When third-year College student Markeytta Harrison needs a break from the stress of class, she turns to the Black Expression Awareness & Thoughts Society. Harrison, who currently serves as the president of B.E.A.T.S, explained that the contracted independent organization provides an artistic outlet and forum for expression.
"I joined B.E.A.T.S because I needed a place to express myself without judgment and be able to relax from my studies at least once a month," Harrison said in an email. "It was a place where I could laugh and enjoy myself for a brief moment before worrying about the countless things I needed to get done."
Harrison joined the organization her first year at the University, but said that by her second year, the club had disappeared because of poor management. Currently, she and her co-officers are working to revive B.E.A.T.S. by holding open mic nights once a month for students to come express themselves through poetry, music, hip-hop or song.
"It brings people together," co-vice president Peter Finn said. "Poetry is something very deep within. When someone shares their poetry, you automatically get to know them on a closer level."
Finn said he has been writing and performing his poetry since middle school. "I still get nervous sometimes, but that's just the excitement from sharing," he said. "The audience is always respectful."\nPeople's poetry deals with a variety of topics ranging from personal experiences to love and relationships to comedy, Finn explained.
Co-vice president Mariah Slade said her favorite thing about the club is watching other people perform. "The feeling I get when I watch someone perform - the emotion behind their face, their hand motions ... it's the feeling of [being] relatable, seeing someone share a dream, an experience," she said. "I guess you could call it passion."
Slade said she fell in love with poetry and song through B.E.A.T.S her first year, remembering in particular the performance of one girl whose poem struck her. "This one girl got up and poured her heart out about standards of beauty," Slade said.
Such a forum for non-judgmental expression is valuable, Finn said. Through sharing poetry, Finn said she thinks the club brings people closer together more than anything else at the University.
Slade agrees that B.E.A.T.S plays a crucial role in self-expression for students. "It's really critical to give African-Americans a voice here on campus," she said. "Certain students weren't always given a chance to discuss their ideas and perceptions of the University and culture. B.E.A.T.S gives minority students as well as everyone else a voice on a very large campus."
Every month, B.E.A.T.S hosts a "Lyric Caf
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