The Legion of Black Collegians started its annual Black Love Week on Sunday and has events planned for each day of the week.
The theme of the week is “Black Love is Self Love,” an idea Activities Chairman Jeffery Perkins said he came up with.
“I think self-love is important,” Perkins said. “As black people, we have to love ourselves so we can respect ourselves and then respect others.”
The first event of the week was a brunch on Sunday featuring poetry from Rikki Byrd and sophomore Naomi Daugherty. Daugherty said their poem was untitled.
“The poem was written as a letter to our mothers,” Daugherty said. “I wanted to use our own battles with self-acceptance to acknowledge the stories of other women and young girls. My hope was to articulate how sometimes we all lose sight of our greatness because of the discouragement of society, but we are all still powerful beyond measure.”
During the brunch, the newly elected executive board members were introduced, and President-elect Marnae Chavers gave a speech at the end discussing her goals for next year. President Greer Relphorde also gave a speech, and Perkins said it was an emotional time.
The organization hosted a body positivity event on Monday, working with the Craft Studio and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. During the event, students were able to make bags out of T-shirts and buttons with sayings such as “Riot! Don’t Diet!” and “I love my body.”
Junior Jamila Burton, who is a member of the sorority, said she tweeted about the event and tried to increase support for it. Burton made a T-shirt bag and said she planned to write personal things on it like her name and smiley faces.
Sophomore Renita Holder, a member of the activities committee, said the event was about self-love and positive body image.
“(It’s about) creating things with positive thoughts for people to have something they can carry with them to show they love themselves,” Holder said.
Holder said she plans to attend all of the events and is especially excited about the community service event on Saturday.
“Giving back is what I like to do,” Holder said.
Korian Harrington, a current LBC general body member and past executive board member, said this week has a lot of diversity compared to weeks in the past.
“This week should benefit everyone on campus, not just one group,” Harrington said.
LBC will host events each day this week. Tuesday’s event in Memorial Student Union is titled “Do You Love You?: Self-Hate in the Black Community.” It will feature poet Hadeel Ramadan and free Chipotle for the first 30 people, according to the LBC website.
On Wednesday, the organization will show the movie “Pariah” in Wrench Auditorium. The movie is about a young female dealing with her identity as a lesbian, according to the LBC website.
Thursday’s event is “What Does Black Love Mean to You?” in the Multicultural Center. According to the website, there will be McAlister’s Deli for the first 25 people.
Students will be able to make poster boards in the Student Center on Friday with the theme “My Black Love is…” Perkins said the posters will either be put up in the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center or in the LBC office.
Saturday, the organization will volunteer at the Central Missouri Food Bank, with students meeting at 8:45 a.m at the center, according to the website.
There will also be a barbecue on Saturday in collaboration with Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. at Cosmo-Bethel Park.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun interacting with the students (at the barbecue) on Saturday,” Harrington said.
Perkins said the week is exciting but also stressful. He said it’s his last big event as activities chairman and, to him, it is sentimental.
“I’m doing this for the campus; I’m not doing this for myself,” Perkins said. “It’s my last hurrah as activities chair.”
