“Community, that’s what Black excellence is,” says Alpha Kappa Alpha member Aliyah Robbins on what Black Excellence means to her. Community was indeed the main focus of the Black Culture & Movement event which was held on Tuesday, Feb. 10 to celebrate a century of Black History Month.
The program was held on the courtyard of the Honors Village from 4:20pm to 6:00pm. It started with mixers with different organizations on campus: Iota Phi Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha, African American Museum of Southern Arizona, African American Students in Life Sciences, African Student Association and Sankofa Scholars. There was also a table dedicated to refreshments consisting of baked beans, macaroni and cheese, chicken, lemonade and sweet tea.
Spoken word poetry presentations delivered by senior Honors student Daryl Ijaola and freshman Honors student Kamsi Kanma-Okafor. Sankofa Scholars Jalen Herring, Alisa Agyare and Emma Purvis followed with kind words of tribute to Dr. Cheree Meeks, who is the Assistant Dean for Leadership and Student Development at the W.A. Franke Honors College. Herring said, “This is only my second semester at the Honors College and Dr. Meeks has been so welcoming.”
The highlight of the event was when 9 people formed a circle in a game of “Follow the Leader” and danced while going round the circle to “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” by Michael Jackson.
Meeks officially closed out the event with a vote of thanks.
The event was still far from over. The rest of the event entailed everyone at the event dancing to several songs that are well-known in the Black community, along with Iota Phi Theta and Alpha Kappa Alpha giving two final performances.
“What I hope people will take away from this is the feeling of joy,” Meeks says on the purpose of this event. She also hopes that people would “make connections with people or organizations they have never met or heard of before.” It seems that the event was fruitful; many students met with the organizations that were present at the event and made connections that could benefit them in the long run.