EVENT ALERT: Gloria Dulan-Wilson to speak on the importance of Black History and Knowledge at Delaware Valley University, FEB 1, 2016

BY GLORIA DULAN-WILSON                                                        

Hello All:

Well it's Black History Month, at least it will be on February 1, 2016 and I've been given the honor of being asked to address the African American students at Delaware Valley University tomorrow, at their Black History Month Kick-Off Night.

GLORIA DULAN-WILSON

Mr. Andrees D. Rivers, Delaware Valley U's Residential Community Director,  in recognizing the necessity for more involvement on the part of the students in the understanding and celebration of their history and heritage, has invited me, along with other local activists from Philadelphia and the surrounding community - aka THE ELDERS - to address the students on events that they were involved in during their youth, in contrast to events that are currently assailing them in the 21st century. 

Greetings and Happy Black History Month!

As we get prepared for Black History Month, we invite you and your friends to join us to celebrate and kick the month off right!

This Monday, February 1, 2016 at 7pm in the Goldman Game Room will be our Black History Month Kick Off Night sponsored by the Black Student Union and the Office of Residence Life. The kick off night will feature:

·         A free and tasty Soul Food Dinner
·         Enlightening and Engaging Conversation with Elders about our history and current events
·         Music, Fun & Prizes
·         A listing of all of the amazing Black History Month programs that will be taking place.

We hope to see you on Monday!

All the best,

Andrees D. Rivers

Residential Community Director
Delaware Valley University

700 East Butler Ave., Doylestown PA 18901

Phone: 215.489.2411

andrees.rivers@delval.edu | delval.edu 

Follow us: twitter.com/delval | facebook.com/delval

"Have a great day on purpose!"

I've been rolling over and over in my mind  what would be the most salient and relevant topics for this occasion - considering that I've been involved in Civil Rights since I was 10, and Black Power Movement since I was 18.  And, of course, there  have been so many changes over the last 10 years, that threw much of what we thought had been settled right back into center ring,  I don't want to just dwell on the history, without dealing with the future as well - because these youth are our future.  

I got a glimpse of the mindset of many of our youth at the recently held Black Radical Conference at Temple University, January 6-9 - and it's amazing to see that we've pretty much come full circle from when I first became involved.  

When I first became involved, we didn't have voting rights, civil rights, or as far as the meanstream was concerned, any rights.  We sat in, and for that we were spit on; we were dragged through the streets; we were sprayed with bug spray; and we were frozen with intensive air conditioning.  We were jailed and bailed out and re-jailed.  In addition to being shot, we were hung, beaten and given cement body casts.  And we continued to come back for more because we thought we were making a difference - and we were.  But 40 - 50 years later we have political apathy, divide and conquer, drug use, rampant illiteracy - But we also have the first Black President of the United States, and a re-awakening among our youth, of their own accord, that there is something seriously amiss when people in the 21st century are worse off than those of the mid-20th century. 

Many of us don't realize how important it is that Black History month not only be

celebrated and focused on during February, which was selected by the great Carter G. Woodson because two great leaders - Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln were born in that month  - just 2 days apart; but we have to make it our business to involve it in every level of our education  year round- which is what Woodson  tried to do when he wrote the MIS-EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO.  This great book is nearly 90 years old, and is  still more relevant than a great many pieces of literature produced on the Black condition over the same period of time.  Not that what the others wrote weren't relevant; it was that Woodson's methodology and recommendation for dissemination was the key to the whole thing.  Educate a child in things that are relevant to his existence and he will excel in all levels - somehow this still has not been recognized as the way to make sure that Black children the world over, would not only know their own history, but others as well; and would also be able to relate other pedagogical information in meaningful and successful ways. 

Oh, well, I didn't mean to go off on a tangent.  I truly hope what I will impart to the students will be of lasting value to them, as was the information I received from my ELDERS when I was in school in their place.  Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes, Clara Luper, Adam Clayton  Powell,  Dr. William H. Cosby, Jr., Rev. Leon Sullivan, Shirley Chisholm, Dr. Dorothy I. Height, Rosa Parks, Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Frances Cress Welsing, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Sam Anderson,  Julian Bond, Mayor David N. Dinkins, Nathan Hare, Dr. Charles V. Hamilton, Don King,  Muhammad Ali, and so many more have had, and continue to have a major impact on my life- and I am blessed to have had the great good fortune to have met them and interacted with them.

I truly hope that someone will feel the same way about me, and the wisdom, knowledge and information that I share. That someone will say, "Gloria Dulan-Wilson really made me think about what and who I was as a Black person.  I'll never forget her."

Stay Blessed & 
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson