The campus community celebrated Black History Month through Black cinema and lectures with featured guests.

Grossmont’s UMOJA community hosted a series of movie nights in Griffin Gate on the first three Thursdays in February. The first event was the projection of “Black Panther,” co-hosted with the First Year Experience Center. UMOJA coordinator Kalon Bell said they’ve been allies through it all. This was followed by “The Blackening” on Feb. 13 and “Get Out” on Feb.  20.

In addition to films, the community had a series of lectures with guests. The first one on the list was with Dr. Dennis Childs, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, on Feb. 12 in the Griffin Center.

“He touched on so many different things from the Black struggle, the Native American struggle, the Mexican struggle, the Palestinian struggle, so everybody in the room just felt heard and sane,” Bell said.

Dr. Jeremy Presholdt followed Feb. 19 and Dr. Ron McCurdy ended with the Langston Hughes Project Feb. 26.

These activities brought communities together, shared Black culture among students, got people involved and increased representation on campus.

“Celebrating Black History Month, bringing sort of cultural awareness to the campus beyond this,” Student Assistant Nia McClean said. “Like actually getting people more involved, and kind of giving us a little bit more representation on campus. It is a predominantly white campus, and so, you know, we’re here too.”

Throughout this month, the goal was for Grossmont’s community of color to relay and participate as much as possible.

“Operating in an educational space, we don’t get to see Black people very much in like the literature and the movies that are being shown in the classroom,” Bell said. “So being able to present films in which we are all kind of represented, and we see ourselves in those films, is super important.”