Northern Michigan University's 2017 Diversity Common Reader selection is Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. The following related events are scheduled for April. All are free and open to the public.

Wednesday, April 4: Carlyn McManis is hosting a reading group for Citizen: An American Lyric at 7 p.m. in the Shiras Room of the Peter White Public Library.

Thursday, April 5:  Abigail Wyche is hosting a reading group titled “The Role of Micro and Macro Aggressions in Oppressions” at 4:30 p.m. in Art and Design room 90.

Tuesday, April 18: A screening of the film Fences is being shown at 12:30 and 6 p.m. at the Peter White Public Library. In this film, an African American father struggles with race relations in the United States while trying to raise his family in the 1950s and coming to terms with the events of his life.

Thursday, April 13: David Pilgrim, founder and director of the Jim Crow Museum, will give a keynote address titled “Them: Images of Separation” at 6:30 p.m. in Jamrich 1100. Although the Jim Crow Museum focuses on segregation memorabilia and anti-black caricatured items, the facility has a growing collection of objects that were created in this coutry to defame others, most prominently, women, poor people, Mexicans, Asians, Jews, Muslims and Indigenous peoples. Pilgrim will use historical and contemporary images of everyday objects to discuss the prevalence and consequences of group separation.