February is Black History Month, dedicated to "honoring the triumphs and struggles of African Americans throughout U.S. history, including the civil rights movement and their artistic, cultural and political achievements." The Association for the Study of African American Life and History has declared the theme for BHM in 2021 to be The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity, noting, "The black family has been a topic of study in many disciplines—history, literature, the visual arts and film studies, sociology, anthropology, and social policy." ASAALH offers a 2021 Black History Month virtual festival, with several free events open to the public, as well as an interesting look into the origins of Black History Month.
Here in San Antonio, there are several local BHM celebrations you can attend virtually. Alamo Colleges have a robust agenda of events, including an interactive discussion of the impact of mental health issues and the African American Black family called "Family Matters of the Mind" and a poetry reading from Antoinette Winstead. UTSA also has several Black History Month events, including a presentation on "Black Experience in Sports" and a keynote event featuring Dr. Angela Davis. Also, don't miss out on events sponsored by the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum. On Feb. 22, they will sponsor two community conversations, one for middle school students and one for high school students, about systemic racism. Also, in very exciting news, they will have the grand opening of their new exhibit space in La Villita on Feb. 25-27!
If you're looking for resources for Black History Month, BiblioTech Public Library has you covered! Check out our Black History Month collection on cloudLibrary, with books from amazing authors like Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and John Lewis. On Hoopla, we have BHM collections of ebooks, music, movies and more, for all ages.
On BiblioBoard, we have some great ebooks available, including The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age and First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School. Be sure to check out Kanopy's Celebrate Black Cinema collection, which features amazing films, including Oscar-winning movie Moonlight and many award winning documentaries.
Looking for even more resources? Check out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which has online exhibits and virtual genealogy classes, or the Civil Rights Collection from PBS Learning Media.
Looking for more BiblioTech news? Check out the entire BiblioTech Blog, or sign up for our newsletter. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. We'd love to hear from you!