Here's a list of ATLAS events and other campus happenings that may be of interest to the ATLAS community. If you have an event you'd like to have listed, please let us know about it!

Jubilee: Celebrating 25 Years of The Driskell Center

event flyerFriday, September 11, 2026 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm | Cole Student Activities Building, 1214, Driskell Center

Join us in celebrating the landmark 25th anniversary of The Driskell Center with Jubilee. A yearlong exhibition featuring more than 70 works from the Center’s historic art collection, Jubilee highlights prevalent subjects, aesthetic trends, and concerns that Black artists have engaged with from the early 20th century to the contemporary moment. Look back on our history and forward, to the next 25 years and beyond! The exhibition is curated by Dr. Adrienne Childs (Ph.D. '05).

Learn more here.

Film Screening: The Waste Commons

Film title and a woman

Film Screening: The Waste Commons
Friday, October 2, 2026 | 2-4 PM | Ulrich Recital Hall (Tawes Hall, 1121) 

This film screening will be followed by a discussion with the director/producer/writer, Dr. Rosalind Fredericks.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology. 

Learn more here.

2026 ARHU Dean's Lecture Series with Angélique Kidjo

Angélique KidjoFive-time Grammy Award winner and humanitarian Angélique Kidjo sits down with College of Arts and Humanities Dean Stephanie Shonekan for a poignant conversation about music, cultural fluency and global advocacy. Named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and “Africa’s premier diva,” Kidjo hails from Benin and blends musical traditions from West Africa and around the globe while incorporating multiple languages, including her own personal musical language.

During this special evening, Dean Shonekan and Kidjo will explore the artist’s music and how the singer has used her fame as a platform for humanitarian work as an ambassador for both Oxfam and UNICEF and a founder of the Batonga Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing girls’ education across Africa.

Learn more here.

2026 Universities Studying Slavery Conference

woman addressing audienceFrom October 22-25th, 2026 the international Universities Studying Slavery (USS) consortium will host its fall conference in College Park on the campus of the University of Maryland. The conference is organized by The 1856 Project, whose members include historians, archivists, librarians, and community members. This project interprets the history of slavery at UMD and the larger African American experience at the university and in the state of Maryland.  

Learn more here.

A Raisin in the Sun

sun behind buildings“What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?” - Langston Hughes

The Younger family on Chicago’s South Side is holding tight to visions of a brighter future. When a life insurance check arrives, suddenly possibility comes with a price. As each family member reaches for a different dream, they must confront what a better life really means – and what America is willing to share.

Both tender and electrifying, A Raisin in the Sun celebrates Black joy, resilience and family while facing the brutal realities of segregation and discrimination. A landmark of American theater, it made history as the first Broadway play written by an African American woman (Lorraine Hansberry), the first Broadway play directed by an African American man (Lloyd Richards), and the first commercially produced Broadway drama to center Black life. TDPS Assistant Professor KenYatta Rogers (director of Stick Fly, Men on Boats, Metamorphoses and Home) directs this enduring American classic.

Learn more here.