DePaul University’s Center for Black Diaspora will examine issues of popular culture in the black diaspora in a lecture series that opens Jan. 17 at 3 p.m. with a screening and discussion of the movie, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” in the Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., Room 314B.

The film, written by popular actor and screenwriter Tyler Perry is the story of a young woman’s self-empowerment in the wake of an abusive divorce.

DePaul English Professor Francesca Royster will provide discussion points after the screening. Themes to be addressed include: the tradition of black drag in popular performance (Perry plays the role of “Madea,” the grandmother, in the film); Perry’s success and the rise of black comic theater; and social commentary in the film, particularly its treatment of violence against women.

Royster, the author of the book “Becoming Cleopatra: The Shifting Image of an Icon,” is a literature and film scholar whose work emphasizes the image of black women in film. She is also an associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

On Jan. 31, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Kaila A. Story will give a talk on “Performing Venus—From Hottentot to Video Vixen: The Historical Legacy of Black Female Body Commodification.”

Story, is a graduate of DePaul’s Women and Gender Studies program and a doctoral candidate in Temple University’s African American and Women’s Studies programs. Story’s lecture title makes reference to Sara Baartman, who was an African woman labeled “Hottentot Venus” and displayed throughout Europe as a freak because of her unique physical characteristics. Story will examine the commodification of Baartman, the image of the black Venus in the form of Josephine Baker, the trajectory of the video vixen, as the starlet of hip hop music videos, and the drag queen as an embodiment of black femininity.

The Center for Black Diaspora’s lecture series on “Popular Culture in the Black Diaspora” continues through February and is free and open to the public. For more information about upcoming talks, please contact the center at 773/325-7512 or visit the Web site at http://condor.depaul.edu/~diaspora/.