Black History Month is February 1st to 28th, 2023. If you’re looking for ways to get involved, check out these events that are happening on campus and around Calgary!

Events on Campus

Live Music Thursday: Black History Month Edition
February 9th | 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm | West Gate Social

Event Description:
Join us for this special Black History Month edition of Live Music Thursday! Come by West Gate Social from 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm to visit with friends, grab a bite to eat, or just enjoy the live music!

The Scarborough Charter: A Conversation that Matters at MRU
February 16th | 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm | Room W231

Event Description:
Featuring the spoken word poetry of Calgary Poet Laureate “Wakefield Brewster”. The EDI Conversations that Matter are part of the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (OEDI) overall strategy to create an inclusive community engagement process that fosters a comprehensive, participatory, action-oriented, and results-based Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategy for MRU. The goals of the Conversations that Matter Series are to:

• Provide space for monthly EDI conversations that matter to our community members
• Facilitate respectful and inclusive dialogues about EDI and its intersections that center the voices and experiences of all equity-deserving individuals, groups, and their allies
• Educate our campus communities about EDI principles and values
• Learn about EDI best practices and tools to support our EDI work and engagement
• Adopt together a common language to strengthen our understanding and commitment to EDI
• Foster a campus where people can feel they belong by being able to fully participate in both our social and academic community
• Introduce the Office of EDI as a centralized resource for university members to access current information and best practices about EDI and related intersections

Events Around Calgary

Artists Pavilion, sponsored by TD Bank Group
Multiple Dates | 11:30 am – 1:30 pm | Central Library

Event Description:
The Artists Pavilion (sponsored by TD Bank Group) takes place at the Central Library and features pop-up performances by local artists. This event is presented by Four Winds YYC and 10 at 10 in celebration of Indigenous culture and Black History Month!

Presented by 10 at 10
February 2nd: Rome IX and James Noble
February 9th: d.e.a.f. and HART
February 10th: RTC Profit and Sashae

For the first time ever: Rhythm and Rhymes with Bubba B “the” MC, a Black History/365 event
February 12th | 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm | Central Library

Event Description:
An exciting opportunity for youth and families to learn and create together with award-winning artist (and Dragon’s Den Slayer), Bubba B the MC. Using his book/CD as a starting place to centre themes of reading, literacy, and Black History month, Bubba B demonstrates his technique for bringing different ideas together to create a whole new hip-hop song.

Black History Month: The Caili O’Doherty Quintet – Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement
February 16th | 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm | Central Library

Event Description:
The Caili O’Doherty Quintet, a New York-based jazz ensemble, will visit the Calgary Public Library for an educational performance on Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement, a look at U.S. history, and the relationship between Black American Music.

Black History Month: The Caili O’Doherty Quintet – Lil Hardin Armstrong
February 17th | 4:00 pm – 4:45 pm | Central Library

Event Description:
The Caili O’Doherty Quintet, a New York-based jazz ensemble, will visit the Calgary Public Library for an educational performance on the music and history of one of jazz’s unsung women heroes – pianist, composer, and vocalist Lil Hardin Armstrong.

Black History Month: The Caili O’Doherty Quintet
February 20th | 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm | Central Library

Event Description:
Join us for a special performance by this New York-based jazz ensemble of original compositions and arrangements of Black American Music. The group features Caili O’Doherty on piano, Adi Meyerson on bass, Cory Cox on drums, Roxy Coss on saxophone, and Tahira Clayton on voice.

Ethnik Festival of Arts and Culture 2023 
Feb 25th | 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm | TELUS Convention Centre

Event Description:
This event will feature local and international talents/acts presenting various forms of artistic and cultural presentations.

UNGANISHA: Explore. Connect. Dance.
February 25th | Performances at 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm | Contemporary Calgary

Event Description:
This in-person production of UNGANISHA: Explore. Connect. Dance. offers an opportunity to educate audiences about the lesser-known origins of Hip Hop and Tap dance.

UNGANISHA, which means “Connect” in Swahili, will highlight the interaction of cultures that created each dance style, identifying each as both owing to African traditions and distinctly belonging to modern popular culture. Through movement, storytelling, and historical contexts, we will journey through Tap and Hip-Hop to celebrate their genesis, their contemporary popularity, and their ability to connect people across cultures and continents.

*TRIGGER WARNING*

MRU Streaming: Eating Disorders and the Black Community – A Brief Overview and Discussion
February 1st | 6:15 pm – 8:00 pm | In-person (Y324) or virtual

Event Description:
Join us for the kick-off to Eating Disorders Awareness Week and Black History Month with an educational event discussing being a black person while living with an eating disorder or disordered eating.

In addition to the events happening around Calgary and MRU, take a look at these Black History Month film and reading recommendations from the Calgary Public Library!