2025 Black History Month Celebration – February 2025
“Black Labor: The Economic Foundation for American Success”
For four centuries, the free and paid labor African Americans have given to this nation has provided it with its fortuitous economic foundation. This definition of labor encompasses the shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy built on the backs of previous generations. As we commemorate the centurial anniversary of the first Black labor union, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids, it is important to remember the sacrifices and protections of those who continue to work in the fields of public service, community building, education, farming, among many others. Join the James Farmer Multicultural Center in highlighting these noteworthy moments and contributions in our nation’s history.
Gospelfest
Saturday, Feb. 1 | 3 p.m. | Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall
Join gospel choirs and praise dance teams as they engage in spiritual song and dance.
Black History Month Kick-Off Lunch: Southern Soul Food Lunch
Tuesday, Feb. 4 | 11:30 a.m. | Dining at the Top of the CRUC, Cedric Rucker University Center
Cost with Campus Meal Plan is one meal swipe or $14.92 Flex. The cost for EagleOne or credit card purchase is $17.23.
The History of Black Hair Symposium
Tuesday, Feb. 4 | 5 p.m. | Chandler Ballroom C, Cedric Rucker University Center
Black Student Association and Circle of Sistas will be hosting an event where people will be educated on the history of different hairstyles such as cornrows, box braids, protective styles, and many more!
The Rolling Back of Civil Rights Gains in Education
Wednesday, Feb. 5| 5 p.m. | Chandler Ballroom A&B, Cedric Rucker University Center
BOND and SEED will be hosting a program featuring a panel discussion where education professionals will be discussing the loss of civil rights protections in K-12 and higher education.
Funding for the Arts
Friday, Feb. 7 | 7 p.m. | The Underground, Lee Hall
For the Culture and Women of Color will be putting on a concert and art show where we will be donating money to a charity focused on the arts.
Colors of Africa
Saturday, Feb. 8 | 5 p.m. | Chandler Ballroom, Cedric Rucker University Center
Sponsored by the African Student Union and the James Farmer Multicultural Center
Colors of Africa seeks to celebrate the culture that Black people create. Whether it is Black people of the African continent, African Americans, or the Caribbean, Blackness is a transnational and multicultural experience and it ought to be celebrated as such.
Screaming Queens Documentary
Monday, Feb. 10 | 6 p.m. | Digital Auditorium, Hurley Convergence Center
This documentary focuses on transgender women and drag queens who fought police harassment at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco in 1966, three years before the famous riot at Stonewall in New York City.
Black History Month: African Dinner
Tuesday, February 11 | 5 p.m. | Dining at the Top of the CRUC, Cedric Rucker University Center
Cost with Campus Meal Plan is one meal swipe or $14.92 Flex. The cost for EagleOne or credit card purchase is $17.23.
The History of Hip-Hop in the South
Wednesday, Feb. 12 | 6 p.m. | Chandler Ballroom A&B, University Center
This interactive presentation will be led by legendary DJ, DJ Demp. He will be discussing his career in the music industry as one of the trailblazing DJ’s in the history of Southern hip-hop music.
Great Lives Series: John Lewis
Thursday, Feb. 13 | 7:30 p.m. | Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall
For six decades John Robert Lewis (1940–2020) was a towering figure in the struggle for civil rights in the United States. As an activist and progressive congressman, he was renowned for his unshakable integrity, indomitable courage, and determination to get into “good trouble.” John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community is the first book-length biography of Lewis. Historian Raymond Arsenault traces Lewis’s upbringing in rural Alabama, his activism as a Freedom Rider and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, his championing of voting rights and anti-poverty initiatives, and his decades of service as the “conscience of Congress.” Both in the streets and in Congress, Lewis promoted a philosophy of nonviolence to bring about change. He helped the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders plan the 1963 March on Washington, where he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial. Lewis’s activism led to repeated arrests and beatings, most notably when he suffered a skull fracture in Selma, Alabama, during the 1965 police attack later known as Bloody Sunday. He was instrumental in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and in Congress he advocated for racial and economic justice, immigration reform, LGBTQ rights, and national health care.
Bail Out Bake Sale
Tuesday, Feb. 18 | 1 p.m. | Campus Walk
The UMW NAACP College Chapter, For the Culture, and Women of Color will be selling baked goods and donating the proceeds to a nonprofit organization to aid the many marginalized individuals who are returning home from incarceration.
Black History Month Major Performance: Kia Bennett
Thursday, Feb. 20 | 7 p.m. | The Underground, Lee Hall
Kia Bennett is a native of Richmond, Virginia and a product of Howard University. She made her introduction into entertainment while singing with former Washington D.C. group “Entyme,” along with other respected soul artists Geno Young, Sy Smith, and Yahzarah. Kia is a member of the new school RAMP (Roy Ayers Music Production) whose musical contributions provided the world with samples for hits like A Tribe Called Quest’s “Bonita Applebum”, Mary J. Blige’s “My Life” and Erykah Badu’s “Amerykah’s Promise”. She is best noted for her background vocals on records featuring international recording artists Roy Ayers, D’Angelo, Ledisi, Michael Bolton, and others. She is also formerly half of the singing duo, Kia Bennett & Desiree Jordan as KiDe’. Kia was nominated as 2012 Best New Artist and 2017 Song of The Year (A Beautiful Forever) for SoulTracks Reader’s Choice Awards. Kia has also served as a Board Member and Governor of The Washington D.C. Chapter of the Grammy’s Recording Academy, ASCAP Member (The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), and SoundExchange. Additionally, she is a member of SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), and WALA (Washington Area Lawyers For The Arts). Kia devotes her time as an Artist in Residence at The Inova Schar Cancer Institute, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, and The Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center in the music and healing arts programs. Recently, she has been a background actor in movies such as Rustin, Harriet, Dopesick, Atlantis, among others. Currently, she is a teaching artist with Creative Works and YAMZ (Young Artists and Musicians Zone). She has an EP entitled, Duet of Daffodils and is working on her full-length album.
Step Show
Saturday, Feb. 22 | 7 p.m. | Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall
Join area step teams from high schools, regional colleges and universities as they engage in a high-energy, entertaining competition. For cost information, please contact the James Farmer Multicultural Center.
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS TO COMPETE IN STEP SHOW: CLICK HERE
Black History Month: Cajun/Mardi Gras/Caribbean Dinner
Tuesday, Feb. 25 | 5 p.m. | Dining at the Top of the CRUC, Cedric Rucker University Center
Cost with Campus Meal Plan is one meal swipe or $14.92 Flex. The cost for EagleOne or credit card purchase is $17.23.
Great Lives Series: Phillis Wheatley
Tuesday, Feb. 27 | 7:30 p.m. | Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall
Admired by George Washington, ridiculed by Thomas Jefferson, published in London, and read far and wide, Phillis Wheatley led one of the most extraordinary American lives. Seized in West Africa and forced into slavery as a child, she was sold to a merchant family in Boston, where she became a noted poet at a young age. Mastering the Bible, Greek and Latin translations, and the works of Pope and Milton, she composed elegies for local elites, celebrated political events, praised warriors, and used her verse to variously lampoon, question, and assert the injustice of her enslaved condition. “Can I then but pray / Others may never feel tyrannic sway?” By doing so, she added her voice to a vibrant, multisided conversation about race, slavery, and discontent with British rule; before and after her emancipation, her verses shook up racial etiquette and used familiar forms to create bold new meanings. She demonstrated a complex but crucial fact of the times: that the American Revolution both strengthened and limited Black slavery.
All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. For more information, please contact the James Farmer Multicultural Center at (540) 654-1044 or visit students.umw.edu/multicultural. Please email us at jfmc@umw.edu if you have any questions regarding disability-related accommodations.