Beginning tomorrow, a series of events will take place on campus examining the black experience at The University of Iowa. Two sessions in the “Iowa and Invisible Man: Making Blackness Visible” project have an online component in the Iowa Digital Library.

• Tuesday, Nov. 29, 7 p.m., Shambaugh Auditorium, UI Main Library: “Black Hawkeyes: Midcentury Memories of the University of Iowa.”What was it like to be a black individual on the UI campus in the 1950s? UI alumni will offer first-hand memories of that period. The panel will be moderated by Richard Breaux, assistant professor in Ethnic Studies at Colorado State University and author of Maintaining a Home for Girls: The Iowa Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs at the University of Iowa, 1919-1950 and To the Uplift and Protection of Young Womanhood: African American Women at Iowa Private Colleges and the University of Iowa, 1878-1928.

View the digital collection inspired by Breaux’s research:

• Thursday, Dec. 1, 3 p.m., Iowa Memorial Union, Illinois Room (Room 348): “For My People: Elizabeth Catlett at Iowa and Beyond.”UI Museum of Art chief curator Kathleen Edwards will discuss the work of UI alumna Elizabeth Catlett (MFA ’40), including her sculpture Invisible Man: A Memorial to Ralph Ellison, 2003. Edwards visited with Catlett in Mexico in 2006. Subsequently, the UIMA purchased 26 of Catlett’s prints. After the lecture, the audience may view prints by Catlett in the UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom.

View digitized versions of Catlett’s work in the University of Iowa Museum of Art digital collection: