By Lindsey Rousseau

Marian University celebrated Black History Month throughout the month of February with a wide variety of events to celebrate and acknowledge Black excellence.

Union for Black Identity (UBI) led a number of successful events throughout the month to educate campus about different pieces of Black history. This included Movie Nights, Open Mic Nights, and a campus-favorite the Soul Food Dinner.

Kamille Ware, Vice President of UBI, spoke on the importance of the Soul Food Dinner. She said that it is typically the “only time to be authentically ourselves and truly show what Black excellence looks like.” The event traditionally includes a guest speaker along with congregation over a meal. Because of COVID-19, the Soul Food Dinner looked a bit different this year but still managed to emphasize the importance of Black culture in the world and on the Marian University campus.

Nyree Modisette, guest speaker for the Soul Food Dinner and active contributor to Marian University’s UBI chapter, mentioned that these events are a large part of Black History Month on campus. She said that Black History Month is about “celebrating our past and acknowledging not only the challenging times but the beauty of Black people and their success.”

Modisette, who is also a Freshmen Admission Counselor at Marian University, suggested that students can get involved even beyond Black History Month. She said that students can get connected with UBI on social media, notably Instagram at @mu_ubi.

Ware, a junior Public Health and Sociology double major, added to this saying that students can be part of their biweekly meetings on Wednesdays at 7:30 PM via Zoom. All students need to do is reach out to Ware or UBI President Erynne Pope by email to be added to their email list. Their emails are [email protected] and [email protected].