Black History Month is a time for all of us to take a step back and recognize the contributions that the African American community have both given and had stolen from them. From jazz and soul to the thriving economy of early America due to exploitation/slavery, we owe a lot.

If you're looking for ways to celebrate African-American culture and learn the history, here are five events across the country throughout the month of February.

February 8-18, 2018 (Minneapolis, MN)
World Premiere; Part of the Claude Edison Purdy Festival
Penumbra Theatre
JOY REBEL
As a small child she learned that her cherished grandmother loved her but condemned her parents’ interracial relationship. As a young actress she learned to play the part, even if it meant leaving parts of herself behind. Since then, Khanisha Foster has spent a lifetime refusing to color inside the lines. Join us for a candid look at what it means to find joy in the struggle to be recognized for all of who we are.
February 8-25, 2018 (New York, NY)
Cino Theater
JOSH: THE BLACK BABE RUTH

"Josh: The Black Babe Ruth," written by Michael A. Jones and directed by Bette Howard, dramatizes the life, loves and ultimately the tragic decline of Josh Gibson, who was perhaps the greatest slugger of the Negro leagues and who, some say, died of a broken heart in 1947. The play, based on real events, shows Gibson struggling heroically to make it into the Big Leagues with emotional support from his good friend, the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige, and from the two women who are rivals for his heart--his common law wife and his mistress. Despite his majestic on-field performance, there are immovable obstacles, including resistance to Black players by Major League club owners and Gibson's own personal demons, which suffocate his chances.
February 17th, 2018 (Boston, MA)
Strand Theatre
SANKOFA
“To go back and get it”, we must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward, and we can understand why and how we came to be who we are today. Roxbury Center for the Performing Arts through dance remembers the ones of the past brought here in political bondage, honors the ones of the past who withstood civil injustices and celebrate the ones who paved the way.
February 24th-April 1st, 2018 (Boston, MA)
Emerson Paramount
THE WHITE CARD
Famed author of ”Citizen: An American Lyric,” Claudia Rankine, has bestowed upon Boston the world premiere of her first play. Through a conversation of an elite white couple, Rankine illuminates racism against black bodies in artist scenes.
The Month of February (San Fransisco, CA)
The March Berkeley Arts Center
THE WAITING PERIOD

This show is an unrelenting look at a ten-day period in playwright Brian Copeland’s life—the mandatory ten-day waiting period before he could lay his hands on the newly purchased gun with which he planned to take his own life. Even in the midst of this tragedy, however, his wonderful sense of the comedy of life does not desert him (how much should he spend on the gun?), indeed serves him insidiously well as a buffer against the grim reality of his intention. Copeland hopes this very personal, and ultimately redemptive, story will reach people who struggle with depression—often called the last stigmatized disease—as well as their families and loved ones. Interspersed with interviews with other sufferers, the play, like so many Marsh stories, also offers outsiders an insider’s view, thereby expanding our understanding and, hopefully, our humanity.