UNC’s Celebration of Blackness

By: Carla Beachem (’20), Editor-In-Chief Intern

From a number of poignant tributes to the figures of our past and present, to a fashion show highlighting the many transformations of our people’s culture over the years, the Black Student Movement is celebrating Black History Month in a big way and this year’s Celebration of Blackness Campaign just makes this month that much sweeter. The COB initiative is in its second year here at UNC and in its first year under the Black Student Movement. COB began as an idea in the mind of Destiny Talley (’18). Her hope was to make a statement with other black UNC students using a medium that we are known to flex with—photography.

In her own words, the message she wanted to send through COB is that “We are here! We are resilient! And you can be happy about it with us, or move out of the way because we are claiming this space as our own.”

Talley wanted to push this message because she recognizes the number of difficulties that we (and those before us) have had to overcome in order to be at this university. The Celebration of Blackness serves to give us a space to “celebrate the journey” to where we are while acknowledging in that celebration that we still have a ways to go.

Last year, Talley brought this vision to life with Black Ink’s own Mariah Warner behind the camera. This year however, since COB has been adopted by BSM, it is being spearheaded by three exceptional women of the class of 2020 (yerrrrr). The new heads of COB are Oluwafeyisayomi (Feyi) Bada, Chryshel Mundy, and Daisha Singletary. I was lucky to be able to catch up some of them to see how they have continued to foster Destiny’s vision and elevate in 2018.

For Singletary, celebrating something means finding and acknowledging value in its existence, which is why the Celebration of Blackness campaign is so important to her.
“To me, this photo campaign is necessary because the world and this campus needs to be reminded of the value in black and brown lives.”

According to Talley, a celebration of this caliber is needed for the morale of students as well as to call attention to the heads of this university so that we can continue to let them know that WE ARE HERE. This need is evident through the many campaigns, protests, demonstrations and boycotts that have occurred this year all meant to advocate for the safety and equity of black and brown students.

Feyi Bada, in this same sentiment, hopes that COB is able to progress in the future. One of her hopes is to use this event to unite different groups of black people on campus. Divides within the black community exist, but her aspiration as one of the heads of this initiative is to use this celebration to break down barriers because “at the end of the day, we all have to endure some common struggle.” This is a theme that Talley also acknowledges in her hopes for the growth of COB. She comments on this saying, “I hope the COB brings people together in a way that says ‘I see your struggle. I share your struggle. Let’s celebrate now, and grind together later.”

The Celebration of Blackness campaign has become a uniting pillar in the Black UNC community after only two years of existence. As we prepare to close this year’s Black History Month out, it seems necessary to emphasize the importance of not limiting our celebration of ourselves to 28 days of blacktivity. We are a strong, resilient, undefeated people and while the Celebration of Blackness this month has encompassed that so beautifully, I urge you all to celebrate all the parts of you and us EVERY DAY. Knowing what we deal with on a daily basis by just existing, celebrating a necessary act of rebellion against a world that doesn’t want us to smile. Stay Black y’all.