By: Sienna Escobar
On Feb. 28, Black Christian Union’s (BCU) cultural night, “The Cookout,” honored the big and small traditions that bring people together. BCU president and BCU Night director Daniela Dreke, a junior industrial organizational psychology major, said that the program was less focused on cultural education, as it had been in previous years, and more heavy on celebration.
“We really just wanted to express our culture and celebrate where we come from—different parts of the Black diaspora,” Dreke said.
According to Dreke, the theme of a cookout had been floating around the planning committee of officers and sponsors for BCU Night in previous years but had not yet been done. Before the beginning of the fall semester, Dreke and the others agreed to pursue the theme for this year’s program.
After struggling to find someone who could write a play around their theme, the planning committee approached Naiya Brown, a Southern alumna who graduated last December and wrote and directed the BCU Night program last year. According to Brown, the script initially presented a challenge, because the topic was difficult to adapt to the stage. Once she turned to her personal experiences and other BCU members for inspiration, the ideas started to flow.
“The dominoes game, the line dances, the food that was mentioned, all are things that I’ve personally experienced,” Brown said, “as well as just the community, being around people that you feel like you can just exhale and breathe and be yourself in their presence.”
The storyline of the program focused on Cam, a fictional music artist who returns to his hometown for inspiration to finish writing an album. Upon returning, Cam discovers that a lot of things have changed, and not everyone appreciates the fact that he left for Hollywood years before and never came to visit or tried to stay connected. However, a cookout hosted by Simone, Cam’s high school sweetheart, paves the way for some reconnections and helps Cam to remember where he came from.
Jack Bell, a senior health science major, played Josh, Cam’s best friend and manager. Bell said that he started preparing for the role toward the end of the fall semester, eventually practicing around two2 hours a night, three to four times a week to learn the acting part and dances.
Bell shared how he felt after everything came together for the performance.
“I’m elated, like, I’m so happy right now,” Bell said. “It couldn’t have gone any better, in my opinion.”
Bell said that the energy of performing with his castmates made it challenging to keep his composure during the play.
“I think one of the hardest things is just keeping a straight face when I’m supposed to be serious, because all the actors, all my friends, are super funny,” Bell said.
Other elements of the night included cultural dances and a scripted dating show interspersed with the play.
Isaiah Lawrence, a senior theology major who choreographed one of the dances for the show, said that he got inspiration from Jamaican Dancehall, as well as other Caribbean and African influences. He enjoyed the way dancing with other students made him feel.
“I just feel really happy,” Lawrence said. “I know that’s pretty cliché, but it’s a chance to allow people to understand and share culture. I especially love including other people, even if they can’t dance or they don’t think they know how to dance.”
Before the program started, a preshow in the front of the gymnasium featured booths with yams, mac and cheese, corn on the cob and other foods, as well as dominoes and arcade basketball.
Angel Hidalgo, a freshman engineering student, said that the atmosphere at the preshow was fun and “hyper.”
“They [BCU] put a lot of good work into this, so you can feel the rhythm [and] the vibe,” Hidalgo said.
Xavier Lopez, a sophomore finance major, said the night’s theme resonated with his personal experiences.
“I thought the part about giving back to community was really good and stood out to me, because my community did a lot for me growing up and I really appreciate them,” Lopez said. “I’m actually Mexican, and cookouts were a big part of my childhood, [so] it’s a really comforting setting.”
Candy Dolcy, an assistant professor of the School of Social Work and a BCU sponsor, reiterated that the night was about celebrating the way people unite over food and time together. Having grown up going to cookouts, many of the elements explored in the program, such as playing dominoes together, were familiar to her.
Creating the program together with other BCU officers and sponsors helped Dolcy to see both the similarities and differences in how various communities celebrate together. For college students, she believed the main takeaway was to continue inviting each other to gatherings of family and friends, despite having different backgrounds.
“The message of the cookout is that although we may differ in our food, our games and our music, we still all can be invited to the cookout. We still can all eat together. We can share each other’s culture,” Dolcy said.
