Club Feature: Club Feature: Come Join BSA
(Everyone)!
Gabrielle Cayenne and Tirzah Thomas, ‘21’s
BSA? What is it? Where is it? When is it? BSA stands for the Black Student Alliance. It is a club that has created and maintained a safe space for Black students at Bard. It is run by Gabrielle Cayenne and Tirzah Thomas (Presidents of the club), and advised by Professor Riviere.
Many of your black peers had to go through major transitions while attending Bard. It is no secret that for quite a long time Bard has and still is a predominantly white school. Many of your peers went from being in a class where representation of themselves was prominent to being the only black person in a class at BHSEC. Sometimes that can be extremely difficult, so it is also no secret that many students have experienced racism while attending this school. Because of this, we have made it our responsibility to curate this safe space for your peers and for you as well.
It is important to note that our club is called Black Student Alliance and not “Black Student Union.” We leave the space open for our allies. We listen to our allies. We appreciate our allies. It is important to us to give some space for our allies as well. Anyone and everyone is welcome to BSA. As a result, don’t be hesitant to come whenever. If you still aren’t sure about attending our meetings right away, you can still be added to our email list for updates or just to see what’s happening. We want this year to be an amazing one despite the circumstances. The BLACKOUT is one of our most honorable events that we plan annually. It is an event in honor of Black History Month that is in collaboration with ASO (African Student Organization) and LASO (Latin American Student Organization). If the status of Covid allows us to still host this amazing event, you won’t want to miss it and being a part of it is even more worthwhile!
Sometimes we also host joint meetings with other clubs such as JSA (Jewish Student Alliance) and GSA (Gender Sexuality Alliance). This not only allows us to come together through the awareness of intersectionality, but this also enables a chance to hear from new perspectives and to meet some amazing people!
As for where we will be meeting, it was originally in a fifth floor classroom but considering our situation, we plan to continue meetings through Zoom. Our meetings are on Tuesdays after school but that may be open to change given the circumstances. However, we will surely email you all of this information so do not worry. Hopefully by 2021 we can all see each other in person, but that is all up to Covid and if it wants to see us thrive. Make sure to email Gabrielle or Tirzah for more information on BSA and if you have any questions. Our emails are Gc603m@bhsec.bard.edu and tt148m@bhsec.bard.edu. Our advisor’s email is priviere@bhsec.bard.edu. We are so excited to see you all again and to meet all you new faces!!