A disco ball shined and bedazzled the Duke Ellington Ballroom and music filled the air as NIU Prism held its annual Queer Prom.
With the theme of this year’s Queer Prom being “Shipwrecked,” students and staffers of NIU gathered in the Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center with some dressed as pirates.
From 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, many activities were available for prom goers such as face painting, pride flag and pirate hat making stations, a photo area with props and music with a spacious dance floor.
Tables were decorated with seashells and treasure chests filled with candy and chocolate coins. A projector showed images of mermaids, sea creatures and other underwater treasures on a projector screen on stage.
Meghan Harms, a nursing major and the president of Prism, explained the purpose of Queer Prom is to give the queer community a safe space and a chance to have prom if they haven’t experienced it before.
“It’s really just a place to center queer people because a lot of us didn’t have opportunities like this in high school, because, you know, no one likes high school,” Harms said. “And so having the space where people can just experience something that they didn’t experience before.”
Food and other refreshments were also provided such as water, mocktails, pizza and charcuterie boards filled with fruits, crackers and vegetables.
Jo Pollock, a psychology sophomore, said they came to the event thanks to a friend.
“I’m with, she’s more into, like, just things on campus, and she talked about it, and I told her that I really wanted to go.” Pollock said
Seth Morgan, a sophomore majoring in nonprofit and NGO studies, said he decided to go Queer Prom after seeing a post about it on Instagram.
“I saw the thing on prism Instagram, sent it to him (Morgan’s Partner) and forced him to take off school for it. We made our little pirate hats already. This is dope, I was not expecting it, and we’re about to make our little pride flags,” Morgan said.
For future events hosted by Prism, you can visit its Instagram account or its NIU event calendar.
