LEWISTON – Amandla!, the black student organization at Bates College, will present a series of events featuring a keynote speaker and food, film, workshops and a dance on Friday and Saturday.

Friday

• 5:30 p.m., the fourth annual “Unity Conference 2006: Building a Black Community,” will open with “Flava,” a takeout dinner featuring Caribbean food, in Skelton Lounge, Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave. Tickets are $10 and all proceeds go to the Eagles Breakaway Conference 2006 in Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica.

• 6:30 p.m., a screening of the documentary “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till,” followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, Keith Beauchamp, in the Keck Classroom, Pettengill Hall. Beauchamp unfolds a drama that has lived in African American history for more than 50 years, producing eyewitness accounts from individuals speaking out for the first time. A product of nine years of research and investigation, this documentary led to the reopening of the case against Till’s killers by the U.S. Department of Justice.

• 8:30 p.m., “Meet the Neighbors,” an ice cream social in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave. Attendees can meet members of the community, exchange experiences and develop contacts.

Saturday

• 1 p.m., registration begins for a series of four workshops in Pettengill Hall. The workshops are free and open to the public.

• 2 p.m., “Surviving at a White Tertiary Institution” addresses the issues of social life, academics, finances and resources available.

• 3 p.m., “The Role of the Black Woman,” explores the various roles black women play as leaders in the community.

• 4 p.m., “What Does Success Mean to Me?”

• 5 p.m., “Remembering Our Roots” looks at developmental issues that affect the ability of black students to contribute politically, socially and economically.

• 6:30 p.m., the Unity dinner, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave., will feature soul food and some Somali dishes. Dinner is free and open to the public. Reservations are requested; please contact Lois St. Brice at [email protected].

The dinner’s keynote address will be given by Nishani Frazier, a visiting Mellon fellow at Bates in African-American and American cultural studies and a Ph.D. candidate in history at Columbia University.

A historian and writer, Frazier’s areas of focus include birth control, representations of black women in history and film, archival and oral history preservation, and the 1960s freedom and Black Power movements.