There are several activities early this week to commemorate Black History Month on the ETSU campus.Today, Hope for Tennessee and Agape Women’s Services will be handing out red ribbons in observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Free testing and information will be available on the second floor of the Culp Center from 11:45 a.m-3:30 p.m.

Also tonight there will be a movie in the auditorium at the Culp Center.

“Yesterday,” starring Leleti Khumalo and directed by Darrell Roodt, is the story of a mother who is left to fend for herself and for her daughter after it is discovered that she is HIV positive, will begin showing at 7 p.m.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation helped produce the film and says that the film “reaches beyond conventional HIV/AIDS rhetoric towards real action and active engagement.”

The foundation hopes to use the film as a medium to “will assist in spreading the message of prevention, caring for and supporting those infected and affected by the pandemic and most importantly highlight the need to remove stigma and discrimination.”

“Yesterday” was nominated for “Best Foreign Language Film” at the 77th Academy Awards. The film won the “Human Rights Film Award” at the 2004 Venice Film Festival.

On Wednesday, the Culp Center will host Open Mic Night. Singers, rappers, storytellers, poets and comedians are asked to meet in Ballroom Right in the Culp Center to display their talents.

Georgia M.S. will be the special guest for the event. The Atlanta native who earned fame when she appeared on Russell Simmons’ Presents HBO’s DEF Poetry Jam will be hosting and performing at the event. The event will begin at 7 p.m.

Other activities scheduled during February in remembrance of Black History Month. For more information, visit www.etsu.edu/students/multcult/history.aspx and look for more articles from the East Tennessean.

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