Members of North’s Black Leadership Advisory Council (BLAC) honored Black culture and history through various guest speakers, performances, and games during BLAC Day, Friday, Feb. 13.
The annual BLAC Day event involved different activities each block, including a cultural presentation, an art gallery, and other interactive games.
“The student council really drives what the day looks like,” said METCO counselor Blayne Lopes, a BLAC adviser. “And for the last two years, they really wanted it to be about awareness and empowerment.”
During f-block in the Lasker Auditorium, President and CEO of METCO Kandice Sumner, a guest speaker, discussed the importance of the METCO program and how an education is not complete without diversity.
Senior Bushra Bukanya, a BLAC member, said, “At North, we don’t really have a lot of African representation, and I feel like it’s important to share.”
According to Sumner, the Northeast region is one of the most segregated regions in the country due to housing and financial inequality, classism, and more.
According to senior Niya Lubin, a BLAC member, students were excited for Sumner’s speech due to her important role in METCO. “Her coming here, sharing her story, that was really big and we were very happy that she came,” Lubin said.
Earlier during c-block, Genithia Lilia Hogges, an interdisciplinary educator who focuses on humanities, gave a presentation titled “Cite Your Sources” where audience members guessed the African-American origins of famous books, songs, and more.
According to Lubin, BLAC students wanted “kids to not only have fun, but to learn,” especially history.
Bushra Bukanya added that the goal of Hogges’s presentation was to “spread awareness of how normalized it is to just consume Black culture but not fully understand it.”
Hogges also spoke on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech. According to Hogges, the majority of the speech is not commonly discussed because he addresses severe racism toward African-Americans.
For the c-block finale, several students from BLAC performed onstage with a variety of dance styles and Afrobeats songs, which was choreographed by Bushra Bukanya and junior Bahiirah Bukanya.
BLAC students, such as Bahiirah Bukanya, had their art on display on Main Street during d-block, as well as clothing from Ethiopia, Uganda, and Somalia. The jazz band also performed.
During g-block, volunteers played Jeopardy! with the categories music, diaspora, history, culture, and people. Afterward, audience members could also volunteer to play “guess the song” by a Black artist.
According to Lopes, the BLAC students were proud of their efforts planning the day and appreciated the community showing up.
