The University’s Black Student Union (BSU) has taken new steps to celebrate Black History Month with various events throughout February, beginning on Feb. 7.

“Last year, the Black Student Union decided that it was time to make a conscious effort to plan events for Black History Month. Last semester, we formed committees to work on three separate things, those being Black History Month, Black Arts Festival (which will be happening on the last weekend of Black History Month), and the Stomp Out Classic (a step show that we host with neighboring step teams and Black fraternities and sororities),” Chair of Outreach for BSU Messeret Kebede ’17 said. Kebede noted that she worked with Chair of Community Affairs for BSU, RA of Seventh Street House Dejda Collins ’16, and Historian for BSU Jahi Omari ’17 to take the lead on Black History Month event planning.

BSU’s first event will be a Black History Museum held in Seventh Street House, which currently serves as the Bridge the Gap affinity house. From 1-3 p.m., students will be able to explore different exhibits throughout the house.

“The Seventh Street House Museum is taking us back in time to see the black history at Bucknell,” Programming Chair for BSU Kendra Spruill ’17 said.

Each floor of the house will represent a different time period, featuring historical information including photos and documents. The exhibit will also depict the history of BSU and facts about diversity at the University.

“We spent some time in Special Collections/University Archives in the library, looking for old documents, flyers, anything we could get our hands on. We found hundred of articles, documents, and pictures that we cannot wait to put in the museum! We actually found several Bucknellian articles from many years ago that we will be featuring in the museum,” Kebede said.

“As you can probably guess, only recently the populations of minorities have been increasing, so it’s interesting to see how things were at the past Bucknell,” Spruill said.

BSU will then hold a Black Faculty, Staff, and Student Mixer in the ELC Walls Lounge from 6-7:30 p.m. on Feb. 17 to connect the black community within the University.

Students interested in the arts may attend a Hip-Hop Workshop on Feb. 21, followed by the Black Arts Festival, held from Feb. 25 to March 1. The annual festival involves several groups on campus, including BSU, Bucknell’s Africa Student Association (BASA) and the Bisonettes Dance Team. These groups will begin the week of the festival with a kickoff dinner on Feb. 25. The Bisonettes and BASA will work together to hold a dance workshop featuring African dance on Feb. 26.  BASA will host its annual fashion show on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Davis Gym. The festival will close with a free showing of the film “Dear White People” at the Campus Theatre on March 1. According to Spruill, the festival will feature more events that have yet to be announced.