Begun as a student organization in 1968, the Committee on Black Performing Arts (CBPA) has been a distinctive cultural resource on Stanford's campus. Our interdisciplinary program includes presentations of professional performing artists, symposia, films and student productions in relationship with academic study in areas such as theater, drama history, sociology, anthropology and philosophy. We are the campus center for the exploration and expression of African-American culture, particularly in the context of an increasingly pluralistic society.

Since its inception in 1968, the Committee on Black Performing Arts at Stanford has played a critical role in providing a focus for the experience, research and critique of the performing arts as relevant to African American culture. In its early years, the CBPA was particularly responsive to the needs of its black student population, especially as this group represented such a small percentage of the student body and needed a place wherein their cultural perspective was reflected. There is still that need; however, in the past five years, the CBPA has begun to reach beyond the campus to neighboring communities. Not only are the needs of Stanford's black students mirrored by blacks outside the university, but there is a need to expand the awareness on the part of other cultural groups of the cultural knowledge that is available through CBPA programming. In addition, as the country becomes increasingly pluralistic, there is a need to include the cultural interaction that is part of this nation's legacy in the CBPA's programming mission. The intersection of cultural influences beg a constant reexamination of the meaning, form and content of culture, particularly within the evolution of the African American aesthetic.

The year 2000 is being viewed as a benchmark for change. The CBPA will approach the millennium through a program of performances, interdisciplinary collaborations and symposia that will engage questions regarding the direction of the black performing arts in the next century and their relationship to the community.