The Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, in collaboration with the Judy and Stanley Frankel Detroit Observatory at the University of Michigan, is pleased to present a special evening honoring the visit of Dr. Edda Fields-Black, acclaimed historian and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History for her book COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War.

Dr. Fields-Black is also the executive producer and librettist of “Unburied, Unmourned, Unmarked: Requiem for Rice,” a contemporary classical and multimedia symphonic work and the first symphonic work about slavery on rice plantations.

This evening aims to combine the two projects by offering attendees the opportunity to view the night sky Harriet Tubman observed in her lifetime while listening to a portion of the symphony. Austin Edmister, the Observatory’s Assistant Director of Astronomy, will offer presentations about the night sky and celestial phenomena that Harriet would have experienced, while Benedicte Boisseron, Chair of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, will provide the context of Harriet’s world from an ecological perspective.

Tours of the observatory will run on intervals throughout the evening. The Observatory’s exhibit, “Fill the Ranks”: The Civil War and the University of Michigan, will be available for viewing, and telescope observing will be possible after sunset (weather permitting).


On October 1st at 4 p.m. in the Vandenberg Room of the Michigan League, Dr. Fields-Black will present the DAAS Zora Neale Hurston Lecture for the Humanities, participate in a booksigning/reception, and attend a faculty dinner.