Black Male Agenda Journey into the Past Unveils Present, Future

By Armand Hodge

Here we are in our fifth week of school and everyone has pretty much got situated.  Many organizations on campus have already begun hosting campus events and accepting members.  Then there's Black Male Agenda.  One of the first events put on by BMA is "Who Am I: The rise of the kimet god and goddess." 

The program began with a brief and very interesting performance.  The lights dimmed and one of the members of BMA sang a very familiar Negro spiritual.  "Who Am I" shows how positive young African Americans come to college and soon become corrupted by the life of the college atmosphere.  A creative second scene of the performance showed a typical atmosphere in a college bookstore during the first week of school.  Everything might seem to be going well, but as the performance goes on, things become darker.  The third scene shows us how a normal freshman might seem good, but slowly becomes corrupted by the life of drugs.  The fourth scene shows us that a college freshman female conversing with the opposite sex.  During this time in a young woman's life her hormones are at its peak.  As usual everything might seem to be going well, but once again the woman falls into corruption.  Not wanting to give up her body to have sex, he leaves her.  Her best friend at the time seems to be alcohol. 

One thing all these characters had in common was that they all started out vibrant and intelligent, but eventually fell.  The last scene shows us how two of the main characters are at rock bottom.  Both are seen stretched out on tables looking lost. The young man and woman have forgotten who they are.  Realizing what they have to lose and what they need to gain, they must stand strong and get up.  By doing so they can realize who they are.  The performance ends with the young man and woman walking down the steps of CLT 102 taking their seats in the audience of "Who Am I"

     After a brief introduction of Black Male Agenda members, the audience was given a brief history lesson and taken on a journey of ancient kimet.  Some people and things mentioned in the lesson are the success of the great kimet civilization, and one of the ancient queens herself Cleopatra.  At the end of the lesson the audience is asked "Who are we?"  A second lesson is given to the audience.  This time the lesson given is about the creation of some of the world's greatest structures were created by black people.  Some of the structures were the pyramids and the sphinx.  Also included in the lesson was "The African Holocaust" in which thousands of African people lives were taken away from them.  The third lesson given to the audience was the lingering effect of racist acts perpetrated against African-American people.

The "Who Am I?" event showed the audience of primarily African-American students how to shoulder their responsibilities and embrace their heritage.  But most of all it presented the message that African Americans should recognize not only their value as an individual, but as an member of an accomplished race of people.