02/29/08

Jazz music was the fare Sunday as people sat around and chatted, enjoying a meal prepared by the family of sophomore Di-Tu Dissassa.

Fried catfish, mashed potatoes, dressing and apple pie filled plates and mouths after a performance by the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

The dinner in the cafeteria Sunday marked the end of a weekend of Mungano-sponsored activity days.

“I’ve been looking forward to this,” junior Ron Atkinson said. “It was a great end to a great month of activities.”

The events hosted by Mungano highlighted the fact that February is Black History Month. One of the biggest events of the month was the poetry session led by Jamele Adams Friday night.

“They covered a lot of different topics. There was some history,” freshman Ryan Smart said. “Jamele Adams talked about real life events that had happened.”

The poetry session attracted all kinds of interest from students around campus. A large interest was due to the returning speaker, but many others came to watch their fellow students.

“The guy was really good, he made the poetry interesting,” freshman Sara Schwarz said. “The Baker poets were interesting too, and it was nice to hear some of your own perform.”

There were other events during the weekend besides the dinner and the poetry night. Smart said many people attended the diversity forum in the cafeteria Saturday.

“They brought in some couches,” Smart said. “They arranged them in an oval so people could talk to each other.”

People talked about many different subjects dealing with diversity. The subjects ranged from cafeteria seating arrangements to cliques and social groups.

“At the end, to show no hard feelings, everybody got up and gave each other a hug,” Smart said.

Adams wasn’t only at Baker for the Mungano activities. He also hosted a men’s workshop for anyone who wanted to come and talk.

“We talked about guy problems, everyday issues,” Atkinson said. “We discussed how we conduct ourselves in public and toward women as men.”

This wasn’t Atkinson’s first time meeting Adams.

“He came to Baker my freshman year,” Atkinson said. “He’s like more of a friend. The whole weekend would make my list of top three events at Baker this year.”