(Photo courtesy of UML Libraries Twitter) “Multiple offices of UMass Lowell gets involved in celebrating Black History Month.”
Julie Sage
Connector Staff
Black History Month is just around the corner, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs has a lot of events in February to celebrate. There are sports events, talks and more!
February 1st starts Black History Month with HBCU night at 6 p.m. in Costello Gym. The Step team, which previously conducted an amazing performance at the BSU Hair Expo event last semester, will perform during halftime at the men’s basketball game. Interested in DJing? There is an event on February 2nd at 6:30 p.m. in UCrossing’s Moloney Hall called “The Science of DJing,” featuring DJ Dutch. DJ Dutch will teach event participants how to DJ and how to turn DJing into a career. On February 7th, at 6 p.m. in the UCrossing Atrium, the Black Art Exhibit will have its opening night, displaying beautiful art created by Black student artists. There will be a performance on February 8th at 1 p.m. in UCrossing’s Moloney Hall called “The Movement: 50 Years of Love and Struggle,” featuring professional speaker Ron Jones. The Movement is described as a “visual chronicle” that will display political, social and cultural events that happened in the almost 50 years since the Voting Rights Act.
There’s another basketball event on February 15th at 7 p.m. at Costello Gym: a women’s basketball game honoring Black History Month. The game will be dedicated to basketball and the lives of basketball players. On February 16th, the “Rising 360° Mental Health & Radical Self Care” event is at 12 p.m. at the Social Justice Center, which is in UCrossing Suite 370. This event talks about the history and importance of radical self-care, specifically for the Black community. February 21st has a trivia event called “Black History Month Trivia Night,” at 7 p.m. at UCrossing Suite 492. The topic is on Black history, and prizes will be given to the top-ranking teams. For a more formal event, the Black Student Union’s annual gala will be on February 25th at 6 p.m. in UCrossing Moloney Hall. The theme is “A Night Under the Stars.” The ticket prices are $10 for students and $12 for non-students. The month is closed out with the “Lunch & Learn: HBCUs” event on February 27th at 12 p.m. at the Social Justice Center where students can learn about historically Black colleges and universities.
The Office of Multicultural Affairs is also holding Social Justice Week in February. There are two events on February 13th. First, there is the “Asian American Center for Excellence & Engagement (AACEE): Documentary and Discussion” event at 12 p.m. in the AACEE Center in Cumnock Hall. It will feature Grace Lee, who will be talking about her documentary, in which she traveled around the country interviewing women in the Asian-American community who share her traditional name. The second event is “Beyond Borders: The Immigrant Experience” that starts at 6 p.m. in Alumni Hall. It will be a discussion with student leaders about starting over as an immigrant and the importance of community and belonging. On February 14th there are four upcoming events. At 9 a.m. in the Fox Dining Hall is the “Pronoun Primer Tabling,” where the LGBTQ+ Resource Center will be talking about the importance of respecting and using preferred pronouns. At 11 a.m. in the UCrossing Atrium is the “Love Thy Self” event by A.C.E., OMA, Student Life and Wellbeing and UMatter2, which will discuss self-love, the five love languages and self-care. At 3 p.m. in the Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center Atrium is “First Gen Focus: A Moderated Conversation.” The River Hawks Scholars Academy will have a conversation with the audience, staff members and student leaders about creating equity for first-generation students. Finally, at 7 p.m. in Lydon Library Room 110 is “Everything You Know About Sex is Wrong: The Gender Binary,” where Dr. Hafer talks about how the concept of sex and gender has evolved. On February 15th are two events. At 2:30 p.m. in UCrossing Suite 158 there is an event called “Let’s Talk About It! The Disability Dish” hosted by Disability Services with a live podcast recording and discussion. At 5 p.m. on the third floor of University Crossing is the “Free on Three” event with games, trivia and therapy dogs. February 16th also has two events, one of which is the “Rising 360° Mental Health and Radical Self Care” event mentioned earlier. The second event is “Now We See You: The Wrongful Conviction and Incarceration of Yusef Salaam,” where Yusef will lead a panel about criminal justice reform. Lastly on February 17th is “Self Care, in Doing the Work” and “Lunch & Learn: Undocumented Student Support.” The former event is a workshop about advocacy fatigue and will start at 10:30 a.m. at the Social Justice Center. The Lunch & Learn event is at 12 p.m. in the Social Justice Center, which aims to teach about how to support and empower undocumented students.
