Culture center conference promotes community

By Allie Blood

Published Nov. 6, 2007

The Association for Black Culture Centers Conference ended Sunday, but organizers and presenters said they hope the conference will have lasting effects on college and university campuses.

MU played host to the 17th annual conference, which is attended by teachers and students from colleges and universities around the nation. Participants could attend lectures, movies, plays and workshops during the weekend.

TJ Mercer, a Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center staff member, said the main theme of the weekend was to put together the role of black culture centers, especially focusing on how they can help students of other minority groups on a predominantly white campus.

"Our main goal is to promote diversity, whether its cultures like Indian or Asian or African, and we want to get that message out," Mercer said.

Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center director Nathan Stephens hosted one of the seminars, and a panel of students from MU sponsored a panel discussion on how different minority groups could help each other.

Other seminars were aimed at professors, focusing on new leadership styles to implement at their centers.

"There are some traditional leadership styles that don't work best for people our age," Mercer said.

James Stewart, a professor at The Pennsylvania State University, spoke about various areas in which black culture centers can improve to increase campus diversity. He encouraged students to become more active in efforts to aid the community. He also said students should work to promote a feeling of community on campuses.

Stewart also addressed issues such as HIV and AIDS in the black community. He encouraged professors to merge age gaps in communities by making an effort to understand the younger generation.

Nzingha Dugas, multicultural student development director at University of California-Berkeley, attended Stewart's seminar.

"We need to stress more scholarly work," Dugas said. "Classes should connect to the community."

Mercer said his favorite part of the weekend was the presentation by spoken word poet Freedom Speaks.

"She is very powerful and makes you think," Mercer said.

Speaks said she applied to speak at the conference in order to teach students the power of spoken word poetry.

"This is a good atmosphere where I can help them on a larger scale," Speaks said.

Mercer said about 200 people attended the conference this year. Because of the high turnout, volunteers from the MU Multicultural Center, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Legion of Black Collegians and the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center staff had to set up, drive shuttles from the Holiday Inn Select Executive Center and prepare technology for presentations, he said.

An ABCC panel chose MU to play host to the event based on an application and presentation by Stephens, Mercer said. In previous years, the event has been held at Vanderbilt University, Kent State University and Knox College, where the ABCC was founded.