The Promise of African-American History.” He is the former director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library and the world’s leading library and archive of global black history.

RSVP and more information online. The event is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas.

Location: University of Texas, LBJ School of Public Affairs, 2315 Red River St. (SRH 3), first floor lobby, Austin 78712

The founding chair of the African and African Diaspora Studies Department at the University of Texas will be the keynote speaker for “Growing Your Roots 2020: The Inaugural African American Genealogy Conference of Austin, Texas.”

Edmund “Ted” Gordon, who is Vice Provost for Diversity in addition to his faculty position, has for years led students and visitors to campus on a “Racial Geography Tour” that takes an in-depth look at the University’s racial history.

Gordon’s talk will be followed by a screening of “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin,” a film about the visionary strategist and activist who has been called “the unknown hero” of the civil rights movement.

Registration and a full schedule for the free four-day conference online.

Location: Austin Public Library, Special Events Center, 710 W. Cesar Chavez St., 78701

“The Bystander Moment: Transforming Rape Culture at its Roots” tells the story of the innovative bystander approach to ending men’s violence against women. The film features activist and writer Jackson Katz, one of country’s most well-known anti-rape educators.

The free screening is sponsored by the Men’s Engagement Group of SAFE Alliance. SAFE Alliance was formed by the merger of Austin Children’s Shelter and SafePlace, both longstanding agencies in Austin serving the survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and exploitation, and domestic violence.

More information on the Facebook event page.

Location: SAFE, Community Room, 1515 Grove Blvd., Austin