Community members are invited to celebrate Black History Month 2022 with an event to learn about the historical and cultural context of Black people in Santa Barbara. A virtual panel discussion and screening of the 20-minute documentary “Black is Beautiful” is set for 6 p.m. Feb. 17.

A Q&A session on the current process of developing an African American/Black Historic Context Statement will follow the documentary. RSVP to attend at https://bit.ly/HistoricContextStatement.

The city of Santa Barbara received a grant from the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, through the California Office of Historic Preservation to sponsor the development of a historic context statement that will look at the themes, events, people, and historic places important to the African American/Black community in Santa Barbara.

The document will be based on decades of archiving work of historical moments, artifacts and memories of Black history in Santa Barbara by local Black community members and new archival research. The goal is to further recognize and understand the history and contributions of the African American/ Black community to the city and identify landmarks and sites of significance.

Event moderator will be Jordan Killebrew with panelists Akivah Northern, E. Onja Brown and Isaac Garrett. Context statement speakers are Nicole Hernandez, Simone Akila and Sojourner Kincaid Rolle.

A recording of the event will be housed on Healing Justice SB YouTube and HJSB.org and TV Santa Barbara. Learn more about the project and see future events and drafts at www.SantaBarbaraCA.gov/Contextstatement.