by Ben Quach ’27
Led by Fredo Djacga ’24 and Mr. Facione, Bellarmine’s Black Student Union (BSU) brings a community of African American students together. In roughly the span of the past month, they have held two events that I’d like to touch upon.
On Sunday, February 4th, they held an event focusing on Black culture. A total of about 150 BSU members, parents, faculty/staff members, and community members attended. Following a drum performance by Robel Elias ’25, Charlie Noller ’24, and Tyler Stafford ’24, students delivered presentations on notable Black alumni and community members. They also shared part of Black culture, such as food, dance, and music.
To top it off, the Senior Stoles presented in honor of the seniors for their four year accomplishments of finishing their time here at Bellarmine.
The other event: the African American Read-In was organized by Mr. Henry and held on February 29th. “It went well because the people who wanted to participate were there,” said Mr. Henry, “It’s just one of those things that helps us celebrate African American culture and history on campus.”
The Read-In’s theme was “Truth,” not the truth, rather the truth of African Americans. “I come up with a theme every year. The reason this (theme) resonates with me is because so many stories, and untrue things have been said about African Americans, or perceptions about how smart we are, how we’re all super athletic, and all this other stuff, maybe aggressive, or what those stories are. And so, our response – African American’s response – to that has pretty universally been to say, ‘No. This is how I see myself, this is how we see ourselves,” Mr. Henry reflected.
Many students and staff members participated in the event. Mr. Pinkston, a former faculty member, read an excerpt from Frederick Douglass’ “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” Will Halapua ’24 played “The Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke. Other speakers included Mr. Ferrari, Ms. Wendy Phillips, Mr. Jimenez, Fr. Mario, Nathan Palmore ’24, and other student readers.
Mr. Henry shared the poetic lyric video of the song “In Tune” by Robert Glasper. “He’s a contemporary jazz musician. The poem was written after George Floyd died. It’s very heartfelt about the effects of that and the truth that was revealed…for the speaker in the poem, about himself, and then about African Americans, as a sort of redemptive quality that we have through music…Black musicians, in particular, are the ones who, according to the poem, speak the truth through their music.
Mr. Henry also shared that the theme for next year’s African American Read-In will be “The Music of Our Lives,” reflecting the importance music plays in the history of African Americans. “Music is so much a part of who we are and what we’ve contributed to the world.”
Looking to the coming months, one thing Mr. Henry looks forward to is BSU’s Fair Welcome, which he started almost 15 years ago. They welcome the incoming African American freshmen and their parents. They are introduced to the graduating seniors “who are African American, either in BSU or BSU-adjacent.” They get to “just meet these guys who made it. It’s really cool to be able to do that. Because there’s really just a handful of African Americans. It’s more than it used to be, but it’s just not that big. And so, it’s really meaningful to those guys who have survived Bellarmine, thrived at Bellarmine, to be able to say ‘Hey, this is who I am now. This is what I want to be doing out in the world later on.”
I asked Mr. Facione about his favorite part or most exciting thing to see in BSU. He told me that “the BSU has done a remarkable job this year of reinvigorating itself through student effort coming out of COVID. We had a remarkable potluck attended by over 150 people, followed up by an overnight retreat in which the young men got to hear from notable alumni about their experiences both at Bellarmine and after college. I am very proud of the student leadership this year and look forward to see what else we can do in the coming years.” When asked the same question, Mr. Henry answered that “the most exciting thing for me is to see these students grow in their time that they’re here…Some Black students have come from schools where they’re the only Black student at their school (and) some have come from schools that had few more African Americans, so their experience here is very different – to be connected to a group (and) say, “Oh wow, there’s 40 African American students,” along with “having Black teacher and stuff like that. So, that’s really exciting to me, in general, as an educator, to just see how young people grow and mature and become their own people. That’s really exciting to me, and I identify, of course, with Black students, because I was a Black student. I’m still kind of a (Black student) – I’m still Black, and I’m also still a student of life.”