UMD students paint and sip for activism
Students share their artwork after attending a paint and sip hosted by the University of Maryland College Park chapter of NAACP on Thursday, Nov. 21 at the Nyumburu Cultural Center. Students painted about subjects they wanted to bring awareness to. (Jaime Williams/The Black Explosion)
NAACP’s University of Maryland, College Park chapter, provided students with a different way to make their voices heard Thursday evening in a paint and sip at Nyumburu Cultural Center dedicated to activism.
Students were prompted to paint whatever comes to their mind that they can bring awareness to.
This event was one of the five events created by UMCP NAACPfor its Student Activist Awareness Week.
While this is SAAW’s third year, this is the first time the paint and sip was featured.
“The goal behind the event was to raise awareness for student activism,” said vice president of UMCP NAACP and junior information systems and operations management and business analytics double major, Tobi Olagunju.
Zahrah Siddiq, the chapter’s activism director and a sophomore kinesiology major, was responsible for the event. Siddiq wanted the event “to mean something important and also be interesting enough for people to actually come out.”
The event offered a variety of drinks, snacks and paint colors for its participants. While students painted, they enjoyed music from the African American culture such as Beyoncé’s “Lemonade”. Siddiq wanted this event to be mental health focused where students can relax while still keeping things activism centered.
The chapter’s executive board understood their plans to raise awareness for activism might scare students away because of its seriousness, so they wanted to combat that stigma.
“[We wanted attendees to] come hangout with us, have fun with us and be able to educate them at the same time,” said Erika Tarawallie, the chapter’s secretary and a junior public policy major.
Students used their paintings to bring awareness to a plethora of topics: Black women and their hair, the LGBTQ community, the Black Muslim community.
Amy Rivera, a freshman criminology and criminal justice and government and politics double major, said the event gave her a chance to decompress.
“[I] met some new people, was able to just chill out from the different things that I have to do throughout the day and just paint and listen to music,” Rivera said.
Freshman psychology major, Jade Bidjou said the event showed her different ways activism could be done.
“I would’ve never thought to use painting as a way for activism,” Bidjou said.