VALPARAISO | Valparaiso University's Black Student Organization will host a series of February events honoring black history and looking to the future in celebration of Black History Month.

BSO will host its 10th annual Black History Month Dinner at 6 p.m. Feb. 16 in the Valparaiso Union. This year's program will remember Motown n the Detroit record label that played a crucial role in the racial integration of popular music. Tickets to the Black History Month Dinner are $9 and may be purchased at the Union Information Desk or by calling

(219) 464-5415.

Following dinner, comedian Shang Forbes will be featured at the BSO Comedy Show. Tickets to the comedy show, which begins at 8:45 p.m., are $5 and may be purchased at the door.

Forbes has appeared on numerous television comedy programs, including HBO's "Def Comedy Jam" and BET's "Comic View Grand Stand," and is a writer for "Cut'n It Up: Chicago," a film featuring urban comedians from Chicago that is scheduled for release later this year.

Other Black History Month events being sponsored by BSO are:

Feb. 14 n "Expressions of Love: Valentine's Day Forum," at which members of the community are invited to express their love for someone special or how they feel about love, what love means to them, how love makes them feel and how to show love for another. The forum will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Valparaiso Union.

Feb. 19 n Guest speakers Dr. and Mrs. Marshall Stevenson from Dillard University will discuss how Hurricane Katrina has affected Louisiana and its people. Dr. Stevenson, dean of social sciences and professor of history at Dillard, has written on the African slave trade and the implications of the Hurricane Katrina diaspora. The talk will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Christopher Center Community Room.

Other events taking place during Black History Month for Valparaiso's students include African mask painting and a film festival. Photographs by artists Stephen Marc and William Williams exploring African-American history also will be on display at the Chapel of the Resurrection and Strimbu Gallery of Photography in Valparaiso's Center for the Arts through Feb. 24.

--The Times