A poetry reading by Jaki Shelton Green will be the first in a series of events sponsored by the Bates College Office of Multicultural Affairs in observance of Black History Month. Green, a poet in residence at Bates from Feb. 10 through 14, will read from her most recently published work, Breath of Song: New and Selected Poems (Carolina Wren Press, 2005), at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, in Chase Hall Lounge, 53 Campus Ave. The reading is open to the public free of charge. For more information, please call 207-786-8376.

A native of North Carolina, Green’s work is rooted in the culture, cadences and folkways of the U.S. South. She received the 2003 North Carolina Award for Literature, awarded by the state Department of Culture, which recognized her as “an inveterate champion of the underdog. Just as she always has been a writer, she has also been a fierce activist for marginalized populations — abused women, the elderly, the incarcerated and especially children.”

Author of several books of poetry, including Conjure Blues: Poems (1996), Singing a Tree into Dance (2004) and Dead on Arrival (1984), Green wrote the play Blue Opal and was a contributing writer to Pete and Shirley: The Great Tar Heel Novel (Down Home Press, 1995). Her poetry has appeared in several journals and such anthologies as The Crucible, The African-American Review, Ms. and Obsidian. Her works have been choreographed by the Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble, Miami City Ballet and the Naropa Dance Institute of Colorado.

The Multicultural Center celebrates and promotes the diverse cultural experiences that each member of Bates College brings to the community.

A showing of work by Portland artist Daniel Minter will be on display at Bates College through Feb. 28 in an exhibition presented for Black History Month. “A Heavy Grace: Paintings and Sculpture” opens with a gallery reception featuring food and music from African American and Brazilian culinary traditions at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4, in Chase Hall Gallery, Chase Hall, Campus Avenue, Bates College. The public is invited to attend the reception and the exhibit, both sponsored by the Multicultural Center, free of charge. Call 207-786-8376 for more information.

Minter is a painter, sculptor, illustrator and arts educator whose work is steeped in the context of African American and African diaspora culture. The designer of the 2004 U.S. Postal Service Kwanza stamp, he is a noted illustrator of several children’s books.

“Minter collects the implements, the figures, the cultural tools of Black experience in diaspora and gives them iconic status,” writes Latin American historian and theologian Rachel Harding. Says Harding: “Many of the figures in Minter’s art are those of ordinary black life, especially of the mid-20th century rural south: hot combs and axes; straw brooms and jack-knives; snakes, jars and crows; round women, big men and long-limbed trees. Through his skilled gaze and carefully honed instinct, Minter elicits deeper meanings from the mundane.”

For more information, call the Bates College Multicultural Center at 207-786-8215.

* Monday at 7 p.m., African Diaspora Film Festival: “Chocolat,” Benjamin Mays Center.
* Tuesday at 7 p.m, African Diaspora Film Festival: “Black and White in Color,” Benjamin Mays Center.
* Wednesday at 7 p.m., African Diaspora Film Festival: “Camp de Thiharoye,” Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center.
* Feb. 23 at 7 p.m., African Diaspora Film Festival: “Sugar Cane Alley,” Benjamin Mays Center.
* Feb. 24 at 7.p.m., African Diaspora Film Festival: “The Harder They Come,” with discussion led by Charles Carnegie, associate professor of anthropology, to follow, Benjamin Mays Center.
* Feb. 25 at noon and 3 p.m., lecture by Lorna McDaniel, on “The Black Woman Writer as Ethnographer” in Room 104 and Room 105 respectively of the Olin Arts Center.
* Feb. 27 at 7 p.m., opening reception of “Narrative Quilts” at the Bates College Museum of Art, with presentation by artist Michael Cummings in Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center.
* Feb. 28 at 7 p.m., Amandla! presents Cinque Dance Company, Schaeffer Theatre.
* March 1 at 2 p.m, African Diaspora Film Festival: “Nothing But A Man” and “Killer of Sheep” followed by discussion with Charles Nero, chair of African American Studies and associate professor of rhetoric, in Room 204 of the Carnegie Science Hall.
* March 2 at 7 p.m., African Diaspora Film Festival: “Just Another Girl on the IRT,” Benjamin Mays Center.
* March 3 at 7 p.m., African Diaspora Film Festival: “Finzan,” followed by discussion with Czerny Brasuell, director of the Multicultural Center; Bates sophomore Lena Sene; Joanna Lee, director of affirmative action and Pricilla Arweetew, Benjamin Mays Center.
* March 8 at 6:30 p.m., African Diaspora Film Festival: “Race and Color: Imitation of Life” and “Jungle Fever” followed by a discussion of the films by William Pope.L of the theater department, Benjamin Mays Center. The events are sponsored by the Multicultural Center, African American Studies, Amandla!, the music and theater departments and the Bates College Museum of Art. For more information, call the Multicultural Center at 207-786-8215.