Black History Month at Hopkins commences

With events co-sponsored by a variety of student organizations, Black History Month at Hopkins has gotten underway. The theme for this year’s Black History Month celebration, which was organized by the Hopkins Black History Month Committee, is “Beyond Blackness: Local to Global.”

The Hopkins Black History Month Committee kicked off the festivities on Jan. 31 with an opening ceremony held in Charles Commons. Subsequent events included the MLK Keynote with Marc Lamont Hill held on Feb. 5, an open mic competition entitled “Soul Sounds” and “Platanos and Collards,” a discussion about Latina and African American cuisine, both held last Saturday.

The chairs of the Black History Month Committee are junior Georges Quist, senior Chantel Fletcher and senior Michelle Lampart. The committee began planning the events in September. To execute their plans for the month, the committee pooled resources from organizations such as the Black Student Union, the African Students Association, the Caribbean Culture Society, the Dunbar-Baldwin-Hughes Theater Company and the Men of Color Hopkins Alliance (MOCHA).

“The purpose of Black History Month is to educate Hopkins about black history, black culture,” Quist said. “For non-blacks, it’s a way to understand what black culture is. . .to avert stereotypes and generalizations.”

Soul Sounds, last Saturday’s open mic competition held at Nolan’s on 33rd, featured singing, rap and spoken word poetry.

Junior Sinmidele Badero won first place, a $100 gift card, for her rendition of Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Like a Star.” Badero, who was a member of her high school choir and a cappella group, also performed in the Dunbar-Baldwin-Hughes Theater Company’s “Cabaret” last year.

First and second place prizes were awarded to sophomore Teddy Jackson, who performed an original rap, and sophomore Suleiman Abiola, who performed an original spoken word poem, respectively.

Candace Brock, lead cook at Nolan’s, also took the stage last Saturday, performing her rendition of Lauryn Hill’s “Killing Me Softly.” Brock, who has been singing since age two and playing piano and cello since age 12, auditioned for the television show “The Voice” in Philadelphia in January.

“It’s important to know where you come from… a lot of people don’t know that a lot of the history that they teach us is what they want us to know about black history,” Brock said.

Badero agreed with that statement.

“Things get swept under the carpet and people forget what African Americans have had to go through, so it’s really important that we have Black History Month so we can sit back and remember how far we’ve come and how much further we have to go. We can remember where we came from, why we’re here, and we can educate people,” she said.

Badero also believes that there should be more diversity in the Hopkins community.

“When you’re at such a big university like Hopkins that represents the world, shouldn’t our faculty and our administration reflect that?. . .but we do need to strive to do better because at top universities it’s not like this,” she said.

Upcoming events include the third annual MOCHA reception and dinner on Feb 15,, “Our Side of the Story” on Feb. 16, “The Color of Faith” on Feb. 20, “Hidden Histories” on Feb. 23, “My Siblings Keeper” on Feb. 25, “50 Shades of Black” on Feb. 27 as well as the Dunbar-Baldwin-Hughes Theater Company’s Cabaret on Feb. 28. Finally, this year’s Black History Month at Hopkins will come to an end with a closing ceremony on Feb. 28.