Since 2018, celebrations for Black History Month at Berkeley Unified School District have culminated in the districtwide Black History Oratorical Festival held in March, which celebrates student achievements across competitions and performances hosted at different schools.<\/p>\n
This year, however, community members were notified that the event was canceled.<\/p>\n
Kamar O\u2019 Guinn, BUSD\u2019s African American Success Project manager, who has led the celebration since its creation, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n
At the district board meeting Feb. 18, superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel announced the pilot of a \u201csite-led oratorical model\u201d following the cancellation of the districtwide festival. In an email sent to a district teacher obtained by The Daily Californian, Morthel explained that the change comes as the district struggles to host an event that \u201crequires significant cross-departmental staff capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giving consideration to \u201clong-term sustainability and impact,\u201d the district believes the new site-led model could better uplift the broader community rather than \u201ca small number of students,\u201d Morthel added in the email.<\/p>\n
The decision came up in conversations \u201cwith a number of stakeholders,\u201d Morthel later said in an interview with The Daily Californian.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal was really to highlight, support and expand what\u2019s happening at the site level, because we know that the site level is where our families are,\u201d Morthel said in the interview.<\/p>\n
In the interview, Morthel also emphasized support for ongoing site-specific events and other district celebrations highlighting Black History Month, such as a screening for \u201cEpicenter,\u201d a documentary about Black studies in the Bay Area by Doug Harris, a Berkeley High School alumnus.<\/p>\n
Kamala Asher, a teacher at Berkeley Independent Study, said she felt Morthel\u2019s email regarding the cancellation of the districtwide event was \u201ca very narrow response.\u201d She added that the cancellation itself was a \u201chuge disservice\u201d to the Black community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just about the 37 students who get up on stage at the district,\u201d Asher said. \u201cIt\u2019s about all those in the community who come to uplift Black history, past, present and future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berkeley Technology Academy teacher Caety Klingman added that specific site events have always been supported by the district, but that official communication was lacking this year.<\/p>\n
Klingman and Asher, who both organize the Black History Oratorical Festival tournament at Berkeley Technology Academy, have repeatedly emailed district administrators since last December for guidance.<\/p>\n
After receiving no response, they decided to take initiative in organizing their event, deciding on a theme that highlights Black protests and celebration. The teachers also planned a luncheon and purchased supplies with help from parent donations.<\/p>\n
\u201c(District outreach) came to us a week before our event,\u201d Klingman said. \u201cWe were not sent any supporting materials (and) at that point, it was too late for us. We had a week until our event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Site-specific events that were hosted last month included a spirit week at Berkeley High School organized by the Black Student Union, who also hosted a soul food luncheon for students.<\/p>\n
Malcolm X Elementary School hosted School Yard Rap, a performance group that uses hip-hop to educate students about Black history and excellence. The parent teacher association at Rosa Parks Elementary School also hosted a weekend celebration.<\/p>\n
Despite the cancellation of this year\u2019s districtwide event, Morthel said the district is still looking for feedback from community members to improve future celebrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since 2018, celebrations for Black History Month at Berkeley Unified School District have culminated in the districtwide Black…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[9688,96735,96734,80411,96738,6765,68879,80410,96732,9313,96731,96733,96739,96736,143,145,144,27763,96737],"class_list":["post-210136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-berkeley-high-school","tag-berkeley-high-school-black-student-union","tag-berkeley-independent-study","tag-berkeley-technology-academy","tag-berkeley-unified-african-american-success-program","tag-berkeley-unified-school-district","tag-black-history-month","tag-caety-klingman","tag-doug-harris","tag-enikia-ford-morthel","tag-epicenter","tag-kamala-asher","tag-kamar-o-guinn","tag-malcolm-x-elementary-school","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-rosa-parks-elementary-school","tag-school-yard-rap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}