The African American Heritage Arts Festival starts this week at Ohio State to recognize and celebrate the different forms of art blacks have contributed to society.The arts festival serves as a reminder that blacks are a talented group of people, said Keith Williams, a graduate administrative associate in African American Student Services.”You want someone, who is not part of that community, to see how talented you are because you are proud of that,” Williams said.The African American Heritage Arts Festival Consortium kept the same theme, “African American: Celebrating and Creating Legacies in Art” that was celebrated in February for United Black World Month, Williams said. This annual festival draws more than 8,000 people from the OSU community and other areas to enjoy the different cultural events such as a fashion show, gospel concert, poetry slam session, jazz concert, step show, comedy show and black art exhibit. This is the 10th year the festival has been celebrated. The festival is necessary to promote black culture at OSU, Williams said.”Sometimes a larger society does not recognize the contributions that we make as people artistically and in any other sense,” he said. “Sometimes even our own may, to a certain degree, forget about the contributions that we make.”Many students agree with Williams that it is important to celebrate black culture at OSU.Dara Cooper, a junior majoring in history, said cultural events such as the festival are needed at predominantly white institutions such as OSU to strengthen a sense of community for minorities.”We need that time to celebrate our culture,” Cooper said. “We need something focused on us.”The African American Heritage Arts Festival Consortium changed the name of the festival from Block Party to the African American Heritage Arts Festival four years ago, Williams said. Block Party projected a negative image that the festival is just a party, he said.”They changed the name to the African American Heritage Arts Festival because they wanted to promote a different type of environment in terms that this is more than just having a good time,” Williams said. “This is about bringing people together and having a family-type atmosphere.”Ricardo Wilkins, a senior majoring in computer science, likes how the celebration has changed from a block party to a festival.”It shows this is an important celebration of culture and heritage instead of just a party,” Wilkins said. The festival is open to all students at OSU and kicks off its celebration today with a fashion show sponsored by Sigma Gamma Rho at 7:00 p.m. in the Ohio Union Ballroom.