In the auditorium of Francis Lewis HS in Queens, a student asks actor Siddiq Saunderson if he ever doubted his ability to have a career in the arts.

“The doubt came from outside,” says Saunderson. “People said it’s really hard to be an actor, but I had to trust in the way I wanted to be an actor. Using my imagination would be my career.”

Saunderson was one of four prominent artists brought to the school by educators as part of its Black History Month festivities. The Black History Month Committee — composed of UFT members Toyin Barnes, Lona Jack-Vilmar and Krista Berg — started planning the ambitious slate of activities in October with the help of the school’s Black Student Union.

The educators’ goal: to interpret Black History Month’s national theme, the arts, in their school. They decided to invite a slate of artists — an author, photographer, filmmaker and Saunderson, who is most recently known for portraying rapper Ghostface Killah in “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” — to speak with their students. The committee incorporated the 50th anniversary of hip-hop music in the schoolwide displays.

“We wanted to create experiences for the students that would immerse them in these art forms,” said English teacher Jack-Vilmar.

The educators garnered visits from filmmaker Malcolm Lee, author Ibi Zoboi and photographer Brian Branch-Price. Staff and students decked out the school’s halls with bulletin boards and posters about rappers from Queens and Black artists, musicians, writers and poets.

“Black history is American history,” said Barnes, a school counselor, “and, nationally, Black history is under attack. That’s one of the core reasons why we need to celebrate it.”

The educators and their students who helped to plan the events poured in hours of effort, staying as late as 7 p.m. some days to prepare for the guest speakers and decorate the school.

“We want the Black students in our building to feel seen and celebrated and important,” said Berg, an English teacher, “and that’s worthy of spending our time on something of this magnitude.”

Samia Wattoo, the chapter leader at Francis Lewis HS, said she was proud of the “fantastic job” that the committee and students did with the programming. “It’s so important for our students to see representation,” she said, “to see that if they work hard, they can achieve what someone like Siddiq Saunderson or Malcolm Lee achieved.”

Educators at the high school say they take care to incorporate Black representation and that of other marginalized communities in their classrooms and extracurricular programming year-round.

“Being in Queens is unlike being in other parts of the country because when you look around the room, there’s diversity,” Berg said. “Our students understand the beauty of that.”