Calabasas Sponsors Essay Contest For Black History Month

CALABASAS, CA — "What does Black History Month mean to you?"

February is Black History Month, and Calabasas is observing the month by asking its residents to reflect on what exactly that means to them. No other guidance is given - responses simply need to be 500 words or less, and mailed by Friday to mhernandez@cityofcalabasas.com. Responses will be divided into four categories - elementary school, middle school, high school +, and over 21, and a prize will be awarded to the winner of each category.

That's far from the only way that Calabasas's schools, libraries, and citizens are observing the first Black History Month to follow a year of protests over racial injustice and police brutality. Three of those protests took place in Calabasas, where protesters took a knee for eight minutes in front of City Hall. At the end of June, the city sponsored a 'Race and Change' Town Hall attended by city leaders and various Calabasans of color, who described their sometimes difficult experiences living in a city that is just 0.8 percent African-American, according to the 2010 Census.

In June, long-time Councilmember Fred Gaines called the city a "poster child for institutional racism", and alleged that former City Manager Gary Lysik was subject to "horrifying and overt racism" because he was married to a Black woman. Then-Mayor Alicia Weintraub said she had not witnessed anything like what Gaines described.

So what does Black History Month look like in a city that tried to grapple with racism in its own backyard?

First, the city has compiled a long list of resources related to Black History, including links to nearby events, videos from the Library of Congress and the National Archives, online exhibits from the Smithsonian, 11 films to watch related to Black history, a number of reading lists compiled by librarians from the Calabasas Library, and more.

The Calabasas Library has provided a number of resources devoting to Black History Month. On the city's resource page, readers can find librarians' personal recommendations of books about the Black experience, and lists of books broken down by age category. The library is also sponsoring two more interactive contests: the Beanstack Black History Month Reading Challenge, which encourages participants to complete activities related to Black history and culture, and log activities on the Beanstack page.

The library is also organizing a Family Art Project in which families are encouraged to created a collage inspired by the Migration Series from artist Jacob Lawrence, a number of 1940s paintings detailing the Great Migration from the South to cities in the North, Midwest, and West. On Feb. 20 from 11-1, families can drive to the library to obtain a kit full of supplies needed to create the collages.

The Las Virgenes Unified School District is also sponsored assemblies featuring three guest speakers that are also available on YouTube. On Feb. 4, Adonai Mack, director of political affairs and strategy for the Association of California School Administrators livestreamed a talk about closing the educational achievement gap between Black and white students. On Wednesday, the district hosted Traci Williams, director of adult education at East Side Union High School District and president of San Jose Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, a historically Black sorority. On Feb. 23 at 1 p.m., the district will host Daria Peoples-Riley, the author of I Got Next, a children's picture book about basketball.

With all these resources, Calabasans may need more than 500 words to describe what Black History Month means to them.

See the Los Angeles Times' list of Black History Month events and exhibits going on throughout the Southland.