The depth and reach of black history is officially recognized in February but extends well beyond the shortest month. Black hands and bodies built this country and deserve to be honored all 365 days of the year.

Black history cannot be contained, so Blavity teamed up with Spotify to celebrate the overflow of everything Black Excellence. Black history is not a past event — because, after all, we are our ancestors’ wildest dreams and every day we are making history.

As a way to commemorate this, Spotify is promoting the message that #BlackHistoryIsNow to remind everyone that black history is every day.  Blavity teamed up with them to host a Twitter chat asking people to share the moments from 2018 — before and after February — that should go down in history books. Folks shared some pretty magical moments so if you didn’t have a chance to check out our chat, here’s what went down:

We kicked off the celebration by asking Twitter to share their favorite moments that exemplify black excellence.

Of course, we are still digesting the excellence of “Black Panther.” Our readers reflected on why the film was so powerful and what it meant for the culture. Yes, the shift is here!

“Black Panther” was incredible. The film touched on important topics like African history and colonialism, and sparked discussion around important topics such as diversity in Hollywood. Companies finally realized that representation can make a profit, but we dug deeper, and asked our audience about the work that still needs to be done.

Even if Hollywood is a bit slow to representing Black Excellence, we have been a community who can love and support each other. If Twitter had an award show for Black Excellence, our nominees would be…

There are several facets to black history, while some of our historic moments will live in textbooks, there are a handful that will leave a digital footprint. We chatted about our favorite black history internet moments. Because nothing is more historic and game-changing than #blacktwitter.

Our contributions to music are priceless and endless. We ended our chat on a high note and talked about our favorite jams. If you could give Black Excellence a theme song, what would it be?

Black history is happening all around, and we are all a part of it. To get more inspiration and help motivate you in your own journey of excellence, check out Spotify’s special “Black History Is Happening Now” hub curated by the queen of all things excellent, Janelle Monáe.

Spotify