Student Trustee Richard Blackmon and Student Assistant from Student Life at Long Beach City College Oshin Tudayan hosted an event on February 25th during a virtual Zoom event with guest speaker Kirk Kirkwood.
The event was held as part of LBCC’s Black Heritage month’s list of events. The main topics discussed were race, identity, and culture.
The event opened up with a sacred libation ceremony, led by Kirkwood who is the Southern California Regional Director of the CalStateTEACH program.
“An African proverb teaches us that people who lack the knowledge of their past are like a tree without its roots. Like a story is a tradition of pouring a drink, offering to a plant to honor our creator,” said Kirkwood during the libation ceremony.
The event was then followed by discussions on the definitions of race, ethnicity, culture, identity and had the audience share their personal experiences and thoughts in each of the topics.
Blackmon said, “I think that considering that there is social injustice, in order to educate students in this so they can educate others and keep the conversation going.” This was in reference to why it is important to have these conversations.
“Social awareness is important.” said Blackmon.
“I find that we have taken so much media, especially during this time, and you see a lot of celebrities incorporate black culture. It is becoming more prevalent and people need to learn to not appropriate the culture so much,” Oshin said.
Shathana Coleman who attended the event said, “I always bring people into my world. I have to make them see how I see things. I have to help them not look at me as what they think a black person is.”
The event also had two guest performances from student, Nzingha Bryan and an alumni. They both recited poems that express their own feelings of being black women.
The event ended with open discussions for anyone to share their personal experiences.
There are more resources that students have access too in the link below:
https://www.lbcc.edu/sites/main/files/file-attachments/black_student_resource_guide.pdf