Every February, schools and companies look for someone to stand in front of their people and make Black History Month mean something. The good events feel personal and stay with people for weeks. The forgettable ones feel like a box being checked, and audiences can tell the difference within a few minutes.
Most of that difference is decided long before anyone takes the stage. It comes down to when you start, what you ask for, and who you choose. This guide walks through each step.
Start in the fall
February is the busiest month of the year for speakers who talk about Black history and Black leadership. Many of them are booked by December. If you start looking in January, you will be choosing from whoever is left.
Aim to send inquiries in September or October. If your date is flexible, say so. A speaker who is booked on February 12 may be open on February 26, or in the first week of March, and a lot of schools and companies run Black History Month programming across several weeks anyway.
Decide what you want people to leave with
Before you look at a single speaker, write one sentence about the outcome. "We want our students to see that the people who change things were once kids like them." "We want our managers to understand what it is like to be the only Black person on a team." That sentence will do more to find the right speaker than any list of topics.
It also helps the speaker. A talk shaped around your sentence will land much better than a general one, and a good speaker will ask you for it anyway.
Look for lived experience
Black History Month is about history, but the speakers people remember tend to be part of the story. A historian can give an excellent lecture. A person who was first in their field can tell the room what it felt like to walk in, and what it cost.
Ask any speaker you are considering: what did you do, and what was it like? The answers will tell you whether they bring a story of their own or a summary of other people's.
Range matters too. Black excellence lives in every field, and a speaker from sports, science, business or the arts can reach people a more expected choice would miss. Students who think history is something in a book often sit up when the person on stage played in the game they watch on weekends.
Match the format to the audience
A school assembly, a company all-hands and an employee resource group lunch are three different events. An assembly needs energy and stories younger listeners can hold onto. An all-hands needs a clear connection to work. An ERG session can go deeper and be more personal, because the room is smaller and people chose to be there.
Many speakers can do more than one of these on the same visit, and that is often the best value. A morning assembly followed by a small session with student leaders, or a keynote followed by a conversation with an ERG, gives a lot more people a real moment with the speaker.
Talk about budget early
Fees for experienced speakers vary widely, and travel is usually quoted separately. Ask for the fee range up front so neither side spends a month on a conversation that cannot work. If your budget is tight, ask about a local speaker, a virtual option, or packaging two or three sessions into one visit.
When you compare quotes, compare what you actually get. A single 45-minute talk and a full day with an assembly, a lunch and a Q&A are very different things.
Prepare the room
Send the speaker a short brief: the date, the time, the size and age of the audience, what came before them in your programming, and the one sentence you wrote at the start. Tell them about anything sensitive happening in your school or company. Nobody wants to be surprised on stage.
Then prepare your audience. A teacher who shows a two-minute clip of the speaker the week before, or a manager who explains why the company invited them, will double the attention in the room.
Follow up afterwards
The talk is the start. Give students a question to discuss in class the next day. Ask employees what stayed with them. Share a few of those responses with the speaker; most will be glad to hear them, and you will have a better event next February because of it.
Considering Blake Bolden
Blake Bolden was the first Black player in the NWHL and the first Black player taken in the first round of the CWHL draft. In 2020 she joined the LA Kings as a pro scout and Growth and Inclusion Specialist, the second woman to scout in the NHL. She is now a lead analyst on Amazon Prime's Wednesday Night Hockey and for the PWHL.
She speaks to schools, teams and companies about being first, and every talk is shaped for the room. Speaking fees start at $7,500, and she is based in Southern California.