Blog

One of our favorite months of celebration is February’s Black History Month. We aim to showcase Black Excellence and inspire our young people to look back on the accomplishments of Black Americans and ahead to what is possible. Our theme of ‘Black Innovation’ focused on the contributions of Black people to the arts, cooking, pop culture, and everyday life. 

To highlight our theme we decorated the Youth Zone with blurbs about several inventions or innovations from Black inventors. Upon entering our lobby we pointed out Alexander Miles’ automatic elevator doors and Marie Van Brittan Brown’s early security system. Our laundry and hygiene space featured information about the first Black millionaire, Madame CJ Walker’s hair care empire, and improvements to the ironing board and clothes dryer. Did you know that the ice cream scoop was invented by a Black man in Pittsburgh? So many items we use every day have come from the creative minds of Black inventors. 

Our programming highlighted successful Black artists like Bob Marley and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Youth took part in a workshop to create their own Basquiat-inspired pieces by cutting out images from magazines and newspapers and adding illustrations and words with different mediums like markers and chalk pastels. Our young people also engaged with the concept of afrofuturism by reading comics like Black Lightning and X-Men and watching the Disney-plus series Iwájú that showcases a futuristic Lagos, Nigeria.

We also had a soul food cooking workshop that was a hit. Red beans and rice, cornbread, and fried chicken were on the menu; youth made the sides and the chicken was provided by local business House of Soul catering. The sides were chosen because they are staples with ingredients that can often be found at food banks or pantries. Staff wanted to show youth how they can cook for themselves while staying on budget and still eat well!

The Youth Zone was proud to have offered our most full calendar of events for this year’s Black History Month. Young people were engaged in several different activities highlighting our theme of ‘Black Innovation’ and thinking about the past, present, and future of Black people.