Next Thursday, the historic Michigan Street Baptist Church will host the first installment of the Nash Lectures, which aim to illuminate African-American culture and history through talks, conversations, and readings.

The first speaker in the series is Vincent F. A. Golphin (pictured), a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. In his lecture, “Emmitt Till and the Force of African-American Memory,” Golphin recounts the murder of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old tortured and beaten to death on a visit to rural Mississippi in 1955, and the repercussions that continue to this day. Golphin’s lecture takes place Thursday, August 28, at 7pm.

On September 20 at 3pm, Bishop William Henderson, president of the Niagara Freedom Station Coalition, will discuss the history of the Michigan Street Baptist Church—which Henderson and his congregation helped to save and revitalize—and its place in the history of the civil rights movement.

On October 18, Michelle M. Thompson, a professor at the University of New Orleans, will discuss her city post-Hurricane Katrina. And on November 22, Thomas March, a poet, critic, and teacher at New York City’s Brearly School, delivers a lecture titled “James Baldwin: Where the Fire Next Time Is Today.” Both those lectures take place at 3pm.

For each lecture, the project’s organizers have recommended a book to be read in advance. Before attending Golphin’s talk, they recommend reading A Death in the Delta: The Story of Emmitt Till. For Bishop Henderson’s talk, they recommend Why We Can’t Wait by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; for Thompson’s lecture, Come Hell or High Water by Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson; and for March’s talk, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. All four books will be available at the month of the corresponding lecture at both Talking Leaves Books locations (951 Elmwood Avenue and 3158 Main Street) as well as at Buffalo Public Library branches.

The Nash Lectures are one facet of the Loraine Project, a subsidiary of the Niagara Freedom Station Coalition. Sponsors include New York Council for the Humanities, Read to Succeed Buffalo, the Department of History and Social Studies Education at Buffalo State College, Erie County Historic Society, Canisius College, and the UB African American Studies Department.

All four Nash Lectures are free of charge and open to the public, and take place at the Michigan Street Baptist Church, 511 Michigan Avenue (themichiganstreetbaptistchurch.org). Seating is limited, so attendees are encouraged to RSVP to theloraineproject@gmail.com.

—geoff kelly