Black History Month 2025 Events at a Glance
Event changes may occur throughout the month. Check back for the most up-to-date information.
Heritage, Sustainability, and Innovation: The Future of Cultural Preservation in Africa
Sandwich Seminar
Thursday, February 20
Old Main, Colloquium Room
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Join us for an engaging seminar with Dr. Tokie Laotan-Brown, an expert in Architecture, heritage management and sustainability, as she explores the critical intersections between cultural preservation, sustainable practices, and innovation in Africa. Dr. Laotan-Brown will share insights from her work with UNESCO and ICOMOS, discuss the challenges of decolonizing heritage, and highlight the potential of heritage trails and community-led initiatives to promote economic and cultural revitalization. This seminar is a unique opportunity to learn about the transformative power of heritage in fostering sustainable development and elevating African narratives on the global stage.
Presenter: Tokie Laotan-Brown
Combating Agency Reduction Formation: Building Strength in Advocacy
Thursday, February 20 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Corey Union, Function Room
In this contemporary moment, the collective agency of the Black community is under attack by Agency Reduction Formations. The theoretical construction Agency Reduction Formation is operationalized by Africana Studies as: "Any system of thought that distracts, neutralizes, or reduces the need and desire for assertive collective agency by African Americans", making it necessary for us, as a people, to fight against the anti-egalitarian ideational frameworks designed to restrict and marginalize our communities human possibilities.
Join Dr. Tillotson, the Multicultural Male Initiative, and the Black Student Union for a workshop on combating Agency Reduction Formation to advocate for social justice and our collective liberation. Food and beverages will be provided, and participants are encouraged to stay after the event and continue the conversation, as part of the with MMI Barbershop Talk Series.
Presenter: Michael Tillotson
Contact: Jacob Wright
Sponsors: IEI, MMI, AAS
Multicultural Male Initiative Barbershop Talk with Dr. Tillotson and BSU
Thursday, February 20 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Corey Union, Function Room
Description: Join Dr. Tillotson, the Multicultural Male Initiative, and the Black Student Union for a workshop on combating Agency Reduction Formation to advocate for social justice and our collective liberation. Food and beverages will be provided, and participants are encouraged to stay after the event and continue the conversation, as part of the with MMI Barbershop Talk Series. Haircuts start at 6 p.m. and will be given on a first come first serve basis, with preference given to students who are present for the workshop from 4 – 6.
Presenter: Michael Tillotson
Contact: Jacob Wright
Gospel Choir
Friday, February 21, 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Corey Union, Function Room
This will be the Gospel Choir's annual concert in collaboration with The Blues Ensemble as well as the Africana dance group.
Presented by: Bernice Cooper
Becoming, Writing Home: Embodying Spirit as Gendered and Sexual Identity Representation in Igbo Literature
Monday, February 24 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Brockway Hall, Jacobus Lounge
This talk shares indigenous African ontologies of becoming and of one’s purpose read through contemporary Igbo literature, centering the journeys of non-heterosexual women. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi and Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta tell stories of queer Igbo women’s experiences through life as they come into various manifestations of their identities. The protagonists, Ada and Ijeoma respectively, do blossom into divinely determined notions of self against the backdrop of neo-colonial environments ill-equipped to understand their particular journeys. Igbo ontological understanding of chi – or one’s spirit, one’s representation in the spirit world tasked with leading them to their destiny – is centered as a way to prioritize and exemplify ancient methods of self-poesis. The Maatian notion of khepert, or the process becoming, and bodeme of the Dagara (Burkina Faso), or gatekeepers of physical and spiritual realms, are also incorporated. They are used to reveal complex ways the protagonists move through life, arguing the presence and salience of ancient methods of becoming self that align diverse sexuality to spiritually and culturally determined identities for the individual, that in turn prepare them for explicit duties and responsibilities to the community. Ada and Ijeoma’s journeys offer ways contemporary African writers draw from cultural structures and practices predating contemporary westernized notions of African identity to write new corrective narratives that model these possibilities of existence. They write home by writing characters who successfully move towards their chi, providing contemporary Africans and humans globally with diverse notions of authentically being.
Presenter: Ọlaọcha Nwadiuto Nwabara, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Western African Literature and Culture, Department of English, SUNY Geneseo
From TVA to Kanji? Damming Nigeria’s New Deal Vision for National TransformationTuesday, February 25, 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Between 1964 and 1968, Nigeria built and completed Kanji Dam, one of the country's most significant infrastructural development projects following political independence from Britain. The vision of Nigerian leaders was that the dam will be socially and economically transformative like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) did in the Appalachian region of the United States. This presentation discusses the planning processes, particularly the negotiations between Nigeria and the World Bank on support for the project. The negotiations highlight the challenges that poorer nations face when balancing their national development goals with international funders' ideological and pragmatic concerns. I argue that by narrowing the focus of the dam from its multipurpose vision, which included cheap electricity, flood controls, irrigation, and improved navigation, to primarily power generation, the project failed to achieve the economic and social transformations that Nigerian leaders promised the people. Presenter: Bekeh Ukelina |
Abolition Feminism and Its Others
Sandwich Seminar
Old Main, Colloquium Room
Wednesday, February 26
12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Since the publication of Abolition. Feminism. Now (Davis, Dent, Meiners, and Ritchie, 2022) by notable penal abolitionists, abolition feminism is starting to gain traction in feminist and social justice discourses. This is a welcome development, and in my talk, I will show why it is important to differentiate this conceptualization from those who defend governance or carceral feminist practices.
Presenter: Mecke Nagel
Assumptions and Opinions
Wednesday, February 26, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Neubig Hall Lobby
Assumptions and opinions can cause harm. Check out scenarios that someone might say, how it causes harm, and what to say /do instead. Examples will include various aspects of diversity.
Presented by: Lauren Scagnelli
Sponsors: Conley Wellness Wednesday, Health Promotions, MLDO, and Wellness Peer Educators.
Contested Heritage: Japan, Korea, China and the Struggle for Historical Narratives at UNESCO
Wednesday, February 26, 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Corey Union Fireplace Lounge
Since 2015, there has been fierce conflicts at UNESCO over interpretations of Japan's 20th-century colonial rule and wartime actions among Japan, Korea, and China. Japan's 2015 Meiji Industrial Heritage Sites nomination sparked backlash from Korea and others due to forced labor use of Chinese and Korean citizens. China's Nanjing Massacre documents were successfully inscribed, despite Japanese complaints. The nomination of Comfort Women archives remains pending after a 2017 postponement.
Present: Dr. Jihon Kim, Chief of Policy, Korean National Commission for UNESCO; Visiting Scholar, Harvard Asia Center.
Black Abroad
Wednesday, February 26 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Corey Union, Room 209
This panel discussion will feature Black students who have studied abroad within the last year or two. The event will provide a platform for students to share their unique experiences, reflecting on how studying abroad has shaped their identities, the challenges they faced, and the triumphs they achieved while navigating new cultural environments. By amplifying their voices, the panel aims to inspire and inform students of color about the transformative potential of international education while fostering a conversation on the intersection of race and global experiences.
Presenter: Kelly Tait
Prisons, Anarchism, and Black Power
Wednesday, February 26 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 pm
Brockway Hall, Jacobus Lounge
The Struggle for Black Power is an essential throughline in Black History, and Black Anarchism has developed into an influential form of this Struggle. New York, and specifically its vast constellation of jails and prisons, was a locus of the development of Black Anarchism as a distinct politics and praxis. Join us as we discuss the development of Black Anarchism in New York through the life of Martin Sostre and the Attica Prison Revolt.
Presenter: Robert Haggar
Sponsors: International Programs Office (IPO)
Portraying Racialized Bodies in Early Modernity
Sandwich Seminar
Thursday, February 27
Old Main, Colloquium Room
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Amid the constructs of race created by English persons during the early modern period, their investment in portraying Black, Brown, and mixed-race individuals invites reflection on what made these identities particularly essential to racial constructions. This presentation will explore the representations of these racialized bodies in drama, poetry, and early modern material culture.
Black History Exhibition
Thursday, February 27, at 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Corey Union Function Room
This will be an educational celebration of black excellence in arts, culture, and leadership. We will have VO clubs set up like an exhibition presenting things such as hair, clothes, important figures, dances and more. This will be held in the function room and allow students, community members, faculty and staff to come by and enjoy this event.
Presented by: Dahila Wilson and ballroom dancer
Sponsors: SGA, BSU, CSA, CKC, AEA, MOVE, WOC, NAACP, Pride
Regina Grantham: A Gentle Warrior
Friday, February 28, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Sperry Learning Resources Center
Vittor Lecture Hall first (Room 105).
Regina Grantham was a faculty member in the Department of Communication Disorders & Sciences at SUNY Cortland for over 30 years. She was department chair for 18 years. Regina was monumental in establishing the Graduate program and obtaining accreditation for it. Regina tirelessly advocated and provided leadership to a multitude of diversity initiatives in our university, community and the field of speech-language pathology. She is the epitome of Black resistance, resilience and success. From the significant challenges she endured when attending a predominantly white institution in the 60s, to being named an ASHA Fellow by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the highest honor in the field. This proposal is a snapshot of the leadership and impact she had.
Light refreshments will be served.
Sponsors: Black Student Union (BSC)