With many missing the liveliness on campus, Sacramento City College’s Black Student Union (BSU) –– an academically empowering student club for Black students –– sought to bring back the experience in the form of a talent show on Tuesday, Nov. 21.
The vibrant community-led talent show, titled “Ebony Aura,” pulls inspiration from previous talent shows that were hosted pre-pandemic: high energy, authentic, and, most importantly, a space for students to express themselves with the talent they wanted to share. The talent show had three main performers who sang: Paul Skinner III, Serenity Bentley and Verane Ngassam. Hip-hop artist Yumz Awkword appeared as the featured artist.
“With Ebony Aura, I saw this as an opportunity to show my talents and have fun,” said Paul Skinner III, a BSU member and free-writing poet. The singer-poet saw this opportunity to bring joy to Black students on campus in light of the recent presidential election. Skinner III observed that everyone in his environment “was kind of tensed up,” so he wanted to perform with the purpose of singing songs that could inspire the people but also calm them.
With this outcome in mind, he opened the talent show by performing the song “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar. The intimate but lively crowd of attendees, performers and BSU leaders could not help but belt in unison, “We gon’ be alright! Do you hear me? Do you feel me? We gon’ be alright!” Any sense of reservation had dissipated after the first verse.
The event organizers introduced a “kickback” vibe, unlike an event where guests enter, enjoy the refreshments and anticipate a performance. Instead, attendees were called up to the stage to participate in competitive games, with each round raising the stakes to win BSU merchandise and a raffle of items that reflect the club’s five pillars, which include things like promoting the unification and solidarity of Black students for problem-solving, and to represent and involve Black students in political and community matters.
This experience caused a positive experience for the attendees to enter as acquaintances and leave as community members.
The previous City College BSU regularly organized Ebony Aura, a monthly event that provided a safe space and platform for Black local Sacramento artists to showcase their skills and express themselves. The new BSU has the same core intentions and hopes to make this event an ongoing tradition.
“We knew we had to bring it back just because of the energy and [authenticity] that was there,” said Treasurer Jordin Hinton.
