Black Student Alliance to celebrate Black History Month with movie screenings and more
February 5, 2019
Throughout the month of February, Black Student Alliance will be hosting events for Black History Month to give African-American students something to connect with and remember.
Ciara Futrell, who has been president of BSA since Fall 2017, said the organization has provided many activities for African-American students in hopes of promoting involvement.
“We try to do things that bring more unity to the African-American culture on campus that we all have common interest in,” Futrell said
For Black History Month, BSA will be selling crew necks with the phrase “Black History in the Making” on them and hosting a date night auction on Valentine’s Day in Downing Student Union room 2123 from 4-6 p.m.
There will be general body meetings where students may discuss a variety of topics like how to be professional and what’s happening on-campus or in politics.
“We typically celebrate Black History Month throughout the year for our organization, so we don’t focus too much on just this particular month,” Futrell said. “However, we do more during the month of February just to celebrate the culture more.”
Keyonna Whaley, a member of the BSA executive board, said she wanted to become involved with BSA because she wanted to be more active on campus.
“BSA was one of the first organizations that welcomed me with open arms,” Whaley said. “I asked a million questions, and they answered them. Also, I loved the events that they had on campus.”
Normally, Whaley said a lot of students attend the general body meetings and events. However, throughout the month, she said she wants to highlight people at WKU who have made a difference in the African-American community through a BSA-operated Instagram page called “The Black Western.”
“I’m spotlighting all African-American males and females throughout history that have paved the way for our future,” Whaley said.
Jahari Burnett, an alternate officer for the BSA executive board, said he feels it is important for the black community on campus to have positive leaders encouraging students to prosper and succeed in everything they do. He said BSA gives him the opportunity to be a positive leader to other African-American students, which is the reason he joined.
“As an organization, we hold events and meetings that apply to the interest of students within our culture,” Burnett said. “The events and meetings have held a great outcome to our standards, but we would like to have more diversity.”
During Black History Month, Burnett said BSA plans to shine light on the people in the past and present within the Bowling Green community who have made a positive impact on African-American culture. BSA aims to do this by showing various movies in the DSU Nite Class room throughout February to anyone interested in watching.
The first movie will be “The Hate U Give,” a 2018 film inspired by police brutality and other African-American-centric social issues, which will be screened on Thursday. Whaley said it was selected because it was a new movie to our generation that many people have not seen.
“It was something that spoke to me, and it was something that related to our society today,” Futrell said.
The other three selected movies are “The Wood,” which will be showing on Sunday, “LIFE” on Feb. 17 and “The Help” on Feb. 24.
News reporter Lakierra DeBerry can be reached at 270-745-6011 and [email protected] Fol- low her on Twitter at @Kierra_DeB.
