The celebration will kick off at 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, with an open house hosted by Africana Studies in the mezzanine of Santa Susana Hall, near the center of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge. The event will provide an opportunity for members of the campus community to meet the department’s new chair, Sylvia Macauley, and showcase CSUN’s various black organizations.

“The Africana Studies Week celebration is important to commemorate those students who advocated for change through protest in 1968,” said Cedric D. Hackett, a professor in the Department of Africana Studies and event coordinator. “Our Africana studies program was demanded by students who knew the importance of our unique existence in institutions of higher education and is an illustration of collective engagement and determination.”

Hackett said this year’s theme, Sankofa 2.0, encompasses the past, present and future of the communities’ struggle toward upward mobility and racial uplift.Broadous is retired from the U.S. Navy and a pastor at Calvary Baptist Church of Pacoima, which was founded by his parents in 1955. He attended CSUN in 1969 and has had extensive involvement in the community, including serving as a member of the CSUN Alumni Association board of directors, founder of the San Fernando Valley Black Chamber of Commerce, member of the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, board of governors of the Valley Economic Alliance and member of the Los Angeles County Police Chief’s Community Forums.He will speak at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4, in Nordhoff Hall’s Little Theatre. The week’s activities are co-sponsored by the W.E.B. DuBois-Fannie Lou Hamer Institute for Academic Achievement (www.csun.edu/dhiaa).Some of the other events scheduled in celebration of the founding of Africana Studies include:

Nov. 3

·      Lecture by Nina Smart, Ph.D., author of Wild Flower: The True Story of a Romanian Girl in Africa, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., Sierra Hall 342.

·      Meet the Black Organizations, noon to 3 p.m., USU Plaza del Sol.

  Nov. 4

·      Storm at Valley State documentary screening, 2 to 3 p.m., Nordhoff Hall’s Little Theatre.

·      Keynote address by Rev. Zedar Broadous, CSUN alumnus and former head of the San Fernando Valley Branch of the NAACP, 3 p.m., Nordhoff Hall’s Little Theatre.

·      #BlackLivesMatter@CSUN, a panel of experts will discuss media coverage of civil discourse and social change and ways to inspire students to look for opportunities to change the world, by learning about and supporting social justice movements, 4 to 6:45 p.m., USU Flintridge Room.

Nov. 5

·      Black Wall Street Fair, noon to 3 p.m., outside of Santa Susana Hall.

Nov. 6

·      Dear White People, film screening and discussion on race, 6 to 9 p.m., USU Theater.

CSUN’s Department of Africana Studies is one of the oldest and largest degree-granting black studies programs in the nation. CSUN was one of the first universities in the country to establish a black studies program, opening its doors in 1969. The department has produced thousands of graduates who are working in a variety of disciplines, including education, social work, law and media communications.

For more information about the events, contact the Department of Africana Studies at (818) 677-3311 or visit its website.