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Students Celebrate Black History Month in a New Fashion
 This February, in honor of Black History Month, the students of ONYX planned a month-long event series that they hope will become Milton tradition. ONYX is the Black cultural student group on campus, and with help from Tonysha Taylor in the diversity office, its members coordinated seven events that celebrated Black history from a variety of perspectives and in a variety of ways. Students packed the schedule with performances, visiting artists and celebrations, beginning February 1 with a Jazz Dessert kick-off and wrapping up on February 29 with a Calypso Explosion Caribbean party. (Click here for the full schedule of events.) Head of ONYX Lami Oladipo (I) shared her experience of the month’s festivities.
“Like any new thing, it took a little while to get the word out and draw the crowds, but as the month went on the events became very well-attended. The most popular events were probably Cullen Washington [one of Boston’s premier visual artists], and the African dance/drum workshop. For the Talent Show, we advertised outside of School, so we had outside groups performing as well. Students from Brimmer and May School [in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts] came to the show too, and that was something new for us—collaborating with another school. It was great to meet other students and get their feedback. The Caribbean-style picnic was a popular event, and a good way for everyone to get excited for spring break.
“My favorite part of the month was definitely the Chapel night. It was eight ONYX members sharing their own experiences, thoughts, stories, poems, and their own ideas of Black history. There were no flairs—it was nothing exciting or dramatic, but it was very personal. It had a real impact on me, and I think it did for a lot of other students there as well.
“One of the things we learned from planning the month was that something like this takes a lot of preparation. We would typically plan our events three weeks before, but something as big as this you have to start months in advance. It was a lot of work, and a lot of logistics, for the six ONYX board members. We had a lot of help from Ms. Taylor who connected us with people, and we had help from the SAA [Student Activities Association] in paying for everything. We realized that it’s easy to come up with the ideas; making all of them happen is the hard part. The planning was a little stressful at times, but it was a great bonding experience for us, and it was a good exercise in working together.
“We all realized the positive effect the whole month had on the community, and it’s definitely something I hope the board continues next year. Ideally, I would like to see the events spread out even beyond the month. I’d love to have an ONYX library on campus with professional art and books from all over the world. And it would be great for the club to bring more diverse outside speakers and performers to campus throughout the year. They don’t all have to represent Black history necessarily; I think the importance is that they just represent other cultural ideas.”
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