FITCHBURG — Fitchburg State University will celebrate Black History Month in February with a series of virtual and in-person events organized around the theme of Black health and wellness.
The events are free and open to the public. Face coverings are required inside campus buildings, and visitors will be asked to attest they are free of COVID-19 symptoms.
The theme for this year’s observance was inspired by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which acknowledges the legacy of not only Black scholars and medical practitioners in Western medicine, but also other ways of knowing such as birthworkers, doulas, midwives, naturopaths and herbalists throughout the African Diaspora.
Programming begins in January, with events celebrating the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a screening of the film “King in the Wilderness” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, in Ellis White Lecture Hall in Hammond Hall. The documentary focuses on the final two years of King’s life, leading up to his assassination on April 4, 1968.
The film highlights events in King’s life and the Civil Rights movement including as the Chicago Freedom Movement, the James Meredith march, the anti-Vietnam War protests and King’s “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech, the 1967 riots, preparation for the Poor People’s Campaign, the Memphis sanitation strike, the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, and King’s assassination and funeral.
The campus begins its celebration of Black History Month with “Radical Self Love,” a virtual presentation by Porsha Olayiwola, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1. “Using writings from Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison and Kendrick Lamar, this writing workshop seeks to establish a safe space within ourselves and use radical self-love to explore art in a way that offers up praise to the people we are and the people we are becoming,” according to a press release.
Porsha Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator, originally from Chicago and now a resident of Boston. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the artistic director at MassLEAP, a literary youth organization. Olayiwola is the author of “i shimmer sometimes, too” forthcoming with Button Poetry and is the current poet laureate for the city of Boston. Register to join the virtual event at https://bit.ly/3AjDiKc.
Also in February, the campus will host a screening of the Academy Award-winning film “Judas and the Black Messiah” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8, in Ellis White Lecture Hall in Hammond Hall. The biographical crime drama depicts the betrayal of Fred Hampton (played in an Oscar-winning performance by Daniel Kaluuya), chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in late 1960s Chicago, by William O’Neal (played by an Oscar-nominated Lakeith Stanfield), an FBI informant.
The campus will host a screening of the film “Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, in Ellis White Lecture Hall in Hammond Hall. Inspired by the groundbreaking book of the same name by Monique W. Morris, Ed.D, “Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools” takes a deep dive into the lives of Black girls and the practices, cultural beliefs and policies that disrupt one of the most important factors in their lives — education.
For a full list of programs: fitchburgstate.edu/bhm.