South Park Baptist Church Gospel Choir Event

Northern Black Choir Performance at South Park Baptist Church Chicago:

I am a part of the Northern Black Choir also known as NBC. One of the performances we had to perform was a concert at this church on the South Side of Chicago. I've always gone to church and singing in choirs is something I have always done as well. The choir that I am in sings predominantly African American gospel music, but is inclusive to all people of different races to participate in. This concert in particularly was different because for church attire we had to dress more traditionally for church rather than for a contemporary laid back service. We had to wear stockings, skirts, and brooches as females, and suits and ties as men. The attire added more to the fun we had with the concert seeing another way a sacred religious area had for a dress code.

The service had great rapport between the choir, everyone was in tune with the music and people weren't afraid to be vulnerable in the sacred space of the church. One thing that I have noticed as an active member in church is that sometimes when participating in worship or giving praise to God, we as humans become complacent in our rituals and worship and those motions just turn into something we do manually and value can potentially be lost. But that was not the case for the South Park Baptist Church, everyone was screaming and shouting and the band was going crazy. The congregation kept begging my choir director to allow the band to keep playing so the congregation can keep praise dancing and shuffling. It was such a positive experience and it was one of  the most powerful faith based experiences that I ever had and I will never forget it.

REP YO STEP EVENT

Black Frats and Sororities Strolling:

Before I started attending Northern Illinois University, I actually wasn't familiar with Strolling which pretty much means a fraternity or sorority that performs choreographed moves to music. Strolling came from African American Frats and Sororities and if you ever get a chance to see them perform take the opportunity to because its pretty cool. The event that was going on at NIU was the Rep yo Step event , which is when a ton of Black Frats and Sororities compete against each other by representing their stepping and strolling that is part of their organizations. When you see Strolling or stepping by a frat or sorority, its really empowering. As a person of color it makes me feel united with my culture even if I am not participating in the actual movements, it just makes me be proud to be black. The patriotism I feel for my race is heavily driven in me when I see strolling and stepping.

The program displayed videos of where and when each frat and sorority was founded and what they stand for. It's really an experience to see how each group tries to portray their message through body movement and chanting and stepping. Watching them makes me proud to see how far the black race has come and how these different organizations strive to promote more black unity and excellence. When the female Sororities would chant and stroll everyone would be screaming and calling girls names that they thought were performing strong. On the other hand when the black men were strolling and doing slow movements girls would gush and scream and not be able to control themselves. I definitely see myself seeing more strolling and maybe potentially rushing for a sorority.

Overall, It was a really fun experience to witness that brought me closer to my race culture, and increased my pride for being black.

Weekend Wedding Event

               

My cousin's Wedding event:

I have family that lives in Indiana and one of the daughters of the family of 6 was preparing for marriage for Saturday October 19th. I love going to weddings, especially ones that incorporate different cultures inside the wedding. Since I come from an African Family and my cousin is African and the person she is marrying white, I was excited to see the merge of the American culture and African culture together in matrimony. I've actually been to multiple interracial weddings, between white and Asian people, Black and White, Black and Asian and same race weddings as well. When there is a cultural collaboration in a wedding I believe that it makes the wedding more memorable for not only the bride and the groom but for the people coming to the wedding to support the two people getting married.

One tradition that I was so happy to be a part of since I was part of the family of the bride was the traditional Lappa laying of cloth for special occasion. Lappa is the Liberian term for African attire in Liberia, in America its known as Dashiki but every African country has its term for African clothing. Lappa laying can happen at graduations, award ceremonies or weddings. The tradition is basically a group of supporters showing gratitude to family or a person being recognized in a event by laying multiple pieces of clothing (lappa) in a carpet pattern and the person or people being recognized walks over the clothing. Excitement usually occurs with other supporters and money is thrown at the people being recognized and tambourines or other instruments are being played. This is supposed to be A VERY LOUD GESTURE THAT'S DRAMATIC, but that's what makes it fun and empowering within the African community. 

To summarize the wedding was really fun and I was happy to be apart of the wedding, since it motivates me to incorporate that part of my cultural identity in the wedding I want to have.

Police Brutality Presentation

Black Student Union Police Presentation on Police Brutality and Police Stops within the Community:

I participate in the Cultural Awareness Program of BSU or the Black Student Union. The program that I am involved in teamed up with the Dekalb police department on creating a presentation on how to act when a police stops you. I was a little nervous at first since the Police in general have a horrible reputation within the Black Community, but when the police who came to speak, a white police officer whose a sergeant too came to talk, he started off stating how the police need to be better, and relief hit my soul. He at first discussed how the police force as a whole needs to take a step towards the community as a whole since there is so much distrust and prejudice between the police and the members in communities like the black community. 

The officer discussed how to respond to the police and listed certain rights that we have when we are stopped. Examples were like asking an officer for a badge number when a citizen feels like they were mistreated so that they can report an incident or interaction with the police to the department. There was room for questions at the end and overall, I thought it ended well, but later on I found out a lot of people in BSU weren't frustrated but more of feeling like the officers response to everything was pessimistic. The police officer repeatedly expressed that the only way a civilian can truly win in an argument between themselves and the police is in the courtroom and there isn't a guarantee. The police kept stating how all issues and complaints should not be made with police during the time you are being stopped but afterwards, but he also said that it isn't very likely you will win.

To summarize, it wasn't a waste of time for the police officer to come and share with the BSU community the way the police force works in stopping people and not just black people. It shed light to how the Police Department needs to improve on meeting more than halfway with the community and winning back everyone's trust and not being more known for fear and problems than service and dedication in aiding communities.

                                                                                

Malcolm X intro In Biography

   

Malcolm X Intro for biography first impression:

I have always had an interest in learning more about civil rights activists and figures since the school system fails to fully go in depth on more than just the civil rights movement. I decided to start reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X because I feel like he doesn't receive as much recognition as Dr. King or other prominent figures like Rosa Parks. I feel like I have enough adequate knowledge on the lives of the other civil rights activists except him. So after enough thought I decided to take the paperback from my dad's bookshelf to go in deeper on the life of the radical, impressive, and intriguing life of Mr. X.

To start off with, I learned that Malcolm X came from a big family and that his father was a preacher who held meetings in secret with other African Americans that discussed the ideas and philosophy of Marcus Garvey. Mr. Garvey is responsible for the idea of giving African Americans the concept of returning back to Africa and the idea that Black Americans would thrive a lot more if they all went back to Africa and had their own nation of their own due to the horrible treatment white people were giving to African Americans. Malcolm X's father was also a huge target of the KKK or the Ku Klux Klan. There was speculation that his father was killed because of the KKK, but later it was ruled as a suicide from stepping in front of a train, to cover it up and to prevent insurance companies to aid for the now single parent family Malcolm X would be in.

Furthermore, the intro of the life of Malcolm X lightly covers the concept of  colorism, which is the idea that the lighter skin you have with close to straighter hair, the more superior you are compared to people who have darker skin and curlier hair. The classic Brown paper bag test that is till used to this day derived from the idea of colorism. The concept of colorism has been alive since the times of slavery and was a method of dividing the black community by the white people. Overall, I love so far how the book is going, it does not hold back on anything regarding how passionate Malcolm X was for fighting for and explaining the severity of the negative impact racial injustice has on poorly affected our society. I hope to finish it soon.