Five Free, Fun Things at Duke in February
Attend a Duke Music piano concert, an African Film Festival and more
Fall in love with the arts at Duke and take your valentine to a nature exhibit, film festival or music concert for free in February.
Working@Duke peruses the Duke Events Calendar every month during the academic year to find fun, free things to do for the Duke community and public. Check back at the beginning of March to find the next list of picks on Duke Today. Enjoy!
Feb. 2-23 – Attend an African Film Fest
Throughout the month, watch films about a woman balancing work, family and friendships in Dakar, Senegal, and a couple’s journey to a wedding in Cape Town, South Africa. Duke’s Arts of the Moving Image program, along with The Africa Initiative, the Department of African and African American Studies, and the Department of Cultural Anthropology, are screening six films during Duke’s African Film Festival. All films are open to the public and screened in the Bryan Center Griffith Film Theater or White Lecture Hall on East Campus. Films will be shown Feb. 2, 9, 13, 16, 21, and 23.
Feb. 10 – View nature photographs at Duke Gardens
While walking along Sarah P. Duke Gardens’ serene paths or visiting the koi pond, take some time to head over to the Doris Duke Center, where Durham Photography Club members are sharing their nature photos in a new, temporary exhibit. The exhibit is open 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Feb. 10, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 11, and noon to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 12. Parking fees apply on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends after 1 p.m.
Feb. 11 – Slow down, look at landscapes
Take your time examining 19th-century landscape artwork during the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University’s Slow Art Tour. Gallery guide Maggie Griffin leads the guided tour, which takes 30 to 45 minutes. She will discuss the Hudson River School painting tradition as well as focus on an oil painting by American artist John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872). The tour, which comes with free Nasher admission for Duke employees and students with their DukeCard ID, begins at 11 a.m.
Feb. 18 – Listen to live piano music on a Saturday night
Duke Department of Music’s advanced students will perform piano works by American composers such Charles Ives, Samuel Barber, George Gershwin, John Cage, Scott Joplin and Stephen Jaffe, the Mary D. B. T. and James H. Semans Professor of Music Composition at Duke. The event is at 8 p.m. in East Duke Building room 201, also known as the Nelson Music Room.
Feb. 23 – Join a book discussion with a Duke author
Timothy Tyson, a senior research scholar with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, will talk about his new book, “The Blood of Emmett Till,” which examines the history of the murder of Emmett Till, an African-American teenager who was lynched in 1955 in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman, and how it fueled the modern civil rights movement. Tyson gleaned details for the book from interviews, the transcript of the murder trial and a recent FBI report. The event will be held in room C105 in Bay 4 of Smith Warehouse from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. After the talk, there will be a public reception with free food and drinks and a book sale.
The event is part of “Faculty Bookwatch,” which is cosponsored by the Franklin Humanities Institute and Duke University Libraries and promotes interdisciplinary conversations about books by Duke Humanities faculty.