 The Midget State University and Northwest Technical College are celebrating black history with a month of music and celebrations. Lakeland News reporter Sherell Moore takes us into their presentations. The Midget State University and Northwest Technical College are all about inclusion, so that's why they've decided to pull out all the stops for Black History Month. February is Black History Month and we want to celebrate the individual in history who contribute in American society. To celebrate Black History Month, we decided to do a piece called A Movement for Rosa, which celebrated Rosa Parks' struggles and triumphs with the civil rights movement. The BSU Wind Ensemble performed this concert on Sunday to celebrate both President's Day and Black History Month. It featured odes to Abraham Lincoln and America. There was also a medley of music written by Duke Ellington. This is the first time this Wind Ensemble has had a concert in my memory this early in the semester. I had to work rather quickly and rather hard, but the students did wonderful. Fast forward to today when Dr. Brian Zhang gave a presentation about understanding the past and looking forward to the future. Knowing what happened in this history, about the black culture and black history in this country and understand what exactly happened to them, so that way we should respect the future that we need to provide a diverse and inclusive as well as equity society for our diverse community. Today's presentation focused on the many firsts in the African American community like the works of Shirley Chisholm and Barack Obama. BSU and NTC says it's important for students to learn about different cultures because you never know who in the world you might meet. When you graduate from colleges, you get out there in the real world. You will work with people from different cultures. You'll work with people who don't look like you. You learn so much more, you know, about society, about things that relate to your life when you get to know people who are not from the same category as you are from. Tomorrow there will be another presentation in the Hopson Memorial Union at BSU that will go more in depth about black history. It starts at 1 p.m. We'll talk more about, you know, leaders who have sacrificed their life as well as sacrificed the time, energy, their knowledge, the skills to make sure that the future will be a better place for the younger generations. Reporting in Bemidji, Sheryl Moore, Lakeland News. BSU is also celebrating the Chinese New Year this month. A special celebration will start Friday at 5 in the American Indian Resource Center, gathering room on campus. We have a full list of their Black History Month events on our website. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.