Carleton’s Black History Month celebration, BLK SZN is about highlighting that blackness is always in season, according to Selali Ayitey Wallace, the volunteer co-ordinator.
Ayitey Wallace said Black people often get to celebrate their blackness only in February, but added that it is something that should rather be celebrated all the time.
“You shouldn’t only be celebrating the diversity in blackness in February,” she said.
BLK SZN, pronounced “black season,” is organized by the Carleton University Students’ Association’s (CUSA) Race, Ethnicity and Culture (REC) Hall, in collaboration with the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), The Womyn’s Centre, and the Gender and Sexuality Resource Centre.
GSA president Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah said it’s important to celebrate Black History Month on campus. She said the university needs to do more work in celebrating Black History Month, because Carleton has an equity policy founded on the idea of diversity and inclusion.
She said BLK SZN is important because it acknowledges the history of Black students at the university, but it also celebrates the future of current Black students.
Esosa May, a third-year law student and a volunteer with REC Hall, said BLK SZN is also about giving a voice to those who are often mistreated.
“We just need to be there for one another, because that’s the only thing we can do because not everyone there is to represent us, we’re always misrepresented,” she said.
CUSA president Fahd Alhattab said when celebrating Black History Month, it’s important to strike a balance between the celebration of culture and tackling current issues that the Black community and Black students face.
Alhattab added that advocacy and education, along with the celebration, are the three pillars that elevated the level of success in this year’s events.
“I think this year our team is doing a very, very good job of balancing that,” he said.
The events ranged from serious discussions around the politics of Black love, to singing trap music at the trap karaoke night, to waging jollof wars.
The jollof wars event was one of fourth-year law and African studies student Kenneth Aliu’s favourite events.
Jollof rice is a dish that is mainly prepared by countries in West Africa, and the name originally came from the name of the Wolof people in Senegal.
According to Aliu, Ghanaian and Nigerian people tend to debate who makes the rice better. REC Hall left it up to the students who attended the jollof wars event to decide between the two—students gave the win to the Nigerian jollof.
Aliu said he also enjoyed the trap karaoke event because music is a significant aspect of Black culture and Black art.
“Seeing people sing it in trap karaoke where you’re not just singing alone, everyone is singing with you, you’re vibing, you’re laughing, you’re eating, it is a very spiritual and very religious experience,” he said.
BLK SZN wrapped up this year’s Black History Month celebrations with a closing ceremony in the University Centre Atrium on Feb. 28 and a cultural showcase later that same day.
– Photo by Justin Samanski
