“What do you want to do? What changes can you make to help move forward? What can we do as a community?” asked Black Student Union Vice President Ilona Bentsiwah. These were the questions at the core of the BSU’s annual Ebony Weekend, and its theme, Moving Forward.
On Feb. 28, UW-Platteville’s Black Student Union hosted its 21st annual Ebony Weekend. Organized into two programs, Ebony Weekend is a celebration of Black culture, history and excellence.
Ebony Weekend began as the Ebony Ball in the early 1970’s. The Ebony Ball was originally designed as a celebratory space for the BSU to create a safe place for Black students to feel comfortable, while encouraging community involvement from all communities. The Ebony Ball has run annually since then, and in 2005, the ball was expanded into Ebony Weekend.
As BSU President Queene Massey puts it, “BSU is a space where we can really have community. It’s our contribution to the university, opening this space up to everyone, and I think Ebony Weekend is a very concentrated part of that.”
This year marks the 100-year mark for the celebration of Black History Month. In honor of that, this year’s event was focused on the legacy of BSU alumni, past speakers, and others who contributed to today’s BSU. During the morning program, BSU hosted a breakout session featuring BSU board members, mostly alumni, and asked them to discuss what their experience was like as a President or Vice President of the BSU.
To conclude the morning program, the floor was opened up to keynote speaker Ajamou Butler. Butler is an activist and motivational speaker who founded Heal the Hood MKE in 2012 to create safer, healthier, and more connected neighborhoods in Milwaukee. “I feel like a lot of people feel like they’re stuck with everything going on in the world, and I think a lot of people don’t know how to move forward and continue their activism on a more attainable scale.” Stated Masse, “I think he is the perfect person to teach us that.”
Butler presented on Black excellence and the variety of forms it comes in. He detailed how Black excellence should not just be viewed as high academic achievement, but through doing what can be done, no matter the situation. One example he gave came from his time helping kids in Belize, where he described conditions as “300 degrees, all the time,” yet the kids still got up and walked 20-30 minutes to school just to get an education.
He also talked about how making small changes in someone’s life can help everyone. By helping someone up, you bring everyone up, and helping who you can, when you can, can make a world of difference.
The evening program for the event was the Ebony Ball, where guests were treated to dinner, entertainment, and dancing.
“Ebony Weekend is that perfect event, where we have community members, we have students on campus, and they’re all coming together.” Bentsiwah summarized, “We sit, enjoy each other’s space, enjoy each other’s time, listen to each other’s ideas…We leave feeling so much more accomplished.”