Kean University’s Poetry Club Celebrates Black History Month With Blacked Out Event
By Jasmin Kee | Published by March 16, 2018
Blacked Out Event. Photo courtesy of Cougar Link
In honor of Black History Month, the Poetry Club at Kean University held an event called “Blacked Out” on Feb. 22 which helped bring awareness to Black culture in a fun and interactive way with a panel, an open mic, games and free giveaways.
The event was held in the Cougars Den from 7-10 p.m. and was hosted by one of the members of the poetry club, senior, interpersonal communication studies major, Ymani Hawkins.
“The purpose of this event is to understand and become aware of our history and our culture,” said Hawkins as she introduced the event.
The first part of the event was a panel, which consisted of the president of the Poetry Club Tierra Hooker, founder Shawn Crysis, student body president Damion Wilson, and vice president Chidinma Opara.
The panelists were asked to give their honest opinions on questions concerning Black people and Black culture and how they felt about the portrayal of both in the media to which Opara replied, “I think that we are being considered a trend.”
After the panelists finished giving their opinions, it was open to the audience to weigh in, to which some did, even asking the panelists questions of their own. Following a brief intermission, a game was played where four volunteers were asked to guess the name and artist of a song by listening to the first 30 seconds of it. The first volunteer to guess three songs right won the prize of a T-Shirt. The rest of the night consisted of an open mic where volunteers were able to share their poems and songs. The first person to come up and read a poem was Tierra Hooker who read a poem that she had written for Martin Luther King Jr. day.
After all the performances were done, the event ended with a raffle where Hooker read off five names for the winnings of a few prizes.
If you want to know more about upcoming events that are being hosted by Kean’s Poetry Club, you can find more information by visiting Cougarlink.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment.