A list of area events to commemorate in February, which is Black History Month, as submitted to The

A list of area events to commemorate in February, which is Black History Month, as submitted to The Vindicator:

TRUMBULL COUNTY

Feb. 13: “Black Baseball in Ohio” lecture with Dr. Leslie Heaphy, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Kent State University, Classroom/Administration building, Room 202. Heaphy teaches a variety of courses at Kent State University. She was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004 and is the director of the Honors Program for KSU’s Stark Campus. Heaphy will focus on various teams from the Negro Leagues and some of the prominent players who made their mark in Ohio with an emphasis on the Black World Series Champion Cleveland Buckeyes.

Feb. 18: The YWCA Warren, in partnership with Seekers of True African History, or SOTAH, will host its first conference “From Africa to America” at the YWCA Warren, 375 N. Park Ave., from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The conference is free and designed to re-educate people about Africans and their rightful place in history and will cover topics such as: Africans in the Bible; the civil-rights movement; African music and dance; and biographies of great Africans and black Americans. Vendor space is available for $25 for an 8-foot table. Call Orneil Heller with SOTAH at 330-307-6098 or Lea Dotson with the YWCA Warren at 330-373-1010, ext. 18, to register or for more information.

Feb. 23: “The African Odyssey in Pre-Columbian America” lecture with Dr. George Garrison, 6 to 7 p.m. Kent State University, Classroom/Administration building, Room 202. Garrison is a tenured professor at Kent State University. His works are published nationally and internationally. Before his time at KSU, Garrison served in the Vietnam War and also taught at a Boarding School in the Navajo Nation. He will be discussing how over the last half-century or more, evidence has been discovered that has clearly established an African presence in the Americas centuries before the voyages of Columbus to this part of the world. This lecture will seek to summarize the evidence that is the foundation for the claim that Africans have been present in this land from the Pre-Christian Era to the period of the arrival of Europeans in this hemisphere; and to explain how these ancient African visitors traveled throughout this continent given the impenetrable forests, swamps, mountains and deserts that were natural barriers to traveling in this land.

MAHONING COUNTY

Today: African Market Place, noon to 6 p.m., Chestnut Room, Youngstown State University’s Kilcawley Center.

Sunday: Free Gospel concert with Faith 2 Faith and other singing groups from Youngstown and Campbell, 4 p.m., Beulah Baptist Church, 570 Sherwood Ave., Youngstown.

Thursday: Reception, 5 p.m., YSU Bliss Hall Art Gallery, panel discussion: African American Art.

Thursday: The Art of Louis Borroughs, 6 p.m., McDonough Art Museum at YSU, Wick Avenue.

Friday, next Saturday: The Youngstown Playhouse presents “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” an autobiographical collage based on the life of Lorraine Hansberry, black playwright and author, at 7:30 p.m. Hansberry’s best-known work, “A Raisin in the Sun,” was the first play written by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. She died in 1965 at age 34 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and students. The Playhouse’s Moyer Room has limited seating, and reservations are recommended. Call the Playhouse box office at 330-788-8739, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Feb. 11: African fitness dance class, 11 a.m., St. Andrewes AME Church, 521 W. Earle Ave., Youngstown.

Feb. 11: Arms Museum, 648 Wick Ave., Youngstown, 2 p.m. Performed in first person by Steffon Wydell Jones, local historian and Civil War re-enactor. Subject is Holt Collier and Charlie A. Garlick Journal. Admission: $5 for adults; $3 for seniors; $2 for children.

Feb. 12: Skit on famous black Americans in America, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Paul L. Dunbar, 4 p.m., Beulah Baptist Church, 570 Sherwood Ave., Youngstown.

Feb. 12: A soul-food buffet will be served at VFW Post 6488, 2065 Coitsville- Hubbard Road, Youngstown, from 3 to 9 p.m. Cost is $8 per person, and there will be entertainment.

Feb. 13: Biracial/mixed experience: keynote lecture by Heidi Duro, 7:30 p.m., YSU Kilcawley Center.

Feb. 18: The Faces of Black History, an entertainment group from New Jersey, 7:30 p.m., YSU Kilcawley Center, Chestnut Room.

Feb. 19: Speaker on the state of African-Americans and how to better the family, 4 p.m., Beulah Baptist Church, 570 Sherwood Ave., Youngstown.

Feb. 24: Lecture by Shawan Williams: “Blogging While Black,” 7:30 p.m., YSU Kilcawley Center, Gallery.

Feb. 25: “An Evening of Gospel Jazz,” 6 p.m., YSU Kilcawley Center, Chestnut Room.

Feb. 25: Steel Museum, 151 W. Wood St., Youngstown, 2 to 3 p.m. Steffon Wydell Jones, local historian and Civil War re-enactor, will perform in first person black Civil War soldiers of Oak Hill Cemetery and the life of his father, George Wydell Jones Jr., of The Edsels singing group. Admission: $5 for adults; $3 for seniors; $2 for children.

Feb. 26: Talent show with youth from churches in Youngstown, Campbell and Warren, 4 p.m., Beulah Baptist Church, 570 Sherwood Ave., Youngstown.

Sources: Event organizers