Africana Studies at Penn

09/21/2026

Dr. Marcia Chatelain [] is the Penn Presidential Compact Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. An acclaimed scholar, she is a 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, and was named a Top Influencer in Higher Education by the Chronicle of Higher Education for curating the . Her previous book, “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America,” won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for History and a 2022 James Beard Foundation Book Award. She joins us to discuss her highly anticipated new book, “How Bright the Path Grows: The Untold Story of the Women who Made the March on Washington.”

🗓️ October 19, 2026
🕠 5:30pm
📍 Penn Carey Law, Fitts Auditorium
3501 Sansom Street
University of Pennsylvania

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of History at Penn, and the Penn Women’s Center. Register today!

09/21/2026

The US military strikes in the Caribbean have now passed 231 killings, with the latest lethal strike on September 19th that killed four more people it described as “narco-terrorists,” according to U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). - learn more from News Americas

US military strikes in the Caribbean have now killed at least 231 people in 69 strikes.

09/18/2026

Community College of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania today hosted a signing ceremony and open house to announce the Penn-CCP Entrepreneurship Academy, a new initiative to increase economic opportunity for West Philadelphia businesses.

Community College of Philadelphia

The Penn-CCP Entrepreneurship Academy is a no-cost, 10-session learning experience for West Philly business owners.

09/18/2026

On October 7th, the African-American Resource Center is hosting a program named after a poem by Nikki Giovani, “Always There Are The Children: How do we keep them?” The program invites adults to reflect honestly on what children and young people have a right to expect from their communities, examine our collective responsibility, acknowledge where we have fallen short, consider what we owe our children, and identify the responsibility each of us is prepared to claim. The goal is not to shame participants or assign individual blame. The goal is to create enough honesty and reflection for participants to recognize that the safety, well-being, and flourishing of children are an adult responsibility—and that caring about children must ultimately be demonstrated through action. The program will be facilitated by Eric (Brother Shomari) Grimes from WURD Radio. https://tinyurl.com/always-there-are-the-children

Penn AARC invites you to join them for this important conversation. They welcome an audience of parents, teachers, social change agents, and others.

🗓️ October 7, 2026
🕠 6pm-8pm (5:30pm reception)
📍 Gutmann College House
211 S. 40th Street
University of Pennsylvania

09/14/2026

From vacant lots to healthier blocks: How urban greening affects health

Eugenia South and Nicole Thomas of Penn Medicine’s Center for Health Justice discuss how community investments, community partnerships, and neighborhood greening can improve health, safety, and well-being.

Eugenia South and Nicole Thomas of Penn Medicine’s Center for Health Justice discuss how community investments, community partnerships, and neighborhood greening can improve health, safety, and well-being.

09/14/2026

UN votes to adopt new world map to reflect Africa's true size - read this from BBC

The Togo-sponsored resolution was backed by 164 nations - with the US as the only nation to vote against it.

09/14/2026

TODAY @ 3 PM: The Center for Latin American & Latinx Studies at University of Pennsylvania hopes you can join them today in McNeil 473 for a film screening of Tales of Oblivion with director Dulce Fernandes. Please RSVP HERE: https://tinyurl.com/talesofoblivion-penn26

Tales of Oblivion is a film about the 2009 finding of human remains by archaeologists in a 15th-century landfill site in southern Portugal. Read more about the film and Dulce Fernandes in this article by António Tomás, associate professor at the University of California, Irvine, in Africa is a Country Newsletter: http://africasacountry.com/2025/05/what-portugal-forgets

This event is co-sponsored by the Spanish and Portuguese, History, and CLALS, and it is organized by Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, associate professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

09/11/2026

Did you know Dr. José Celso Barbosa broke barriers as both a physician and a political leader in Puerto Rico? Barbosa was born on July 27, 1857 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, to Carmen Alcalá and Hermógenes Barbosa, a brick mason and sugar mill overseer. He was the first racially mixed student admitted to Puerto Rico’s prestigious Jesuit seminary, and after being rejected by Columbia due to racist admissions policies, he became the first Puerto Rican, and one of the first people of African descent, to earn a medical degree in the United States, graduating as valedictorian from the University of Michigan in 1880.

Back home, he became a trailblazer in public health. He pioneered an early form of health insurance in Puerto Rico, encouraging employers to pay a fee to cover their workers’ future medical needs. He was also deeply political. He founded the Orthodox Autonomist Party and later the Republican Party of Puerto Rico, pushing for greater political rights and statehood for the island. In 1900, he became one of the first five Puerto Rican leaders appointed to the Executive Cabinet under the island’s first civilian U.S. government, serving until 1917, and then went on to serve in Puerto Rico’s first elected Senate from 1917 until his death in 1921.