Several students enjoyed Monday night by coming together for food, music and games.
Jacob Summerville/The Lion's Roar

African American alumni and students came together during Homecoming Week to celebrate with food, music and games.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council hosted the 2017 annual “Black Family Reunion” on Oct. 2 from 7-10 p.m. The event included dance performances from members of the NPHC, card games set up on various tables, a projector set up to display Monday night football and music and food for attendees.

President of NPHC Timothy Davis, a senior consumer sciences major gave a run through of the preparation involved in hosting this event.

“The first thing that goes into planning is that we have to reserve the breezeway, we have to pay for the DJ, and we did the raffle this year,” said Davis. “There’s a lot of planning that goes into it. We had to reserve the speakers, the projector up there to project the Monday Night Football games. We had to buy a lot of things, the cards and the UNO. A lot of reserving and a lot of work to go into that.”

Davis also elaborated on the event’s origins and what changes have been made throughout the years.

“I believe it started as a role-reversal thing,” said Davis. “The sororities would act like the fraternities, and the fraternities would act like the sororities.  Then we always had a DJ. And then, it evolved on just that, a role-reversal. We wanted to add on more of a reunion feel, you know. We have the football, got the food, the music, the dominoes and the card games. So, we just wanted to make it more spiced up and a little more different.”

As the night went on, the scent of fresh food filled the air. Dwayne Smith Jr., a freshman communication major explained what he enjoyed most about the event.

“I like the performances on stage by the fraternities,” said Smith. “I also liked the part at the end when they went in a circle on the ‘S’ dancing.”

The night concluded with a raffle. The two prizes that were auctioned were a homecoming basket and a gift card. Davis discussed the events that night and the work that went into the setup.

“Worth it,” said Davis. “It’s because we do a lot of hard work on the back end as far as it’s concerned: reserving and doing work on the back end of the event. The public doesn’t see that. They just see us putting it together with the DJ and the stage and the food, but there’s a lot of work that goes into it. Sometimes, it stresses you out. And so, when it comes together, and you get a good crowd and people come enjoy themselves, then at the end of the night, you feel like it’s really worth it.”