Students had a chance to express both their creativity and appreciation for Black History Month at an open mic night at the campus Starbucks. The Student Government Association (SGA) gathered members of the Community Outreach Committee to put together an open mic night for Loyola and Baltimore residents to share their poems, raps, and songs.
One of the individuals who was spotlighted is poetry coach, activist, and international spoken word artist, Lady Brion. She has written various works like “Sugar Cane Smile”, where she speaks of her upbringing and her generous praising of her mothers strength. She has been a performer since the age of 12, and has won several awards such as the 2016 National Poetry Slam and the 2017 Southern Fried Poetry Slam.
SGA Community Outreach member Sarah Flores ‘28 explained the importance of opening up this event to other poets like Lady Brion.
“She is a local poet around Baltimore. A lot of poets know her and we featured her in this event to promote and really open the event to Baltimore community members and our school as well,” Flores said.
Flores explained that the host for the event set the rules and guidelines for the audience while listening to the poems.The MC also shared poems from Loyola’s student run radio station, WLOY, and SGA.
The Director of the Community Outreach Committee for SGA, Nosa Omoregbee’ 25, explained her feelings of responsibility towards hosting such an event. Omoregbee strives for representation of African Americans through her position here at Loyola.
“I started this initiative last year because I noticed that through the Student Government Association I didn’t notice a lot of events or programs that were specifically targeted towards Black History Month or in celebration of it. Since I was in a privileged position and I had a role to do something, I decided that I would find a connection through the community outreach to celebrate Black History month” Omoregbee said.
Omoregbee also expressed her desire to see artists have some sort of means in presenting their art. She believes that the art is an outlet and way of expression that these artists have a lack of in the Baltimore area.
“I know that there’s a lot of talented artists in Baltimore; Some who are not able to be on platforms who have a lot of art to share. I wanted to really get in those areas and bring in both professionals, people who have art and may not have a platform to just speak and share and celebrate together” Omoregbee said.
Additionally, SGA Community Outreach member, Luisa Glass ‘25, agreed in Omoregbee’s opinion and shares why she thinks it important to have events at Loyola that celebrate Black History Month.
“I think that being at a PWI it’s really important to bring attention to the importance of Black History Month to celebrate all of the contributions that African Americans have made. Also to help amplify the Baltimore community as well as the black community at Loyola” Glass said.
Community Outreach member Kendyl Archer ‘25 had similar sentiments about appreciating Black History.
“Celebrating and acknowledging the contributions to Black History, whether that be poetry or art, contributions to science, contributions to psychology, anything like that, just acknowledging that the impact of Black Americans in this country is great,” Archer said.
Residents and students also had the opportunity to present a poem, rap, or song with the audience. Many of the Community Outreach committee members have high hopes for the continuation of events like this for this month and later Februaries to come.
For more events like this, visit The Bridge.
