Black History Month celebration emphasizes building the ‘beloved community’
While speakers acknowledged the change and uncertainty of the moment, they encouraged hope and the importance of continuing to work toward justice
The afternoon began with a karibu, the Swahili word for “welcome”—not just to the Glenn Miller Ballroom or the University of Colorado Boulder campus, but to the beloved community “where everybody is included and nobody is excluded,” said Reiland Rabaka, founder and director of the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS), in opening the CAAAS Day Black History Month celebration Saturday afternoon.
The celebration came, as several of the speakers acknowledged, during a time of great change, when many are feeling the anxiety that often accompanies uncertainty.
CU President Todd Saliman (left) and Reiland Rabaka, Center for African and African American Studies founder and director, emphasized the importance of compassion in the present moment.
“I have spent many decades watching progress and regress,” said 91Ƶ Chancellor Justin Schwartz. “We seem to step forward and then back and then forward again.”
In emphasizing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s observation that, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” Schwartz noted that the arc “is not smooth like a rainbow,” but rough and jagged. “The arc does not bend on its own, people bend the arc. Collectively, we bend the arc toward justice.”
, president of the University of Colorado, told those in attendance that “we are not changing anything until we are required to do so by a lawful order. We’ll keep our eye on the ball and continue to do our work. At this point, there’s very little we’ve been required to do lawfully.”
Saliman added that the University of Colorado remains committed to all of Colorado and encouraged people to “approach each other with compassion right now.”
CU Regent , the second Black woman and third Black regent in the history of CU, was forceful in pointing out the lack of Black leadership within the CU system, while Annett James, president of the NAACP of Boulder County, emphasized the importance of accurately told history during Black History Month.
“History must be approached as a discipline rooted in fact,” James said, “not interpreted by those who wrote it.”
Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett, while acknowledging the “struggle, setback and oppression” in Boulder’s history, said that “in the days and years to come, we will continue to build the beloved community here in Boulder.”
Carrying the theme of building the beloved community, Rabaka emphasized that “we are going to keep doing this and we shall not be moved.”
Nandi Pointer (right), a PhD student in the College of Media, Communication and Information, performs with her brother, Shegun Pointer.
CU Regent Wanda James (center, black baseball cap) observed that "this is a deep Black History Month for us for a lot of reasons."
91Ƶ Chancellor Justin Schwartz emphasized that the "arc (of the moral universe) does not bend on its own, people bend the arc."
Denver musician Enmanuel Alexander performs at the CAAAS Day Black History Month celebration.
Reiland Rabaka, a 91Ƶ professor of ethnic studies, said that in the work of building the beloved community, "we are going to keep doing this and we shall not be moved.”
Angel Anderson (left) and Tyreis Hunt (white shirt), both MFA students in the 91Ƶ Department of Theatre and Dance, and Constance Harris, an MFA graduate from the department, perform with Parris Fleming (on trumpet).
Denver musician Parris Fleming (left, on trumpet) performed with (left to right) Tyreis Hunt, Constance Harris and Angel Anderson; Hunt and Anderson are MFA students in the 91Ƶ Department of Theatre and Dance, and Harris is an MFA graduate from the department.