LEC Hosts 1st Black Excellence Fair

Leadership Equity Council (LEC) and the Black Student Union (BSU) hosted a celebration of Black excellence in the quad on February 28. In honor of Black History Month’s conclusion, students enjoyed live music from the orchestra, a selection of literature by Black authors, Diversity Dispatch issues, and complimentary pamphlets, pins, bracelets, and candy.

Being a relatively new class on campus, the Black History Month fair was LEC’s 1st large-scale event. LEC member senior Daylin Atwood said, “We were really excited to put on this 1st big event by LEC. We’ve coordinated with other groups before, but this one we really took charge of.”

Senior Namratha Kasalanati, an LEC and orchestra member, was 1st inspired to invite the orchestra to play at the event after working on a piece by the Black composer Florence Price. “I was like, ‘We should combine music and leadership and get an event there.’ And that’s kind of what started the thing,” she said.

Atwood said, “The main event was the orchestra playing a few numbers from composers of color. It was very short notice for the orchestra players, but they did a great job at coming together and practicing their pieces outside of school times so they could be ready for us.”

Kasalanati added, “I have to give a shoutout to our tech team because we got that whole tech system set up in 40 minutes…I think having the music there, having a whole crowd of Campo musicians come out to support and be out there was really impressive.”

From there, LEC decided to explore the arts as a whole, and librarian Sarah Morgan was asked to compile a collection of books by Black authors to be displayed on a cart. Morgan said, “The Black Excellence books were books by Black authors, biographies about famous Black people, fiction books with Black characters…They reminded the students that Black Excellence is everywhere in our lives and at our school.”

Some featured authors included Jayson Reynolds, Jacqueline Woodson, Nicola Yoon, Nic Stone, and Angie Thomas, all “young, very active Black authors who are publishing new books at least once a year,” said Morgan.

“Seeing the books on the quad reminded students that books are for everywhere and everyone, not just in a library. It reminded folks that books are very portable and easy to pack in your backpack and read at any opportunity,” said Morgan.

In hosting the fair in the quad, the bustling center of Campolindo’s campus, LEC hoped to bring the celebration of Black excellence straight to the student body. Kasalanati said, “It kind of brings it into the mainstream because that’s the center of the school and a lot of people hang out there. By bringing everyone there and saying, ‘Hey, we’re celebrating Black excellence right here, right where you can see it,’ it brings Black to excellence to people rather than making them choose whether they want to subscribe to it in a sense.”

Due to the fair’s turnout and positive response from the community, LEC hopes to host more events in the future. Though tackling an event of this magnitude may have been daunting, the abundance of volunteers ready to help showed the group that they are capable of launching even larger events.

“Next time, maybe we could take it even further – collaborate with multiple music groups, bring in the choir, add in other features, maybe make it multiple days. I definitely foresee us doing some type of celebration in the future, like making this kind of an annual thing,” said Kasalanati.

Atwood added, “We definitely plan on doing more events like this for various affinity months, we think it was a great success.”

If you’re interested in accessing some of the literary titles featured at the fair, visit the Campo Library to check out books like Concrete Rose, Odd One Out, Long Way Down, and more. Morgan also encourages readers to follow @ms.smorgan on Instagram for more book and library news.