I wrote this piece last year for the 50th anniversary of the BCC. Enjoy!
As a Black woman at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), the Black Cultural Center (BCC) has served as a home away from home. The BCC is full of student peers that we love like brothers and sisters and staff that love, guide, and scold us like aunts and uncles. We celebrate successes together, and we mourn together. The BCC has afforded me the opportunity to meet brilliant sister-scholars who introduced me to fascinating research topics, such as Black women’s relationship with African prints and fabrics; how to use the engineering design process to address social issues; and the intersection of food trucks, hip hop, and entrepreneurship. Further, the BCC has provided Black women a haven to escape microaggressions, isolation, and poor sense of belonging that exist at a PWI.
The women’s research mentioned above provide support, affirmation, and sisterhood today, but we must acknowledge our past: The courageous testimony of Professor Anita Hill. The literary contributions from Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison. The Black feminist critique of society from bell hooks. The brave mobilization of women in the #MeToo movement via Tarana Burke. These women, among others, have served as a source of inspiration, empowerment, and encouragement for students, faculty, staff, and visitors of the Black Cultural Center. Hence, these powerful women adorn the walls featured in the Purdue University Black Cultural Center’s exhibition “A Journey Through Black Excellence: A 50 Year Retrospective.” The BCC’s program and facility manager Danicia Malone curated the exhibition, showcasing artifacts, articles, photographs, and other memorabilia. Additionally, current and former Purdue BCC Performing Arts Ensemble (PAE) members are featured in the exhibition. The BCC PAE consists of seven ensembles: Black Voices of Inspiration choir, New Directional Players drama troupe, Haraka Writers spoken word ensemble, Jahari Dance Troupe, Gordon Parks Fine Arts Ensemble, Black Thought Collective scholars, and Purdue Express. The BCC PAEs have participated in research and study abroad tours, traveling to locations including Ghana; Brazil; Cuba; Memphis, Tennessee; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Harlem, New York; and more. Purdue’s BCC has provided many educational opportunities for social and cultural learning for the Purdue and local community.
At the Apollo Theater on Amateur Night with the BCC in NY
If you have not had a chance to view the exhibition at the BCC, I would strongly suggest you do so [when outside opens back up]. There are several other powerful leaders to learn about highlighted in the exhibition. The BCC website states that it “provides purposeful, holistic, scholarly, and cocurricular programming designed to strengthen our understanding of African American heritage. It enhances the academic, cultural, and social development of the entire Purdue community.” The BCC has done all of this and more. The rich history of excellence surrounding the BCC, from the 1968 march that led to its creation to now, reminds us to keep going, growing, and learning.
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