If you walk into the cultural center on Fridays at 2 p.m. you will find one of Keene States newer organizations, the Black Student Union.
According to Owlnet, BSU has 24 members and its mission statement is “a student organization to bring all Black students around campus together. We plan on also sharing our culture with everyone and celebrate Black excellence by hosting events where we can share our culture and talk about our struggles appropriately to those who want to listen. We will also provide resources that will understand the cultural difference, a place for them to be themselves, different home cooked meals at least once a month, and opportunities to travel and learn about Black history to all Black students.”
BSU’s president Jeadminas Alexis, a junior at Keene State, started the club last year and after some setbacks the club was able to become official. Alexis said, “When I created BSU I created with the goal that it would be here when I leave, and it will be a place where every incoming student or students that were here or that were a part of it know that they have a place that they could go to.”
Now that the club is official they are able to have more resources and money to hold events on campus. They were going to hold a Basketball tournament fundraiser in October, but it will now be held sometime in November to raise money for… Eventually, “We are planning to have a cultural festival… and we are hoping that it can happen in the beginning every single spring semester during Black History Month. We are working to make that happen,” Alexis said.
During the actual BSU meetings, Alexis explained they’ll talk about different topics each week. “ “Some days it is about education, some days we talk about Black history, not just from the US but from everywhere else, and sometimes we host small dinners and have different types of cultural food because the issue is so broad with different cultures,” Alexis said. Another thing the club does is have a monthly dinner at the Jamaican grill restaurant, Yahso.
Alexis said she thinks it’s important that Keene has a Black Student Union on campus because it allows people a safe space. She said, BSU is a place, “Where they can feel safe with their skin color, with their hair the way it is, I want this space to be a big space where everyone else can also learn about culture around the world because I know in highschool they don’t really teach about these things so I hope for BSU to be that kind of space.”
Molly Lu McKellar can be contacted
at mmckellar@kscequinox.com
