February 21, 2017
By Roberto Alonso
This past Tuesday, Dominican students gathered in the Underground for a memorable night of spoken word.
Black Student Union (BSU), Black World Studies (BWS), Campus Activities Board (CAB), and Organization of Latin American Students (OLA) came together to sponsor the spoken word event for Black History Month.
What first was a room of curious people, transformed into an intimate and bold night. The event only took up half of the Underground, making the about thirty attendants close to each other and close to participants. They both physically and emotionally brought them closer.
There was an underlying tone to the event, an intense and brave tone. Participant after participant, each had their own story of struggle and perseverance. Stories of both personal and cultural hardships that felt necessary, especially during this month.
While this was an event sponsored by predominately black student organizations and was attended by mostly black students, it wasn’t an event only for the black students. A main struggle of BSU and BWS is that when they hold events like these, people tend not to show up. Any event sponsored by either of these groups is not only for members of these groups, they are for everyone. Having the event be sponsored by CAB and OLA opens it up to everyone else, a point brought up by Khyeria ‘Keex’ Ferguson, a participant in the event and president of the black world studies academic club.
“People think we reached a promise land because we have a Black History Month,” participant Ahri Fuller said.
alonrobe@my.dom.edu