America 250 at Carolina is a series of public-facing events that begins Oct. 14 and will feature poetry, performances, panel discussions and lectures about our nation’s history.

“As America’s first public university, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill takes special pride in leading our students, our community and the nation in conversations about our collective past on the occasion of America 250,” said Miguel La Serna, chair of the department of history, which is one of the primary sponsors of the events. “We hope the forum will create a space for thoughtful and critically engaged public dialogue about the country’s foundational stories and the ways they continue to shape American society.”

The public is invited to attend the events. Most of the events are free and do not require tickets. If tickets are required, it will be noted.

In addition to the events listed below, the public is invited to visit the “Witnesses to the Revolution: North Carolina and the War for Independence” exhibition at Wilson Library through Dec. 4. The exhibition is a partnership between the University Library and the North Carolina Museum of History.

4:30-6 p.m.: Carolina Public Humanities hosts a discussion with Antwain Hunter, assistant professor in the history department, on Frederick Douglass’s What to the Slave is the Fourth of July. Tickets required. Flyleaf Books.

12:30-1 p.m.: Welcome by Pamela Brewington Cashwell, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR). Secretary Cashwell will introduce North Carolina at 250. Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library.

1-2 p.m.: 1-2 p.m.: Panel Discussion, Preserving North Carolina’s History for the General Public. Dr. Darin Waters, DNCR Deputy Secretary, Office of Archives and History. Biff Hollingsworth, Witnesses to the Revolution Curator, Wilson Library, Antwain Hunter, assistant professor in the history department. Moderated by Sec. Cashwell. Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library.

2:15-3:30 p.m.: Panel Discussion - Teaching the Foundations of American Democracy in K-12 Schools: Cori Greer Banks, director of Carolina K-12 in Carolina Public Humanities, Jillian La Serna, research assistant professor in EPIC/Public Policy, Mike Henning of Carrboro Elementary School. Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library.

3:40-3:45 p.m.: Poetry Reading by Alexis Clifton ’27, VA250 Visionary Sovereign Voices Poetry Competition winner, You Say the New American Dream is to Leave/Honeysuckle Dosage. Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library.

3:45-5 p.m.: Panel Discussion – Poetry and Liberty. English and comparative literature faculty members Tyree Daye, Eliza Richards and Denise Xu. Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library.

6-7:30 p.m.: Poetry reading and conversation with former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey, moderated by Michael A. Betts II ’11, High Point University assistant professor of media production and studio manager. Sonja Haynes Stone Center Auditorium.

10 a.m.-noon: Showcase – Great American Stories: Food, Music, and Folklore of the American South. American studies faculty members Amanda J. Cobb, Kelly Alexander, and Gabrielle Berlinger. Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library.

2:30-4 p.m.: Lecture and conversation with David Crabtree, CEO and general manager of PBS North Carolina, moderated by Michael A. Betts II ’11, High Point University assistant professor of media production and studio manager. Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library.

5-5:30 p.m.: Colonial fiddling by Eli Howells ’16. Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Arts Lobby.

5:15-6 p.m.: Lecture by Mandy Cooper, teaching assistant professor in the history department, Hamilton in Historical Context . PlayMakers in the Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art. (Limited tickets will be available by sponsoring departments.)

6-7 p.m.: Conversation with Daveed Diggs, a Tony, Grammy, and Lucille Lortel Award-winning actor, writer, producer, and musician best known for originating the dual roles of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette in the original cast of the Broadway hit Hamilton, earning a Tony Award for his performance. Moderated by Betts. PlayMakers in the  Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art. (Limited tickets will be available by sponsoring departments.)

2:30-3:30 p.m.: Lecture by Katherine Turk, professor in the history department, “All Men Would be Tyrants if They Could”:  Women and Power in Revolutionary America. Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library.

3:45-4:30 p.m.: Performance by Singer-Songwriter Dawn Landes, The Liberated Woman’s Songbook. Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library.

6-8:30 p.m.: Lecture and Conversation with John Wood Sweet, professor in the Department of History and Bancroft-Prize winning author of The Sewing Girl’s Tale. Moderated by Michael A. Betts II ’11, High Point University assistant professor of media production and studio manager. Person Recital Hall. Concert by C. Leonard Raybon, associate professor and chair of the Department of Music at Tulane University, and undergraduate and alumna performers from the music department, featuring E. Katherine Hargrove, costumer at Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Trades. Mending Sampler: Lanah Sawyer and the Cost of Courage in Revolutionary America. Person Recital Hall.

2:30-3:30 p.m.: Lecture by Wayne E. Lee, Bruce W. Carney Distinguished Professor in the history department, The Cutting-Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in the American Revolution. University Room, Hyde Hall.

3:45-4:45 p.m. Lecture by Amanda J. Cobb, chair and John Shelton Reed Distinguished Professor in Native Southern Studies, Indigenous Perspectives on America 250 Memory and Commemoration. University Room, Hyde Hall.

6:30 -8:30 p.m. Lecture by Kathleen DuVal, Carl W. Earnst Distinguished Professor of History and Pulitzer Prize winner, North Carolina and American Independence. Viewing of the exhibit ‘Witnesses to the Revolution: North Carolina and the War for Independence.’ Wilson Library. Sponsored by the University Library.

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Southern Cultures: Black Freedom Narratives in Place, Publication, and Performance, a conversation between NC Division of State Historic Sites director Michelle Lanier, assistant professor of geography Danielle Purifoy, and artist and activist Toshi Reagon. Reception to follow. Love House.

1-2 p.m.: Lecture by award-winning oral historian and educator and president of Bridging the Gap Danita Mason-Hogans, The Role of Oral History and Community Memory in Interpreting Early American History and its Long Afterlives. Love House.

2:15-3:30 p.m.: Southern Oral History Program and Civil Rights: Partnering with LDF. NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) archivists and SOHP oral historians and project leaders will explore freedom as an ongoing and active pursuit and share audio clips from the LDF Oral History Project. Love House.

4-5:30 p.m.: Theatrical Performance and Conversation with Mike Wiley, an actor, playwright, director and artist-in-residence at the Duke University Kenan Institute for Ethics who received a BFA from Carolina. One Noble Journey: A Box Marked Freedom. Moderated by Michael A. Betts II ’11, High Point University assistant professor of media production and studio manager. James and Susan Moeser Auditorium in Hill Hall.

7:30-8:30 p.m.: Concert by associate professor of music LaToya Lain. Narrative of a Slave Woman. James and Susan Moeser Auditorium in Hill Hall.

The week is sponsored by the American studies department, the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for the Study of the American South, the dramatic art department, the English and comparative literature department, the history department, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the music department, the political science department, the Provost’s Office, the public policy department, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Research in Black Culture and History, and the University Library, with additional support from the African, African American and Diaspora studies department, Carolina Performing Arts, Carolina Public Humanities, the peace, war and defense department, the sociology department, Southern Cultures, the Southern Oral History Program and the Triangle Early American History Seminar.