Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection

13th Annual Robert “Bootsie” Barnes Jazz Series featuring Gerald Veasley
Date: Friday, April 24, 2026
Time: 3:00pm
Location: Feinstone Lounge, Sullivan Hall, 1330 Polett Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19122
https://charlesstudy.temple.edu/event/16758246

The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection presents The Legendary MARION WILLIAMS: She was born to sing the gospel!
Date: Thursday, March 12, 2026
Time: 2:00pm - 4:30pm
Location: Charles Library Event Space
https://charlesstudy.temple.edu/event/16112202

DR. IONE D. VARGUS LECTURE SERIES: A Conversation with Bill Vargus and Dr. Adjoa B. Asamoah
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: Feinstone Lounge, Sullivan Hall, 1330 Polett Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19122
charlesstudy.temple.edu/event/16326549

Join us for the exhibition opening reception on Tuesday, January 20, from 5:30–7:30 p.m. in the Charles Library Event Space.

https://library.temple.edu/exhibitions/reflections-in-black-a-reframing

Reflections in Black: A Reframing Book Launch
Date: Sunday, December 14, 2025, 1:00 PM
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm
Location: The Barnes Foundation 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19130
https://www.barnesfoundation.org/whats-on/talks/book-talk-deborah-willis-on-reflections-in-black

https://library.temple.edu/events/2172

https://charlesstudy.temple.edu/event/15339772
Author Talk: Robert Coles | “Pursuing Alexander Pushkin, A Memoir”
Date: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Time: 2:00 PM
Location: Blockson Collection

charlesstudy.temple.edu/event/15339502
SEPTEMBER – Gospel Music Heritage Month
Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 2 PM
Blockson Collection Author Talk: Dr. Lynn Peterson | “Flying with the Birds: Rev. Joe Williams, The Last Original Member of the Iconic Dixie Hummingbirds”

Details in bio!

Next week! Please join for four days of storytelling across generations. The North Philadelphia History Festival (July 24-27) brings together elder jazz musicians, students, longtime residents, and community experts to share the neighborhood’s rich legacy. Experience everything from archival photography exhibitions to musical celebrations, where every age has a story to tell and every voice matters.

will be participating with the following projects:

Thursday, July 24th, 2:00-5:00PM at The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
July We Remember and We Recall: Oral History Listening Room | Scribe

July 24-27 at 1517 W Girard Avenue
The Pyramid Club: Black Leisure and Cultural Empowerment | Scribe

📍 Various sites throughout North Philadelphia 
🎟️ All events are FREE and open to the public. 
🌍 Learn more: scribe.org/NPHF


JUNETEENTH AT THE BLOCKSON COLLECTION
Hank Willis Thomas | Visions of Black Life: Honoring the Johnson Publishing Company
Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Center for Anti-Racism, 140 Mazur Hall, 1114 W. Polett Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19122
Registration: https://charlesstudy.temple.edu/event/14770124

“Ebony and Jet created the greatest archive of the African American experience…”
---Hank Willis Thomas

Using the Johnson Publishing Company digital archive, Hank Willis Thomas will address the making and uses of photographic archives, the narratives they tell, and the parameters that define them as objects of study. As visual collections, photographic archives present specific concerns, especially as digital technologies change the way knowledge is classified, stored, retrieved, and disseminated.

This artist talk will explore the range of ideas and methods used by critical thinkers in addressing the field of Black visual studies and to familiarize them with the work of activists, scholars and artists working in this area. The practice of Black visual studies entails the critical evaluation of historical images in multiple realms of culture: migration, art, new media, activism, medical humanities, and politics. The construction of beauty and style, gendered images, identity, race, and Black women activists as icons in music and popular culture will also be considered.

Participants will investigate formal and conceptual components of images, as well as issues of image-reception and agency. The interplay between the historical and the contemporary, between self-presentation and imposed representation as well as in ads / advertising --all are fundamental to our discussion of the visual construction of Black people within a global landscape.
This program is made possible with support from Getty through its "Visions of Black Life: Honoring the Johnson Publishing Company" initiative.