On Jan. 27, the Rowan Black Student Union (BSU) held the third annual Obsidian Ball where students could get together to enjoy music and food and view the event’s vendors. Many students attended the event at the Student Center Ballroom dressing to impress.
There were other clubs that were in attendance as well with New Life Ministry bringing their choir to sing at the beginning of the event and also doing a prayer over the food. The new majorette dance team at Rowan also was in attendance to do a performance. Also part of the event was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Women of Color Alliance.
BSU is an organization that oversees all the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) organizations. The organization serves as an educational-based community-building system for Black and multicultural students at Rowan. It’s an umbrella student-run collective that represents all Black and multicultural organizations at Rowan. Za’Keria Sykes is the president of the club and states they want to make sure the campus is always in positive space for BIPOC students.
If students were hungry, they could get many different options from Aunt Berta’s Kitchen visiting from their Lindenwold location. Aunt Berta’s Kitchen is a soul food restaurant with many different food options. At the event, Aunt Berta’s Kitchen served baked chicken, fried chicken, mac and cheese, yams, macaroni, tuna salad, potato salad, rice, meatballs, collard greens, and cabbage to name a few.
The event had several vendors, which is a first as the previous events did not have vendors.
“I thought having vendors, like people selling different things might bring an interactive aspect,” said Skyes. “So students who are just kind of like sitting there at the moment, they can go look, see different things that they wanna buy.”
The vendors that were there were Bandit Officials, Clouds and Colors, and Vintage Breeds.
Jazlyn Batista is the owner of the clothing brand Bandit Offcials which she started during the pandemic. She describes the brand as a “tie dye slash custom-based brand for everybody and anybody”.
Batista is a Rowan alumna who majored in law and justice studies and minored in sociology. Even though she graduated, she wanted to continue showing her face at Rowan.
“Just like to keep my name out there and just like fashion always changing, so are the students,” said Batista. “So it’s just for my face to still be out there and for me to get to know new people and network just in general. I still know a couple of people here, so it’s good to have those connections already, but I want to continue to have those relationships here. So it’s always good to pop out and just show face.”
Brandon Ottey is a Rowan alumnus and was a business administration major. He attended the event as a vendor with his clothing brand, Clouds and Colors.
“And I started it because I wanted people to have something they could wear as a reminder that we’ll all experience difficult situations in life,” said Ottey. “But it’s not about the situation itself, it’s how you think about it, how you react to it.”
Ottey states the name of the brand is a play on words.
“How you think, like thought clouds can influence how you feel, like colors. How they say red could be angry or passionate or blue could be calm, for example. Just a reminder about how we think can kind of determine how we feel about things in life,” Ottey said.
Ottey was excited to be back at Rowan and attending the event.
“Just seeing that they’re continually growing and creating things for students to get into on the weekend or whether it’s over the weekend,” said Ottey. “Just these events where you can connect and network with other people, I think is great. And I’m just happy that I get to be a part of it. I’m excited for the show and everything that they have going on in the future as well.”
BSU began planning the event in the summer and Skyes states that there were difficulties planning the event. One of the difficulties of setting up the event was working with SGA said Sykes. She stated that handling the organization’s money through the university can be complicated.
“They aren’t tax-exempt and different things like that,” said Sykes. “It’s mainly for when you want to get something that’s catered to BIPOC students because they don’t really have the outlet and options on that little list of vendors. And yeah, you can get someone in the process of becoming a vendor, but SGA makes it so hard and they like to deny, deny, deny that. It’s just like, ugh, am I gonna get what I wanna see on my campus?”
Sykes understands the importance of the club as Rowan is a predominantly white institution.
“So that comes with different things that go on on campus, like incidents of racism, discrimination, and things like that,” said Skyes. “And somebody has to be the voice for people who don’t wanna speak up for themselves.”
Sykes stated the importance of the event.
“It’s important because if you walk into the student center, most of the time the music you hear is not the one that’s playing in your headphones,” said Sykes. “So when you come into the ballroom and come into our dance, you get to listen to what you wanna hear and you also get to have your relatable moments with the people that look just like you.”
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