Award-winning novelist Colson Whitehead, CCNY's 2024 Langston Hughes Medalist. Photo by Chris Close.
Dr. Onyinye Balogun, CMO/co-founder of Mission-Driven Tech, will be the presenter at the Standard Chartered Presents Founder Talk on Feb. 21 from 12-1 p.m.
The City College of New York kicks off Black History Month with the 45th Annual Langston Hughes Festival presenting two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead with the Langston Hughes Metal at a ceremony on Feb. 1 from 6-8 p.m. in Aaron Davis Hall.
The medal is awarded to highly distinguished writers from the African American diaspora. Past award winners include: James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison and more.
The festival includes a symposium from 12:30-1:45 p.m. that will highlight “The Paper,” which was created in the late 60s by a group of African-American students at City College during a turbulent period. It featured the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam and anti-war demonstrations, and fights for student rights at City College, CUNY and all over the country. Speakers include: Albert V. De Leon, second editor of The Paper; Dr. Richard Hancuff, president of the LHF Society; and Jervette R. Ward, director of the Black Studies Program at CCNY.
From 1:45-2:30 p.m. there will be a screening of “The Five Demands.” CCNY professor and The Documentary Forum Founder Andrea Weiss and CCNY alumna Greta Schiller co-directed and co-produced the film about the 1969 shutdown, takeover, and occupation of City College by a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students. Register for the festival here.
Other Black History Month events include:
On Feb. 1, The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture is examining sites in Harlem while engaging CCNY architecture students with a design prompt called Making SSA 2024, “Instigating Access,” which invites students to probe assumptions embedded in universal design, to center belonging in design practice, to critique landscape in relation to inclusion, and to apprehend the rich contribution of difference in the sensorial experiences of places. The event is invite-only.
On Feb. 21, the Zahn Innovation Center presents a Standard Chartered Founder Talk with Dr. Onyinye Balogun from 12-1 p.m. The event is virtual and registration is here.
Balogun is a physician-entrepreneur and assistant professor of Radiation Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine/New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital specializing in the treatment of gynecologic and breast malignancies. She is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale University School of Medicine. She is the CMO/co-founder of Mission-Driven Tech, a women’s health venture that is transforming and humanizing cervical cancer care through modern brachytherapy tools.
On Feb. 22, the Undergraduate Student Government and Black Student Council will host the 4th Annual Dynasty Gala from 5-9:30 p.m. The gala shines a spotlight on the remarkable legacy of Black students at City College. The celebration brings together the college's current and former Black students, faculty and community members to honor their contributions, achievements and the rich cultural tapestry they have woven into the institution's history. Register here.
For a full list of events from the Department of Student Life and Leadership Development, click here.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi (now Lightcast) puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.