Institute of American Cultures
Upcoming Events
Film Screening: When We Free The World
Tue 2/17 • 5:30PM - 8:30PM PST
Broad Art Center Room 2160E
What does it truly mean to be a man? Join us for a special screening of When We Free the World, the powerful directorial debut of GRAMMY®-nominated poet, acclaimed author, and Tupac Shakur biographer Kevin Powell. Please join us for a reception before the film; screening will be followed by a conversation with filmmaker Kevin Powell and moderator Dr. Marcus Hunter. Reception 5:30 PM, Screening 6:30 PM
Black Joy Unfiltered A Conversation with Michael Harriot and Michael Lens; Moderated by Safiya Noble
Wed 2/25 • 5:30PM - 7:30PM PST RSVP
UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Join us for a fireside chat hosted by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in collaboration with the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Michael Harriot and Michael Lens will be signing copies of their books, Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America and Where the Hood At? Fifty Years of Change in Black Neighborhoods.
Symposium: Otro Corazon 3: Queering Sor Juana
Thu 2/26 • 9AM - 8PM PST RSVP
UCLA Northwest Campus Auditorium, 350 De Neve Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Please join us for a celebration of Professor Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s 2026 retirement and lifelong research on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th century Mexican nun/poet/scholar who is hailed all over the world as the “first feminist of the Americas” and the Mexican “Tenth Muse.” Free and open to the public, but all attendees, including participants and audience members, must register online.
Tadashi Nakamura - THIRD ACT Film Screening
Fri 2/27 • 6PM - 9:15PM PST
UCLA James Bridges Theater
Join us for a screening of a documentary biography on the life and career of Bob Nakamura, the legendary “Godfather of Asian American film” and longtime professor of Asian American Studies and film at UCLA. Reception 6–7 PM, Screening 7–8:30 PM, Q&A 8:30–9:15 PM
Wakako Yamauchi's - And the Soul Shall Dance - Film Screening
Sat 2/28 • 7:30PM - 9:30PM PST RSVP
Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum
In person: Q&A with actor Denice Kumagai-Hoy; Brian Niiya, content director, Densho; Lily Tung Crystal, artistic director, East West Players; moderated by UCLA Professor Karen Umemoto, Helen and Morgan Chu director of the Asian American Studies Center. Originally staged by the East West Players, pioneering author Wakako Yamauchi’s adaptation of her award-winning play, “And the Soul Shall Dance,” for KCET’s Hollywood Television Theatre is a poetic, haunting drama that reveals the hardships Japanese Americans faced during the Great Depression.