This year, the Black Student Association will be commemorating the lives of black males in the community for the celebratory month.
“We wanted to celebrate them because sometimes they don’t get a lot of positive recognition in the community or media,” said Kayla Tolbert, junior international studies major and president of Black Definition.
Ad
Tolbert explained that they wanted to choose a prominent African-American role model to speak at the event. Because of this, the Black African American Cultural Center decided to ask influential author Omar Tyree to speak to CSU.
First and foremost, Tyree said he considers himself a writer.
“But, I would also consider myself an activist of the community, entrepreneur, poet, author, and journalist,” Tyree said.
Tyree, who has spoken at over 50 American Universities, including Harvard and Yale, plans on sharing how he became who he is today at his speech.
“During my freshman year in 1987 at University of Pittsburgh, people were moved by my ability to communicate ideas and emotions,” Tyree said.
He hasn’t stopped writing since. Every book he has written has a different message that relates to what is going on in the community, such as materialism and integrity, family, dedication, love and poverty.
“I have never written a book about entertainment. I have always written books as conversation pieces about our community,” Tyree said.
Freshman engineering major Stephaun Gaddis has attended several of the Black History month events at CSU. As he enjoys writing poetry, Gaddis found common ground to relate to Tyree and is excited to hear him speak.
“Being a black man in college, I would like to apply what he has to say to my life so that I can walk in his footsteps and be successful,” Gaddis said.
Ad
Collegian Writer Cailley Biagini can be reached at news@collegian.com.
