UMOJA celebrates annual Black Heritage Week

The 11th annual Black Heritage Week — sponsored by UMOJA, Penn’s black student group — commenced on Sunday night and will end on Feb. 5 with a ten-year anniversary celebration of Makuu, the black cultural center.

The week’s events will feature keynote speaker Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records and creator of various fashion lines. On Friday, Simmons will talk about his new book Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All.

On Monday, there will be a workshop discussing the history of black students at Penn led by staff member Brian Peterson and University chaplain Charles Howard. On Tuesday, students will discuss the topic of black Asians. The event is a collaboration with the Asian Pacific Student Coalition. A third workshop to take place on Wednesday will focus on mental health and include free massages.

The Makuu 10-year anniversary gala and UMOJA party will take place on Saturday night.

“Makuu is a major supporter of ours and a group that we work with a lot. We’re really excited to celebrate their anniversary,” said Wharton junior Jeffrey Tillus, outgoing UMOJA Board Facilitating and Planning chairman.

This is the first year that UMOJA has received “stable funding” from the Vice Provost’s office, Tillus said. This was the result of extensive meetings between administrators and the five minority student groups.

This year’s theme — “Touch the Sky” — represents UMOJA’s goal to “reach new heights,” according to College sophomore Victor Scotti, the incoming UMOJA Board Facilitating and Planning chairman.

Scotti said that he hopes to better serve UMOJA’s constituent groups and showcase the group’s talents on campus.

Tillus expects a huge turnout not just from black students but also from the whole Penn community.

College freshman Lexi White looks forward to hearing Russell Simmons speak and thinks “everyone — people from the black community and those who aren’t” will try to do so.

Black Heritage Week will draw undergraduates, graduate students, alumni, members from the Office of the Chaplain and members from the Penn’s Board of Trustees, according to Tillus.

This year is the first time members from Penn’s Black Graduate and Professional Students Assembly will be attending the week’s events.

“There’s going to be a lot of very successful and important folks here, and we undergrads get to meet them and create instant networking contacts,” Tillus said.

Scotti added that Black Heritage Week will display the diversity of the black community.

“The diverse programming of this week is all about coming together to celebrate and be amicable, and we want to showcase the different shades of African American,” Scotti said.

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