Dwayne Cantrell, CSUN’s associate vice president of student access and support services, speaks to students during last year’s Harambee High School Student Conference during Black History Month. Photo by Nestor Garcia.
From a walkthrough history museum, which will introduce California State University, Northridge’s campus to black history, to Super Sunday and the Harambee High School Student Conference, which encourages African-American students to attend college, February will be filled with inspirational events in celebration of Black History Month.
The monthlong celebration will kick off Feb. 3 with a black organization and club fair in the Plaza del Sol from noon to 2 p.m. Various organizations including the Department of Africana Studies, the Black Student Union and the NABJ-Student Association of Black Communicators will be available to provide information.
“Black History Month gives us the opportunity to expose all the lies we were taught and to bring to light the truth about where we really come from, our accomplishments and our inventions,” said Ma’Ronda George, co-vice president of the CSUN Black Student Union. “It’s important that we pay homage to our ancestors who paved the way for us.”
Two highly anticipated annual events are CSUN’s participation in Super Sunday and the Harambee High School Student Conference. Super Sunday is an outreach partnership event with local churches to increase college enrollment among African-American students. On Feb. 22, CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison will speak at H.O.P.E.’s House Christian Ministries at 10654 Balboa Blvd., Granada Hills; and Vice President of Student Affairs William Watkins ’74 (Urban Studies) will speak at Living Praise Christian Center at 9200 Owensmouth Ave., Chatsworth.
CSUN’s Student Outreach and Recruitment and the Harambee Student Association will host the annual Harambee High School Student Conference on Feb. 27. Organizers invite hundreds of mostly African-American high school students to CSUN to expose them to and encourage them to attend college. Brandon E. Martin, CSUN’s director of intercollegiate athletics, will serve as the keynote speaker.
Other events scheduled for Black History Month include:
• Feb. 11 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Redwood Hall 292 – The Departments of Kinesiology and Africana Studies will sponsor GROOV3, a hip-hop dance class led by Benjamin Allen.
• Feb. 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the USU Grand Salon – “Professors and Alumni: After Hours,” sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies and the Black Alumni Association.
• Feb. 21 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the CSUN Art Galleries, West Gallery – Opening reception for “Haiti is a Nation of Artists,” sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies, the Department of Art, the Department of Cinema and Television Arts and the Office of the Provost. The event will include a screening of short documentaries of alumnus Jacquil Constant ’02 (Radio Television Video Film/Pan African Studies), M.A.’14 (Cinema and Television Arts /Pan African Studies).
CSUN’s Department of Africana Studies is one of the oldest and largest black studies programs in the nation. The department was officially formed in 1969 as the Afro-American Studies Department. It was organized in the wake of campus protests and the mass arrest of hundreds of students who were angry about the treatment of students of color.
For more information about the Black History Month celebration, contact the Department of Africana Studies at (818) 677-3311 or visit the Black Student Union website, http://csunbsu.weebly.com/.