Nico Rivera
Features Editor
On April 18, the Black Women’s Organization (BWO) threw a “Soft Life Soireé” in Lowry’s Allen Commons. The event, centered around “wellness at play,” promoted self-care, relaxation and community activities. The soireé provided food for students to enjoy, karaoke, face masks and skin care products. Dána M. Langford was invited as the event’s keynote speaker, and Caydence Walker ’28 (BWO’s event planner) sat on a discussion panel with Kerstin Vaughn, visiting assistant professor of theatre and dance and Miriam Kilimo, assistant professor of Africana Studies. Langford, originally from Cleveland, is the CEO and founder of the Village of Healing, which is “a community development organization focused on healing and empowering the village to eliminate social determinants of health and decrease disparities,” according to their website.
The panel speakers discussed a wide range of topics, including the political representation of Black women. Kilimo, whose research has focused on modern politics of gender in Africa, spoke about the experience of seeing Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign. “When some young girl saw Kamala Harris was running for president, that becomes an inspiration,” said Kilimo. “This is a possibility, right? So I’m very committed to seeing more representation of women in these political spaces. In seeing that, it opens your mind to know that there’s a possibility that ‘I can also do this.’”
Vaughn spoke during the panel about attempts at diverse representation in entertainment and industry, while remaining cautious about the motivations of firms such as Mattel and Target, who have launched products aimed at improving diversity of identities. “I think it’s really great that we’re seeing these attempts at representation in this big corporate setting,” Vaughn explained. She added, “I’m often skeptical when large capitalist patriarchal institutions are trying to do a thing, and it often feels very performative. At the end of the day, it’s still a corporation doing corporation things … to try to find the answer in an institution like that, you won’t, but it is a part of this solution. And who else can be a part of that solution? How can we support the more local, smaller companies?”
The panel also discussed the theme of the event, “play,” its personal significance and how it can be redefined. Vaughn explained that “we have some really specific ideas of what play is, right? We think about self-care things that become this big ‘to-do’ list that appears more tedious than joyful. I think taking the idea of a product off of any activity can then make that play, where it’s goalless. The process of doing it was the play. I like to paint sometimes, the fact whether or not it’s beautiful at the end of it isn’t the important part.”