Members of the University community gathered Tuesday night to launch Black History Month and provide an overview to this year’s theme, “Shades of Blackness: Political Expressions Through Art & Music.” The convocation featured dinner and speeches that reflected the different perspectives held by three Wesleyan generations: freshmen, seniors, and alumni.

“In the way Wesleyan is set up, specifically the minority community, everyone looks out for each other, and especially for the freshmen,” said Marcus Warmington ’09. “I went to a boarding school with few minority students and most didn’t want to be there. Over 70 percent left. Here, it’s so different. People grab your shoulder and encourage you.”

Tia Clinton ’06 also spoke about the changes she experienced as a freshman. She referred to a familiar television program, A Different World, to emphasize her point.

“Higher learning is a ‘different world,’” Clinton said. “It’s a new institution with different pedagogies all wrapped up in an environment that many of us might not have been acquainted with. The transition to a university can be very difficult, especially if you are a student of color. The reason that I believe my experience in this space has been enjoyable is because I was able to share it with so many beautiful members of the black community.”

For Clinton, one of the significant aspects of her University education has been debating, with friends and other students, issues like education, race, representation, the prison-industrial complex, and drug policy. She also stressed the importance of gaining from her past experiences, using the example of the Sankofa bird.

“Sankofa teaches us that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward. That is, we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward. Whatever we have lost, forgotten, forgone or been stripped of, can be reclaimed, revived, preserved and perpetuated,” Clinton said, quoting a meaning of the mythic character’s symbolism.

The final speaker was Letica Fox Thomas ’05 who now works in an investment bank and volunteers at a homeless shelter in her free time. She discussed her transition from the University to the business world.

“People never see what you want them to see; they really see what you are. Now, I am corporate and intelligent. Part of myself has become where I work and the future I will be a part of, and that’s not a bad thing,” she said.

Black History Month programs are put together annually by Ujamaa, the Black student union on campus. This month’s programs will include film screenings, a Rosa Parks Tribute, and a multiple sclerosis dinner. Dr. Tricia Rose will deliver a keynote address on Feb. 9.

“This year, Black History Month is more focused on arts and music than previous years when it focused on education and expression through academia,” said Ujamaa Secretary Caroline White ’08. “I’m most looking forward to the Saul Williams performance and also the five monologues by black women living with HIV/AIDS.”