Dim lights. She walks onto the stage. Center, stop. Front, stop.

Near tears, Jennifer Cooper lets the small audience know how she feels about the effects of drug abuse on families.

Cooper, a junior family and consumer sciences major, is one of five Miss Black EIU contestants participating in this year’s Black Student Union-sponsored pageant.

Cooper will walk the T-shaped stage at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union after several nights of practice.

Cooper, a 20-year-old South Side Chicago native, joined the lineup after attending last year’s pageant in awe, she said.

“I loved what I saw,” said Cooper. “It’s not about how good you look in a swim suit.”

The pageant focused more on the inside than the outside, and how intelligent or talented each participant is, she said.

A group of supporters form a team that cheer Cooper on, help prepare her for competition and perform with her, including Miss Black EIU 2005 Stephanie Johnson; April Salter, a senior athletic training major; Candace Pettis, a senior communication studies major and Shanta McKay, senior social sciences major.

The contestants will open the show with a choreographed introduction dance.

During practice, Cooper danced with a smile on her face. She giggled when she made a mistake, and then immediately jumped back in.

Jennifer Ether, a junior journalism major and pageant director, led the participants through a steady, peaceful African dance to the music of Beyonce’s “Wishing on a Star,” the theme of the pageant.

“Pose five, pose six, pose seven, pose eight, pose one,” Ether said, helping the contestants hit their final positions at the front of the main stage before starting the entire process over.

Cooper, joked with another contestant and began to “vogue,” deciding which pose she wanted to use, then dutifully walked back to the line to start the dance again.

The girls practiced for African Garment, a portion of the competition where the contestants present themselves in homemade African-style clothing.

The music began, and three dancers honored Cooper, who was playing an African queen.

She rose from her throne, surrounded by unlit candles.

As she walked slowly downstage, “Coach” Pettis demonstrated several arm and hand poses for her to try.

Cooper’s speech could be heard over the sound system, with rhythmic African beats in the background.

She continued to the front of the T-stage – pose, turn, turn, pose – then side stepped to the right – repeat – and again to the left – repeat.

She made her way back to the center, as Pettis and Ether walked her every step of the way.

Slowly, Cooper moved backward, arms moving gracefully, and looked at the area where the judges will sit during the competition.

She stopped just at the beginning of the catwalk with her proud pose and confident smile as if to say “I am the queen already,” until her approximately three-to-five-minute speech was complete.

Cooper’s talent performance was up, and she had decided against her original act, a performance of “When You’re Good to Momma” by Queen Latifa. The song from the Broadway motion picture “Chicago” proved to be a little more difficult than she anticipated, but encouragement from her team and Ether convinced her to stick with it. Saturday, she will have Eastern’s Concert Band backing her up.

Cooper has to grab a large audience’s attention and make her presence known and memorable, Pettis said.

Toward the end of practice, most of the contestants rested, chatted or watched as each competitor walked onto the stage to review her act. Cooper was nowhere to be found.

She was with Pettis, practicing more.

Between stage times, she practiced in the lobby, a conference room and anywhere there was space.

Pageant practices are long, beginning at 6 p.m. and running until the Grand Ballroom closes its doors for the night.

Even after the official practice finished at 10:45 p.m., Cooper and her team met at McKay’s home to continue practicing.

The team worked on Cooper’s talent, changed some of the words and choreography, and worked on her African garment.

Many times Cooper would express her feelings of stress and doubt, then put on a smile and perform anyway.

“I am strong. I am proud,” she said. ” I am victorious. I am Black. I am a woman.”