Members of the Undergraduate Black Caucus Student Experience committee pose after the 2024 Black Love Panel. From left to right: Jaida Moore, Akilah Jones, Mar’kia Williams, Samuela Osae, Jessica Asante-tutu, Brielle Shorter, Cydney Carter. Credit: Courtesy of Cydney Carter
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Undergraduate Black Caucus Student Experience Committee will host its second annual Black Love Panel Friday.
The event, formally titled “Love Island After Sun: Season 2 Black Love Panel,” will take place from 5:30-7 p.m. in the MLK Lounge of Hale Hall. The panel is inspired by the hit show “Love Island,” specifically since the last season’s winners, Kordell Beckham and Serena Page, are a Black couple who have stayed together since the season’s end.
“It’s season two because it’s the second time we’re doing it, and ‘After Sun’ because it’s ‘Love Island’ themed and it’s kind of like a talk show and we’ll be coming out with more content,” said Lauren Stafford, a first-year in political science and French, as well as a member of Black Caucus.
Mar’Kia Williams — the committee’s vice chair of policy — said the event will aim to create a safe space in which students can engage in open dialogue about love, self-discovery and relationships through the lens of the Black community.
Williams, also a second-year in criminology, Spanish and ASL, said she hopes the event will spark discussions about how the surface-level romances typically portrayed in media may not accurately represent all Black individuals’ experiences.
“It’s important to have Black representation on campus and Black love,” Williams said. “I think it can be very underrepresented, and we decided to have this event because it’s important to see ourselves in healthy relationships.”
Williams said the event will include eight diverse student panelists in order to accommodate an intersection of identities that are often excluded or overlooked in discussions about love, including those encompassed by the LGBTQ+ community.
“We have some people in relationships, some that just got out of relationships, some people with a religious aspect and some people from a queer representation, which we think is important — to have a diaspora of everybody that can be in relationships and showcase them,” Williams said.
The panel will also emphasize the significance of self-love and how it can be a foundation for a healthy relationship. Additionally, Williams said the ensuing discourse will focus on challenging stereotypes often imposed on Black relationships.
“I think taking away that stigma of Black people always growing up in one-parent households, and being young in college, it has a stigma around like, ‘We can’t be in relationships or they have to be toxic,’” Williams said. “I hope that people can take away that we, as Black people, can have these healthy relationships, healthy conversations and raise our children in two-parent households.”
The collective conversation will address several different topics, such as setting boundaries, “hot takes” and a designated Q&A segment.
“What I can tell you is that each question is very good and juicy because I know we talk about social media and a couple of hot takes to keep it entertaining,” Stafford said.
Students do not need to register to attend the event, and it is open to all, Williams said.
