Soul food dinner nourished many
Amanda Gross
Issue date: 2/25/10 Section: News
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By asking for a five dollar donation to attend, BSO raised $300 at the event to donate to Partners in Health for Haiti, a non-profit organization working to provide healthcare options for the poor. Throughout its events this semester, BSO has raised a total of $500 that they will donate to this organization.
Lisa Smith-McQueenie, assistant dean for student life and Kenyora Johnson, president of BSO, introduced the event, which featured four students telling a personal story about their culture.
"Each one will share with you their different shade of black," Johnson said to the crowd of nearly 100.
Johnson said the theme was chosen to represent the differences within the black community, and to show how ìwe are not all the same."
"We may have similarities, however, we all hail from different countries, cultures, customs, and upbringings," she said. "Most of us do not like to be categorized, but if we are, we stand out among each other in respect to our differences."
Senior Asia Norton, former vice-president of BSO, shared her family tree, highlighting the different skin tones of her family members.
"We are all beautiful," she said. "That's how I was raised to think."
First year Nnennaya Okey-Igwe shared the traditions and customs of her Nigerian culture, which focused on the importance of education and respect to elders, while first year Roxanne Wilson captivated the audience by describing the historic plight of the Maroons in her native Jamaica. She commended the free blacks' dedication to fighting for Jamaican freedom from the Spanish colonizer.
Daina Estime, BSO's Sister SGA representative, continued the theme of honoring Haiti by discussing her family's Haitian heritage and her two-week visit to the country several years ago.
"They don't have much to offer," she said of her Haitian family. "But they offer it anyway. It's beautiful."
Estime told stories of hope about her family during the recent earthquake. They all survived, she said, and her grandmother even made sure that everyone in her building evacuated in time.
Haitian culture focuses on "the unity of the people," she said, whether in Haiti or in Boston.
Gary Bailey, associate professor of social work and president of the Council of Black Administrators, Faculty, and Staff, discussed what role slavery in the U.S. plays in his family.
"Slavery isn't an ancient institution in our family," he said, stating that his grandparents were slaves.
Figuring out what it means to be only the third free black male in his line is something Bailey says is "very important" to him.
This is the first year Black History Month has been called Black HERstory Month, a change Johnson says was made "to focus on the women of color who have made great impacts on our lives."
"Although this month is shared by both men and women who have made great contributions to our society, as a student organization based at an women's college, we deemed it appropriate to focus just on women," she said. Last year, the month focused on the positive influence of hip-hop.
Some of the female-focused events throughout Black HERstory Month included a presentation by the first black woman city councillor, Ayanna Pressley, on Feb. 1 and "Cutting the Rose," a discussion by several Boston University Medical School doctors about female genital mutilation and its perverse effects, which was cancelled due to weather and will be rescheduled in the near future. "Sisterhood, Spirituality, & Ourselves," a talk about spirituality by Simmons Protestant Chaplain, Reverend Melinda Weekes, will take place Sunday from 3:30-5:30 pm in the Linda K. Paresky Conference Center.
Black HERstory month 2010 is sponsored by BSO and the Office of Student Life and Multicultural Affairs and in collaboration with the Council of Black Administrators, Faculty, and Staff, the Association of Black Social Workers (ABSW), the ALANA Nursing Association, the Office of Spiritual Life, and Project Trust, Inc.
Live music at the Soul Food Dinner was provided by Soul 4 Yo System, a funk/jazz/rock band from Berklee College of Music and the event was catered by SoulFire, a local restaurant in Allston.
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