As a new addition to the Upper School calendar, the Black Student Union (BSU) at MFS has organized a month-long series of events in February to commemorate Black History Month.  Throughout the month, BSU will showcase various aspects of Black culture, such as film, art, and history.

The celebrations commenced with the “BSU Big Screen Event,” featuring a screening of the film “The Woman King” in the Dining Hall Commons. The event was free of charge, as BSU plans to make the Black History Month events as affordable and accessible as possible. 

This year’s Black History Month comes in the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols due to police brutality. In the past weeks, there were several protests across the country in response to the released body-cam footage of the killing; however, BSU co-facilitators Eva Vanterpool ’23 and Artese Brown ’23 expressed their desire to concentrate on pride this month, rather than dwelling on negative experiences. Vanterpool emphasized, “We really want to highlight and celebrate Black culture instead of … the struggles that Black people have dealt with.” 

The largest event of Black History Month will be a Spirit Week, featuring theme days. Some days during the Spirit Week will be exclusive to members of BSU, while the rest will be open to the wider MFS community. During the week of February 2, BSU will hold a version of the popular game show, “Family Feud.” Furthermore, BSU will conduct workshops during lunchtime throughout the month, including workshops about Afro-Caribbean culture, Black hairstyles, and other aspects of Black culture. These will be open to all MFS students, and Vanterpool and Brown hope that these workshops will educate the wider community on Black culture. 

Another focal point of the month will be the “State of the Black Community Address,” which will shed light on the experiences of BSU members as Black students and individuals. “We have people who wrote poems and people who are creating some type of visual art to speak to their experiences as a Black person and experiencing the world being a Black person,” Vanterpool described. The date and time of this event are yet to be announced.

Lastly, BSU aims to highlight the diversity within the Black community this month, with the “All Around the Black World” event. The event will include presentations and cuisine made by BSU members to educate the MFS community on a chosen culture or nation that is a part of the “Black World.”

“We’re gonna have different cultures within the black community [which will] range from… Jamaican culture to … the Bahamas, West Africa… we’re just doing a lot of different regions,” Vanterpool explained.

This year, the Black Student Union has been one of the most attended affinity groups, with an average of 30 students in attendance per meeting. Brown expressed his satisfaction with the group BSU has this year: “They bring in energy that is really appreciated… it’s something nice to get to see all of them have all of their different heritage and cultures and personalities and come together and try to create events and do things that are better for not only the Black community but the MFS community,” Brown commented.

BSU adviser Jazzmin Holmes explained the importance of the month to her: “For me, it’s important to highlight a lot of the things that people who look like me have gone through and celebrate all the wonderful things that we’ve done to contribute to this country.”