Culture x Design’s Launches Black History Month Lineup

Film screenings, forums and concerts honoring the major contributions of Black creatives to visual arts, music and culture highlight a newly launched local Black History Month celebration.

The programming is the brainchild of Culture x Design, a recently launched Milwaukee event and marketing agency founded by brand marketing executives Geraud Blanks and Maureen Post, in collaboration with Milwaukee business leader Ranell Washington, who will serve as lead advisor.

Blanks and Post are both former executives at Milwaukee Film, the nonprofit operator of the annual Milwaukee Film Festival and the Oriental Theatre, the historic East Side movie venue.

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Blanks expressed the importance of offering inclusive activities during Black History Month.

“The need for diverse thought, engaging dialogue and entertaining cultural expression never gets old and is never outdated,” said Blanks, who serves as Culture x Design’s managing partner and creative director. “Our mission is to create platforms that celebrate our shared culture.”

The program features a varied lineup of activities, including Black History Trivia, a forum focused on Black creative entrepreneurship and two special events dedicated to exploring the musical legacy of recording artist Lauryn Hill, marking the 25th anniversary of her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Joan Morgan; Photo courtesy of Culture x Design

The kick-off event, In Retrospect: The Life & Times of Lauryn Hill, will take place on Feb. 10 at Radio Milwaukee (220 E. Pittsburgh Ave.) Baltimore educator LaShay Harvey, founder of Black Girl Saturday School, and award-winning cultural critic Joan Morgan, program director of the Center for Black Culture at New York University, delve into Hill’s cultural impact as a singer-songwriter, rapper and actor. Morgan, a pioneering feminist writer and hip-hop journalist, authored She Begat This: Twenty Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

A Hill tribute concert, Groove Theory: The Lauryn Hill Experience, will be held at 8 p.m. Feb. 24 at The Cooperage (822 S. Water St.). Milwaukee ensemble Brew City Soul will present renditions of Hill’s music.

The Black History Month programming is being offered through a collaboration between Culture x Design and the Milwaukee Brewers, Bank of America and media partners HYFIN/Radio Milwaukee.

Here’s the lineup:

Black History Trivia, Feb. 3, Company Brewing, 735 E Center St.
Reel-to-Real: Short Films & Conversation, Feb. 8, Radio Milwaukee, 220 E. Pittsburgh Ave. A Short film screening followed by guided discussions and happy hour networking.
In Retrospect: The Life & Times of Lauryn Hill, Feb. 10, Radio Milwaukee, 220 E. Pittsburgh Ave.
Black Love x Design: Boomerang Reconsidered, Feb. 16, Radio Milwaukee, 220 E. Pittsburgh Ave. Culture x Design’s Geraud Blanks leads a conversation the impact of the 1992 romantic comedy on Black cinema.
Groove Theory: The Lauryn Hill Experience, Feb. 24, The Cooperage, 822 S Water St.
Creativity x Design: Black in Milwaukee’s Creative Economy, Feb. 29, Marn Art + Culture Hub, 191 N. Broadway, Suite 102. A Networking soiree and town hall-style discussion on the economic prospects for local Black artists and cultural entrepreneurs.