Adorning the posters for this year’s Black History Month celebration are three Ashanti Adinkra symbols representing endurance, imperishability and the perpetual existence of one’s spirit. As Black History Month organizer and Chair of the African American studies department Caroline Jackson Smith explains, the symmetrical symbols invoke ideas summarized in the title of the program.

This year’s Black History Month, co-sponsored by the African American studies department and the Multicultural Resource Center, is called “RE – Defining Spaces: The Resilience and Endurance of a People” and will bring dance, speakers, film and even preaching to Oberlin.

According to Jackson Smith, the theme was inspired by the interrelatedness of sustaining the environment and sustaining a culture.

“This started with thinking about how environmentalism applies to Africana communities, which is something that we don’t think gets talked about enough,” she said.

Jackson Smith said that she has strived to infuse her life with this theme: “It was my hope always that African American history or Africana history would start to inform everything I do and I still hope for that but I do think that having a month long celebration is a start.”

Courtney Patterson, African American Studies professor and co-chair of the Black History Month planning committee, observed that the month’s success will be the result of significant collaboration. “Members of Africana organizational groups have come out to contribute, as well as AAST majors and Afrikan Heritage House and Third World House residents,” she said

The month-long celebration began last week with a dinner in Lord/Saunders, followed by a formal opening ceremony Friday night in Third World House.

This weekend will feature a dance piece by local choreographer Diane McIntyre, dramatizing the life of Oberlin alumna Marjorie Witt Johnson OC ’35. Later, Democratic National Committee Chief of Staff Leah Daughtry will deliver a sermon off-campus at the Oberlin House of the Lord Fellowship.

The calendar continues until Mar. 9, when it ends with an invitation-only closing ceremony in Afrikan Heritage House.

If the month meets the aspirations of Black History Month planning committee Co-Chair and Acting Africana Community Coordinator Ramesh Bhagirat, it will have broken new ground in the ongoing conversation about oppression and inequality.

“We wanted to take on something that nobody else was doing,” he said, “We realized that Oberlin has to maintain its reputation for being at the forefront of the discussions about race, class, gender and sexuality. We hope that this year’s celebration… challenges all of us to take the discourse to another level.”