The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at The University of New Mexico hosts a reception, art works, and lecture on Thursday, Feb. 23, starting at 3 p.m. to mark Black History Month.
Everyone is welcome to join the reception with food, drinks, and engaging dialogue and learning as the Maxwell welcomes artist Karen Collins and historian Timothy E. Nelson for two back-to-back free public events.
Collins founded the African American Miniature Museum, a powerful cultural and pedagogical tool in the ongoing fight for Black cultural and historical recognition and racial justice. She is a self-taught folk artist who for the last 24 years has been documenting history through dioramas placed in shadowboxes. She was featured by Google in 2020 and commissioned by the Autry Museum of the American West.
Nelson earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at El Paso and is a proud charter member of his chapter of Phi Beta Sigma, whose motto is “Culture for Service and Service for Humanity.” In June 2023, Texas Tech University Press will publish his book Blackdom, New Mexico: The Significance of the Afro-Frontier, 1900-1930.
The reception in the museum's center gallery at 3 p.m. will be right before Nelson's public lecture at 5 p.m. titled Blackdom, New Mexico: The Significance of the Afro-Frontier in the Hibben Center for Archaeological Research across from the Maxwell Museum. The in-person lecture will be streamed on Zoom, too. Register for the Zoom lecture here.
The gallery will showcase two new, original artworks by Collins, Blackdom NM and George McJunkin, the African American cowboy and archaeologist who discovered the distinctive stone tool now called the Folsom point.
This event is made possible and sponsored by the UNM African American Student Services, UNM Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, the Mellon Foundation, Blackdom Clothing & Productions Ltd. CO., UNM Department of Africana Studies, the UNM Asian American Pacific Islander Resource Center, and the Maxwell Museum.
The Museum has a few reserved spaces and - next to them - UNM has several pay-for-parking spaces: both immediately to the west of the Museum by the loading dock. Arrive early, park in one of the Museum's reserved spaces, and get your free parking permit inside the Museum (while supplies last). The Museum has also reserved the P/B parking lot, located on the corner of University and Central, where you can park without being fined from 3-6:30 p.m.