California State University, Northridge plans to host multiple virtual Black History Month events to highlight and celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of the Black community.
Organizations across campus, including the Department of Africana Studies, the CSUN Library and the University Student Union, will hold special online events during the month of February. The theme of this year’s festivities and celebrations is “Celebrating Black Excellence: Resiliency and Creativity in the Digital Space.”
“Our intention is always to heighten our guests’ awareness to the long, rich and checkered history of people of African descent,” said Theresa White, chair of CSUN’s Department of Africana Studies. “Although we celebrate our heritage every day, this past year has forced our community to think deeply about political, racial and social issues of inequality and injustice, as we tapped into the deepest part of our being in order to thrive in the virtual space in the middle of one of the worst global tri-pandemics [health, economic and racial/social inequities] in modern history. But thrive, we have!
“We are fortunate to have dedicated, passionate, committed faculty, staff and students on our campus who are steadfast in pushing forward in the most trying of circumstances,” White continued. “This year’s theme points our energy in a direction that honors our resiliency.”
Black History Month began as Negro History Week in 1926, as the fruitful vision of Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and has been transformed into the current monthlong celebration, White said. In 1976, 50 years after the first celebration, February was officially designated as Black History Month.
A highlight of the CSUN celebration is a Feb. 26 event, a discussion with renowned philosopher Cornel West of Harvard University. West, the author of 20 books, including the bestseller “Race Matters,” has taught at Yale, the University of Paris and Princeton, and frequently appears as a guest on numerous television programs.
Additional celebrations include:
Afro-Tradition, Environmental Racism, and Black Place-Making in Mexico
A Bradley Center Documentary Screening and Panel Discussion with Ebony Bailey, Jayson Maurice Porter and Meztli Yoalli Rodriguez
Feb. 5, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Zoom
Black Student Leadership Council and USU: WELCOME BLACK
Presented by the University Student Union
Feb. 5, 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
Zoom
How You Doin’: Acting Tips and Tricks with Jonathan Thompson and Shiku Thuo
Presented by the Pride Center
Feb. 8, 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Instagram Live
The Lavender Takeover: Black Hair with Project Q
Presented by the Pride Center
Feb. 9, 5 p.m.-7 p.m.
Zoom
Check It OUT
Presented by the Pride Center
Feb. 10, 3 p.m.-4 p.m.
Instagram Live
Tech Fest
Presented by the Career Center
Feb. 11, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Handshake and Zoom
Healthy Love: Connecting Black
Panel Discussion with Khaleah K. Bradshaw and Therapist Eve Marie Ford
Presented by the Africana Studies
Feb. 12, 5 p.m.-7 p.m.
Zoom
Don’t Touch My Hair
Mixed Chicks CEO Kim Etheredge and Stylist LaRae Buress will be speaking
Presented by the Black House & WISDOM
Feb. 15, 5 p.m.-7 p.m.
Zoom
Black Deaf Excellence
Presented by Ernest E. Hairston, ASL/English interpreter provided
Presented by Deaf Studies
Feb. 16, 5 p.m.-7 p.m.
Zoom
The Lavender Takeover – Black Love
Presented by the Pride Center
Feb. 16, 5 p.m.-7 p.m.
Zoom
In addition to events, the CSUN Library is also marking the occasion with a Black History Month Virtual Book Display and a virtual exhibition: Confronting a Pandemic within a Pandemic: 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests in L.A.