Cultural Events
The Embassy Celebrates African-American History Month (02/28/2007)
February is African-American History Month and the Embassy organized several events to mark the occasion. We held a digital video conference with a U.S. expert on minority and women leadership issues, hosted a jazz concert, offered two films with biracial themes, and inaugurated our outdoor display cases with an exhibition on leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Here are some details about these exciting programs:
U.S. Expert on Leadership and Minority Issues Encourages Uzbek Women to Persevere
Explaining key leadership concepts, such as emotional intelligence, vision and employee development, political analyst and management guru Yvonne Davis interacted with more than 30 executive Uzbek women in the Embassy’s first Digital Video Conference on February 28. Focusing on the roles of women and minorities in government and business, the Uzbek guests shared their professional challenges with Ms. Davis. Ambassador Jon Purnell and visiting Deputy Assistant Secretary Evan Feigenbaum were on-hand to chat with the guests and underscored, in their remarks to the group, the importance of women and minorities in the advancement of any society.
Films Highlight the Changing Ways Americans View Interracial Marriages
More than 100 alumni of United States Government-sponsored educational programs attended a movie double feature on February 10. We showed Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Guess Who. Released in 1967, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner stars one of the great American cinematic duos of all time: Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. They play a couple whose attitudes are challenged when their daughter (Katherine Houghton) brings home a fiancé (Sidney Poitier) who happens to be Black. Nearly 40 years later, Hollywood released Guess Who, a comedy loosely based on the 1967 classic. The twist is that Guess Who features the Black comedian Bernie Mac as a father who has plenty to say about his daughter wanting to marry a white boy played by Ashton Kutcher.
Jazz – An International Favorite
Artsakh, the noted Uzbek jazz ensemble, and Uzbek jazz singer Diana Ziyatdinova saluted African-American History Month by performing some of the best in American jazz at a concert held at the Embassy. Works by jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong delighted the Uzbek audience, which included representatives from the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, alumni of U.S. Government-sponsored educational programs, academicians and journalists. Deputy Chief of Mission Brad Hanson welcomed the guests and spoke about the contributions of African-Americans to the cultural diversity of the United States.
Embassy Inaugurates Public Display Cases.
On February 1, the Embassy unveiled its new outdoor display cases. The inaugural exhibit was a State Department-produced show on Civil Rights Leaders. Pedestrians were able to learn about the Civil Rights Movement and some of the famous – and not so famous – men and women who worked tirelessly to achieve equal rights and equal treatment under the law for minorities. Texts were in English, Russian and Uzbek. The Embassy expects to exhibit new shows on a regular basis. In March, which is Women’s History Month, we will feature an exhibit called The Road to Equality, which traces the process by which American women received the right to vote.