As Black History Month is coming to a close, the University Board and Black Student Union, BSU, collaborated on an event entitled, ‘Hip Hop Paint and Sip.’ This event took place in the Martin Luther King Jr. Union’s University Ballroom at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

This event included a photo booth, raffles, games for prizes, music, and refreshments.

They had canvases featuring Black celebrities like Bob Marley, Nipsey Hussle, and even Rihanna while also providing blank canvases for those to paint their own art as well.

This event was created by Human Potential Coordinator, Mia Smith, who is also the secretary for the University Board. Smith is a junior majoring in Health Administration while also serving as the Secretary for BSU.

“I chose to do the Hip-hop paint and sip during Black History Month because as an African American painting is peaceful.” Smith said.

Smith also went on to talk about how Black students were able to paint people that look just like them.

This also took lots of planning and communication between both organizations to make this event as successful as it was.

Hannah Lawrence, a sophomore majoring in nursing, who is the administrative assistant for BSU gave me insight on how it was planning this event.

“Planning events like this take weeks of budgeting, purchasing supplies, decorations and overall ensuring a clear layout of the event,” Lawrence said.

Smith also felt like budgeting effectively and figuring out who’s doing what was a difficult part of the process in order to have a successful event.

“Figuring out the budgeting plan and who was paying for what was the challenging part of it,” Smith said. “The theme was easy to work with. I think the event went over [smoothly] and I was able to meet with the planning crew easily as well.”

As the event continued, prizes were raffled off every so often and games were being played like Finish the Lyrics and Black History Month Trivia.

Students were also seen painting, eating and having fun in the midst of all of this.

Jabria Campbell, a junior majoring in criminology, was at the event painting and moving to the music.

“The music was good and set a good vibe and the paintings were fun to paint,” Campbell said. “And I liked how they had different options as far as what and/or who you wanted to paint.”

Campbell also liked how the members of both registered student organization made the event enjoyable for students to enjoy each other’s company and vibe with each other.

They also loved how this event celebrated Black culture with its Black population at EIU.

Campbell said, “I feel like the event in all facets showed the greatness and importance of Black culture to all of the diverse people that attended this event.”

They also felt like the music being played represented some high points in black culture and brought most attendees “nostalgia from [the] best moments in our lives like cookouts and birthday parties.”

BSU will be putting on one last event in honor of Black History Month entitled, ‘Bring it Black’, which will be held in the MLK Jr Union’s University Ballroom on February 25 at 7 p.m. It will be a Union party with music, special performances, and more.

Christina Holman can be reached at 581-2812 or at clhoman@eiu.edu.