The first annual “Black & Bougie” event took place in the ballrooms on Friday Feb. 17th where various students had the opportunity to showcase their many talents. It ranged from singing, to dancing and live painting while another student performed spoken word poetry. This elegant all black affair was held by the Black Student Union here on campus and co-sponsored by E.B.O.N.E.E, SABLE and SAPB. I had the privilege of interviewing the Public Relations Officer, Chanelle Harold, who pioneered this empowering event with the help of her fellow Executive Board members. I asked her three simple questions:

What was your main goal when planning the Black and Bougie event? How did you come up with such a catchy name?

“Well I got the idea from my best friend who goes to Howard University, a Historically Black College. The have an annual Black and Bougie party and he would look for an outfit weeks in advance because it would be ‘that’ extravagant. So I wanted to bring something like that to the William Paterson community. Also, when we went into planning, I wanted to really play up the ‘bougie’ aspect of the event; we wanted to it to be more of a ‘Black Arts Expo’ while still having a good party at the end.”

What were some challenges when creating/prepping this event?

“Some challenges were finding the talent and performers for the event, finding art to display in the Ballrooms while the event took place, and parts of the overall setup of how we wanted Black and Bougie to look were the most stressful parts.”

Were you happy with the outcome of Black and Bougie?

“I was really happy with how the event turned out! Seeing my vision of showcasing Black talent come to life was very rewarding. I really hope my vision becomes an annual event for the Black Student Union club in the future.”

Chanelle Harold is a senior at William Paterson who majors in Broadcast Journalism. She finds that having events like these that showcase talents in the minority population is extremely important when it comes to social awareness on college campuses. The Black Student Union club has strived to bring social awareness to the entire student body by hosting events (like Black and Bougie) and having weekly meetings regarding current events in the Black community. The club serves as a safe space for the African American population on campus. Anyone is welcomes to come to their meetings that take place every Wednesday at 6:15 pm in room UC 168A. For further interests in Black culture and talent, please check out their newsletter ‘Umoja” at willypbsu.wixsite.com/umoja or follow them on Instagram at willyp_bsu!