that out doraemon has learned independence requires funding he spent nine years raising the money to produce his most acclaimed film a dramatic tale of african resistance to slavery  center created with his wife saying coppa video and book store and soon to be coffee shop is also a local meeting place he says it's liberated territory for independent thinking the unique contribution i  to do just that to find your voice and he doesn't that's it doesn't necessarily persuade you to go in any one direction and i think that he's not when he teaches cinema he's not trying to make carbon carter and i work here at the northwest african american museum in seattle and i serve as its deputy director and the museum looks at the history and the art and culture of african americans in the pacific northwest so we're looking at washington oregon idaho and even parts of british columbia all the really explore that black experience history on black history month so black history month started in the one nine hundred twenty s and it was started by  harvard trained academic named carter g woodson and he had the idea that african american history culture and his experiences in an academic were being pushed to the margins of the dialogue and discussion happening in america and he wanted to really really integrate african american history and culture back into a larger american dialogue and so the way that he did that was through negro history week and it was really a consciousness raising effort that's that's what he was looking to do is to highlight individuals and institutions and key trends within the butt community and just kind of to show that real by brits and that wonderfulness of the black community which he felt was being overlooked and under appreciated that was kind of the start of it it was one week and from there it grew into an entire month so the month of february has historically been an opportunity for i think all of america to take a look at you know the african american community i think  that the african immigrant population here in the pacific northwest is a part of the historic african american community i really consider it to be the brothers and sisters in the black community and that's why the museum made the decision to have an exhibition which currently focus on seattle see the opening community and we all fall under the larger black diaspora and so to me it's as important for african immigrants living here in this region to appreciate and to understand the value in the words of black history month because it truly is a shared history that we have i mean the civil rights struggle in the united states was fueled by the black nationalist movement in africa and moves for independence and so it was this exchange of ideas and approaches and tactics so again it's the shared history and so i think it's important for for everyone to appreciate and understand i think the black history month is really just an opportunity that's all that is independent individually what you decide to make of it will really determine the value that you feel so i think most easily  can come to the northwest african american museum and you can see the artifacts and the stories and the people that we've been able to examine and explore here there's a wonderful opportunity just tap into a bit of that richness of the african american experience and then are also things that you can do on your own i remember growing up for black history month you know what i was really focused in school we tend to focus on dr martin luther king jr who's a hero of mine but i would always ask myself why does this story the story of black culture history have to start and to stop with one man and so i always took it upon myself that i was going to look a little bit deeper than that you know going to look at my own culture and find out who else are my heroes out there who are also those people who really shaped the experience not just the black experience but the larger american experience so there are these great individual stories that you can personally take upon yourself to learn about and i think that's what black history month this is really what you make it so i always encourage people to just individually figure out how you can make black history month relevant for yourself maybe it's just learning about a new hip new figure from african american history maybe it's taking on a service project at a organization that focuses you know its efforts towards the black community so there are so many different avenues of approach to make it a meaningful month for you through that lens of the african american experience i think this museum stands as a great resource for black history month and i also think you have key leaders in the black community who are always willing to pass on that knowledge that they've captured and they're willing to share it with that next generation i would say that that history just shapes the present which will really define what the future is so so critical for our youth to have an understanding of where we come from as a people and so i think that really it falls on the parents it falls on institutions like the northwest african american museum and it falls on the leaders within the african american community you've got to you've got to reach out to the you've got to find ways to engage them with our own history so they understand who they are and also the potential for where they can go