University Libraries Fall Reception - W. E. B. Du Bois on Film: An Evening with Director Rita Coburn
University Libraries Fall Reception - W. E. B. Du Bois on Film: An Evening with Director Rita Coburn In-Person
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Free and open to all.
The University Libraries Annual Fall Reception celebrates the recent PBS documentary film W. E. B. Du Bois: Rebel With A Cause with the film’s director, Rita Coburn. Joining Coburn will be some of the scholars who participated in the film, sharing what it took to bring this project and Du Bois’s story to life, including collaboration with the Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center, which provided access to images, letters, scrapbooks, and other artifacts from the W. E. B. Du Bois Papers.
Rita Coburn is a Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning director, writer, and producer of radio, television, and film. She began her career as a producer and writer for various news outlets across the U.S., before going on to work as a producer The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah Radio, Apollo Live!, and Walt Disney Productions, among others. In 2016, Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, co-directed and co-produced by Coburn, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Festival and went on to win a Peabody Award in 2017. Coburn directed Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands, which premiered nationwide on February 8, 2022, on PBS American Masters.
Presented by University Libraries in partnership with the Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center and the W. E. B. Du Bois Center. Sponsored by the UMass Amherst Foundation and the Fine Arts Center.
- Date:
- Friday, September 18, 2026
- Time:
- 6:00pm - 9:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts
- Audience:
- Alumni Faculty General Public Graduate Students Library Donors Staff Undergraduates
- Categories:
- Lectures Special Collections and University Archives W. E. B. Du Bois Center
