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FEBRUARY 2021 we
change
with
you
evolution Features
News & Politics
Arts
Pp. 3, 4, 5 & 8
Pp. 1 & 2
Pp. 7
Lunar New Year, Gerti the Tarantula, Valentine's Day, Sesame Street, Senioritis
Satire & Humour
Clown Quiz
Hybrid Model, OC Vaccines
Letterboxd, Comic
Pp. 6
KEEPING BLACK HISTORY MONTH ALIVE ONLINE Elena Levin and Zola Franchi
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oom boxes fill the screen as OCSA’s Black Student Union (BSU) co-president, Tyler Simpson-Pouncey (IM ‘21), begins the meeting. Club members are quick to unmute themselves and share compelling news with their peers. It’s clear that despite all of the changes that have occurred this past year, two things remain the same: the welcoming spirit of a BSU meeting and its commitment to Black History Month (BHM). Beginning as a safe space for students of color to gather in a community and express themselves, BSU was a fairly isolated club on campus until students decided to take action. One such student is Ariyah Nichol (ACT ‘22), a club member since 2017, who noticed a shift in BSU in her second year, following a loss of the majority of the club’s members who had graduated. In order to ensure that the former leaders’ legacies lived on, the club became more involved within the OCSA community, starting with participation in International Week. “We decided that we want to make an impact on OCSA, we want to be seen. We are sick and tired of not seeing ourselves represented… in general on campus,” Nichol said. This year, BSU is replacing its typical celebrations with a club-made magazine. What does this mean? Normally, BSU gets approval from the school administration to run its program during Friday on 10th Street. Booths line the street with topics ranging from pro-
tective hairstyles to significant Black artists. A series of poems are performed. And last year a new tradition was created, a choreographed dance. While many assumed the pandemic would limit the club, BSU’s expected content remains and more attention has been allotted to raising awareness via social media. Several students in the club will soon be the subject of a Leadership-created series, OCSA Daily Takeovers. The goal of these is to gain interest in the club and promote Black culture. Whether that means solely the zine, visits to the weekly Tuesday meetings or aspects of Black history that the students feel compelled to share. Additionally, BSU created new digital content, one being “The Black Excellence Show”. A series of raps centered on commonly overlooked historical Black figures. Lastly, to finish off BSU’s BHM celebration, is the pre-filmed slam poetry performance airing February 26. Featuring some of the most notable names in poetry such as Langston Hughes, Terrance Hayes and Maya Angelou, this collection is intended to inspire and convey the essence of what Black history is all about. “I think that poetry in general is so important, especially to Black culture and Black history, because poetry is music, it’s art. And one of the ways we have risen from the chains of oppres-
sion is through art,” Nichol said. As one might expect this year’s online format has created significant obstacles in cultivating club participation. This is best exemplified by the lack of turnout for school sanctioned events. BSU has combatted this issue through the creation of a diverse, engaging program, accessible to all. Additionally, by partnering with OCSA Leadership, BSU strives to bridge the gap within the OCSA community created by distance learning. “The hardest thing, especially when it comes to just all cultural celebrations in general, is that they're all about unity and coming together. And with that, it's hard to not be able to come together physically to celebrate these events,” Nichol said. This year, more than ever, BHM holds indispensable power and significance. Following the events of the past year, it is crucial for people everywhere to uplift the voices of the Black community to ensure that their stories are heard. Yet this increased awareness is bittersweet when its advocates’ work spans across generations. “This is something that we’ve been wanting for a very long time, that we’ve been fighting for. And it’s kind of disappointing that it took so long to get to. However, the beauty of that is the fact that so
many more people are at a higher consciousness now because they are awakened to what’s going on… injustice and inequality,” Nichol said. Solidarity and support are qualities that society needs in order to create an environment where everyone has a place. So,
REVISITING OCSA'S INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY EFFORT Cassandra Kesig
an endeavour, though, is the timeline, which is perhaps the s if distanced learning wasn’t already making the source of a lack of immediate and visible results six months into the day-to-day combination initiative, much of the progress of academics and conservatory seemingly internal. Where an hard enough, the difficulty of initial publicity for the project not being on campus extends existed, a somewhat insular to OCSA’s elaborate network of march of progress has sprung up student-admin task forces, who to replace it. “You can’t change have been working behind the scenes to diversify our narrative. curriculum right away, but you can change instruction,” says Split into two subsets--the academic and the art--students who Jennifer Woo (IA ‘21), a member of the academic team who works belong to the diversity coalition primarily with the Literature and have been putting out informaComposition Department. Strides tion, putting on events, working with teachers, administrators and made in this realm are, generally, parents to revise our interactions suffuse with admin work, leaving many students to wonder when with race in the classroom. noticeable changes will be imple The pitfall of such mented.
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The arts branch of the initiative has had a comparatively flashy debut, if only because it doesn’t require a complete overhaul of a system enforced by external institutions. Popular Music’s Stevie Wonder Tribute concert, which premiered shortly before winter break, was the largest and most collaborative project to date. In tandem production with BSU, the concert paid tribute not only to Stevie Wonder’s musical stylings, but, really, the fundamental contributions of Black musicians on the American music scene since its conception. Creative Writing’s spoken word project, aptly titled “Writers Are the First Responders of the World”, asked students to comment on current social
honor and celebrate BHM, this year, and the years to come! As BSU’s former president, Mariah Williams (MT ‘20), said, “Black history is American history, which makes it everyone’s history.”
and political climates, and the film compilation was released Mid-January (though it was only designed to replace an intended collaboration with Instrumental Music, which ended up lacking the needed budget). At the end of February, the academic task force’s Black Allyship summit--four comprehensive units of educational content regarding African American history and its connection to the contemporary Black American identity, hosted by Christina Miles (CW ‘21) and Tyler Simpson-Pouncey (IM-W ‘21)--will be released schoolwide. For many, this is the kind of content that students anticipated at the beginning of the year, when the demand for reform was fresh, and
1: (left to right) Members of BSU Cheyenne Harkless (CW '23), Sage Gonzales-Lambert (BF '21), Ariyah Brown (ACT '21), Tyler Simpson-Pouncey (IM-W '21), Christina Miles (CW '21) 2: Harkless and Brown record a performance poem, which will culminate BHM festivities For more information on BHM, visit bsu.ocsa on Instagram
in fact Miles and Simpson-Pouncey have had the Summit in the works since summer. The final cut will be four hours of video content. In the last months of the school year, students will be on the lookout for punctuating shifts from each of the Task Forces.
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