Buena Vista University’s Black Student Union (BSU) is presenting a week celebrating black culture this week. February 12-17 is packed with events to commemorate Black History Month. BSU planned this week’s events to give people on campus the opportunity to learn more about black culture and history.

“After how crazy the climate on campus has been regarding race and political views, this week is going to be an amazing way to put that aside and enjoy celebrating Black History Month,” sophomore BSU executive board member Alyssa Parker said.

Parker said members of the BSU are extremely passionate about the unique black culture they have and want to share that with the rest of BVU’s campus. As they were putting together events for the week, the BSU’s aim was to reach a large audience at BVU through education about black culture, as well as to have fun unifying students together through this celebration.

BSU members said that given past incidents, they wanted to bring campus together.

“With the students, I really hope that they walk away from this coming week truly believing that this is more than a race issue. This is an overall unity issue. And we, the BSU, are not here to deepen the line of division, but we did this to try to get closer to unison,” sophomore BSU executive board member Emerald Jones said.

BSU worked to make sure all of the events going on during the week were easily accessible, so they are all happening right on campus. The lineup of events includes:

• Monday, there was meal packaging for people who are in need during the day.  Then, in the evening Jeopardy was held, focused on black culture and history.
• On Tuesday, MELT is holding a couch conversation with the BSU, conversing over black racial stereotypes and misconceptions.
• Wednesday, SAB is presenting their Midnight Movie, which BSU will be supporting.
• “Trap Karaoke” is on Thursday in the Underground, welcoming everyone to come sing and enjoy themselves.
• On Friday, Step Afrika, an African stepping group, will perform an ACES event.  The dance company is now ranked as one of the top ten African American dance companies in the United States.

BSU members will also be at tables outside the Servery Tuesday through Friday with questions for anyone to answer and prizes to hand out!  Different sub-topics of black culture will be the focus of these questions.

As for the weekend, other BSU organizations in Iowa are invited to come join in on the celebration of Black History Month at BVU by participating in the TRI-BSU Conference. The conference will include a presentation on the state of BSU’s on college campuses.

Jones is looking forward to several events.

“I am very excited for Step Afrika! I love step teams and think it will be very entertaining,” Jones said. “I am also very excited for the BSUs to come during the weekend, to get some feedback and compare and contrast with one another.”

BSU members emphasize that the events all week are designed to spread knowledge and awareness about black culture as well as provide a fun way of unification and bonding that everyone can enjoy.