Black is joyful and brilliant. Black joy is the tenacity, resiliency, and ability to thrive despite everything. Join AARP NC throughout the month of February to discover the ways that Black Americans have shaped our state and nation. AARP's lineup of free virtual events will help you learn, explore, and have some fun.

Schedule of Events:

Ongoing
Get Black History Month started with an inside view of Charlotte through the ‘Welcome to Brookhill’ online exhibit.

Harvey B Gantt center features one of Charlotte’s oldest neighborhoods in this photographic series. AARP celebrates the joy this collection exudes as a part of our Black History Month Celebration.

2/20
11:00 am – A Joy Supreme Dancing to Motown Magic Daybreaker Dance Party.
 
The biggest R&B act of all time — Boyz II Men, performing on our virtual stage. Grammy-winning R&B Diva Thelma Houston singing to fill our hearts. AND MC Lyte, one of the greatest MCs of all time and a quintessential pioneer of female rap, on the decks to make us dance with reckless abandon. Click here to RSVP.


2/22
1:30 pm – Special virtual group tour Geer Cemetery: Reflections Past, Actions Present
 
This virtual tour will challenge us to confront the persistence of long-standing inequity. Thousands of men, women, and children were buried here, many of them experiencing slavery, rural-to-urban-migration, and the inhumanity of Jim Crow. Join us to hear their stories! Register here.

2/23
4:00 pm – Virtual Tour Civil Rights Museum

As part of our tribute to National Black History Month, you’re invited to a virtual tour of the International Civil Rights Museum commemorating the 1960 sit-ins at a whites-only lunch counter by four college students that changed America. Register here.

2/25
Noon – Actively Aging Activism and Art with Ann Woodford
 
Join historian, artist, and author, Ann Woodford, as she highlights the voices of people that have often been overlooked. Ann will use her art and writing to share the stories of African American history and heritage of far Western North Carolina. Register here.

2/25
7:00 pm – Black Art Matters – Virtual Tour of Cameron Art Museum’s Willie Cole Black Art Matters Exhibit – followed by the US Colored Troops documentary
 
See, learn, and feel how BLACK ARTS MATTER at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, NC. On this virtual tour, you will see how the artist, Willie Cole, challenges us to accept the racial biases and inequalities continuing to shape our culture. Register here.

2/26
8 p.m. – Amazing Grace, Aretha Franklin documentary

Amazing Grace is a documentary featuring singer Aretha Franklin recording the most successful gospel album of all time, Amazing Grace at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles in 1972. Witness Aretha Franklin as you've never seen her before – brilliantly capturing the remarkable performer near the peak of her prodigious power. Amazing Grace is a thrilling must-watch documentary for Aretha Franklin fans. Click here to RSVP.
 
 
Suzanne LaFollette-Black has been a gerontologist for the past 35+ years. She is the AARP NC Associate State Director of Advocacy and Community Outreach. Suzanne’s career has been in the aging network as a non-profit nursing home administrator, Area Agency on Aging Director, Executive Director of Moore County Department of Aging. Suzanne is originally from Window Rock, Arizona (Navajo Indian reservation). Suzanne has a BS in Sociology and minor in Zoology/ Music from NAU and graduate studies at USC Ethel Andrus Percy Gerontology program and MASA from University of North Texas, Denton, Texas. She served as the NCAOA (NC Association on Aging, Inc.) President from 2018-2020; Rotary; NCIOM Deaf and Hearing committee; Governor’s Highway Safety Executive Committee; and other community organizations.