Black History Month at AU: A Long-Term Engagement

Photo by Caroline DeLeon.

Event-Driven

Like many facets of American University, Multicultural Affairs is future-oriented, always looking for long-term engagement. That’s why the department’s approach to Black History Month feels a bit different than at other institutions.

While Multicultural Affairs' Director Tiffany Speaks believes that recognizing heritage months is important, she sees them less as singular celebrations and more as opportunities to raise awareness toward long-term engagement.

“One of the things about heritage months is that students want them to exist. There’s an interest in claiming a space,” she says. “As director, I’m very interested in having those conversations throughout the year, not solely just through the one month.”

As a way to push that consistent conversation forward, Multicultural Affairs – or MA – has collaborated with student groups, other Campus Life departments, and national organizations to pack the month full of compelling events.

Program Coordinator Caroline DeLeon has organized and scheduled events ranging from internship and job networking with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to a panel discussion on issues facing students of color and performances by musicians and poets, Paige Hernandez and Afro D All Starz.

“The goal with the heritage months is to have a mix and balance of events that will appeal to different groups,” DeLeon says. “So, [it’s] not necessarily having a discussion about race and culture, but something that will celebrate the race and culture component, like through performance.”

Campus Conversation

The month’s events have resulted from MA’s open-door policy for its office, where students meet and do homework – their conversations often turning to issues of heritage and multicultural identity.

“Caroline has been listening to the student voice and then creating activities that reflect those interests and needs,” Speaks says. “What Paige and Pete from [Afro D All Starz] talk about in the work they did is intersections of identity, and that is a conversation that is always occurring in our space. That part is important.”

Speaks also points out that a defining feature of AU – one of Washington DC’s first racially-integrated universities – exists in its ability to approach, address, and promote issues together as a campus community for moments like Black History Month and beyond.

“One thing unique about AU is that we do this work as a collaborative effort,” she says. “We combine administrative responsibility with student input. It results in quality programs where people are working together. It’s meant to be a campus-wide conversation.”

Multi-Identity

Building on the ideas of collaboration and intersections of identity, DeLeon and Speaks have crafted their plans to welcome every student, no matter what the event or heritage month.

DeLeon, new to the MA team as of last year, notes this effort in the department’s Martin Luther King, Jr. week programming last month, during which MA sought to break down traditionally accepted ideas about the holiday.

“We had the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute come, and a lot of the initial reaction was ‘Why are they here during Martin Luther King week?’” she says. “Really, it’s about social justice and social change, working toward that mission that was his dream.”

DeLeon also looks ahead toward Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month in April, when any AU student is invited to join a tour of the White House, which follows up on a trip to the president’s home for the Asian American Pacific Islanders Youth Leadership Briefing last month.

Like this month’s events, DeLeon thinks that MA’s ability to stage open, cross-cultural programming comes from the university’s size and attitude toward addressing social issues.

“AU is such a small community that we can do it bigger, better, and bolder,” she says. “We can do much more because students and offices collaborate so closely with each other. It is because we’re a smaller community that we have that ability to be more connected.”

It’s that connection – fostered during times like Black History Month – which Multicultural Affairs continues to build and strengthen into a deepening engagement with AU’s campus community.



To view the host of Black History Month events offered throughout February, click here.