The Black Read: Living While Black with Professor Ajuan Mance

The Black Read: Living While Black with Professor Ajuan Mance (HYBRID EVENT)

A Presentation on The Black Experience

Wed Feb 19 at Mills Hall Living Room, Oakland Campus, Northeastern University

Reception- 4:30 PM PST

Event begins- 5 PM PST

Mills College at Northeastern University, the Black Reparations Project and Heritage 365 presents The Black Read: Living While Black with Professor Ajuan Mance. Please join us as we welcome Ajuan Mance, Professor Emeritus of English, Mills College for this conversation surrounding her latest book, Living While Black, Portraits of Everyday Resistance. This event is a part of the Black Read series where we present books on the Black Experience. Our event is a part of the Mills College Heritage 365 programming for Black History Month and our presentation will explore excerpts from the book and engage with the audience in relevant ideas and issues that come up.

Featured Book: Living While Black, by Ajuan Mance, see book description below.

Mills College Heritage 365 Programming happens throughout the year, with a special focus in February on Black History Month 2025. BHM25 includes programming throughout the year organized by the planning committee of students, faculty and staff, Campus organizations join the commmittee in developing our programming, including the Black Students Collective (BSC); the Black Faculty and Staff Association. Funding is provided by ADEIB at Mills College.

Mills College currently occupies unceded Ohlone Territory on the village site of Huichin. For more information about Huichin and to learn more about restorative actions and those whose land we occupy, please visit

Accessibility, Health and Safety:

• Our Zoom broadcast will include automated captions.
• If you are not feeling well and/or are experiencing cold/flu symptoms, please protect our communities and do not attend the event until symptoms have cleared AND you have tested negative for COVID 2x within 48 hours.
• Please do not attend if you have a known COVID positive exposure.
• As much as possible, please mask at this indoor event using N95 or kn95 masks.
• Food will be shared at the beginning of the event outside of the venue in Adams Plaza.

For questions, please email Zamora, [email protected].

In homage to the radical power of art, Living While Black celebrates the small acts of resistance that comprise the daily lives of Black folks by presenting them in a series of vivid illustrations.

Fittingly, the book also features a foreword from Alicia Garza, BLM founder and principal at the Black Futures Lab. Mance’s thoughtful meditation on what it’s like to be Black in America makes a wonderful tool for teachers, students, activists, and parents navigating conversations about racism and resistance.

Ajuan Mance is an artist and writer based in Oakland, California. Mance is the author and illustrator of 1001 Black Men, Living While Black, and What Do Brothas Do All Day? Their comics collection, Gender Studies: The True Adventures of an Accidental Outlaw, was published this spring. Mance’s comics have also appeared in several anthologies, including the just-released, We Belong: An All-Black, All-Queer Sci-Fi and Fantasy Comics Anthology. A former professor of African American literature, Mance is also the author of two scholarly books, Inventing Black Women and Before Harlem.

Host or Publisher Ethnic Studies @ Mills College