As part of SIU’s Black History Month celebrations, over 100 people gathered in the SIU Student Center on Sunday for the Black Magic Variety Hour, which was a high-spirited peak in the SIU Black History Month Schedule. Several notes, actually, as multiple songs were performed during the show.
The performances varied, with church choirs, high schoolers giving a high-energy dance performance and a variety of spoken-word poems. However, throughout the event, attendees cheered and clapped, sang along or danced at times. The music ebbed and flowed, able to be felt vibrating in attendee’s ribs as it pulsed through the ballrooms.
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“Let’s make a new Black history by showing up to vote in record numbers,” said Nancy Maxwell, a Carbondale City Council member, in her speech at the show.
Maxwell talked about how many people had fought for the right to vote, and how it is more important now than ever to have high voter turnout, especially in local elections.
For Dina Timmons, head of the black resource center, Black History Month means “that we’re not forgetting our ancestors, we’re recognizing them for their talent, for their fight, and we’re realizing through them, their struggles, and their fighting-if they can do it, we can as well.”
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Before the performances kicked off, booths outside the ballrooms were operated by many different people from the Carbondale community offering food, clothing, accessories and more for sale.
“We’re here to promote our businesses,” Imani McHenry said, one of the vendors with Black Men Need Hugs. “Right now we’re raising funds and selling tote bags for a scholarship that we do every year in the Carbondale community.”
However, there were also informational booths available. One of these was run by the local branch of the NAACP, providing information on voter registration, upcoming election dates and workshops available for the community. Linda Flowers, who was running the booth, greeted attendees with a smile.
“We do scholarships for high school students,” Flowers said. “And we have a writing workshop to help students with filling out their scholarship applications.”
She continued to say that she was taking advantage of the chance to give out information.
Flowers stated, “If people need to register to vote for the April 1 election, we have information here for that. This being the last week of Black History Month, we do a Black history scholar bowl here on campus, and the questions are all going to center around the Black history of southern Illinois and SIU. Even if you don’t have a team, you can come and observe, and I can guarantee that you will leave knowing some history of southern Illinois and SII-some Black history.”
The scholar bowl will be hosted Thursday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. Teams have already been submitted, but attendees are welcome to come and observe in the Cambria room at the SIU student center.
Staff Reporter Elias Wess can be reached at ewess@dailyegyptian.com. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook and on X @dailyegyptian.
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