“We have to understand the past to open doors to the future.”
Aaliyah Wiggins
Last Friday, Feb. 5, Rowan After Hours hosted their Black History Month Jeopardy, an event that was co-sponsored with the Black Cultural League (BCL) in celebration of Black History Month and the leaders that impacted the Black community.
Mustafa Abdus-Sabuur, one of Rowan’s graduate coordinators for RAH and special events, detailed the significance of the events happening throughout the night.
“The goal of the event is not only to educate people on Black history, but to bring a fun element like ‘Jeopardy!’ into it,” he said. “It’s a fun way for people to learn something they’ve never known before. As a person of color, I still struggle with certain facts, and I think this a great way to bring it light.”
After a night of fun, the prizes for each of the winners were BoroBucks, awarded to whoever received first, second and third place.
“Ultimately, the significance of this event is that we are in Black History Month right now, and it’s important to be educated on this topic,” Abdus-Sabuur said. “It’s so important for people to learn the history, especially since we’re in 2021…and this event is a great way to do so.”
BCL President Aaliyah Wiggins discussed what she hoped to accomplish with the night’s event.
“Our club is a social club, and I hope this event will bring in a new audience,” she said. “Unfortunately, people of color don’t really come out like that, so I’m hopeful this event, and future events, will help people come out, and give us a more diverse audience. And also have a good time.”
Putting on an event as big as this one took a lot of coordination between Wiggins and RAH.
“The process wasn’t hard at all. There were a lot of meetings, but, obviously, that is needed. Essentially, the process was just a lot of meetings, and RAH getting our input on how we wanted the event to run,” she said. “I really appreciated that, because it’s a collaboration between us, so it was super easy. And RAH was super helpful.”
Wiggins also discussed what she hoped to accomplish from the event as a whole.
“Personally, Black History Month is about preserving our culture. So, hopefully, this will give some insight about the past, because we have to understand the past to open doors to the future. I’m hoping the audience will learn something, I’m hoping I learn something and I hope we get a new audience to get more diversity out there,” she said.
Ultimately, the event was a success in spreading their message, as well as educating students on campus. RAH hosts events every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and the Black Cultural League will be hosting more events in the future.
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