At the Center for Black Studies, 15 people gathered for a game-show-style experience in honor of LGBTQ+ rights in Black history.
At 11 a.m. Tuesday, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) and the Center for Black Studies (CBS) co-hosted “Black! Queer! Excellence! Game Show!” in the CBS Classroom.
The game show matched this theme by providing a game of team trivia of important Black LGBTQ+ figures throughout history.
Students were put into teams and given a chance to guess important figures by being given trivia clues and writing their answers on a piece of scratch paper. Each team competed against each other to answer the most questions first with the least amount of hints.
The top three teams who earned the most points had the opportunity to win prizes. These prizes included books by famous queer Black authors, notebooks and a coloring book featuring important Black LGBTQ+ individuals.
Trivia questions included things such as date or place of birth, occupation or historical achievements.
This event was part of a continuing effort by both centers to foster community and cross-collaboration.
GSRC Associate Director Sam Glaab-Lanigan thinks collaboration is essential for the center to assist in promoting awareness.
“From my perspective, the reason that this was important was that for so long there have intersections of Black queer people, and I think that their excellence has been highlighted in history,” Glaab-Lanigan said. “I think it was a great learning moment to bring our two centers together to have an event like this.”
Glaab-Lanigan also said the GSRC wanted to have an activity that was more interactive, so they made the game show to bring in more students and have fun.
The event was part of the CBS’s and NIUs celebration of Black Heritage Month, with a theme of celebrating Black Excellence (commemorating the 100 year of Black Heritage Month in the U.S.)
According to Christopher Mitchell, director for the Center for Black Studies, events like this are vital for the center and NIU community.
“The lived collaborations and the necessity of building together, being able to encourage student growth, learning and understanding increases and enhances with students and the impact of learning,” Mitchell said.
The next main event for Black Heritage Month is the movie night at the Egyptian Theatre, located at 135 N. Second St.
The event is hosted by the CBS and is free and open to all. The movie that will be playing is “42,” which follows the story of Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play in the MLB. Doors open at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
The GSRC’s next event is “Navigating the Workplace While Queer” at 4:30 p.m. on March 3 in the GSRC office. The event is a panel about being queer in the work place as is hosted by the NIU Speakers Bureau. This event is free and open to all.
