Hundreds of students, alumni, faculty and staff gathered at Covel Commons on Oct. 28 to celebrate Black excellence at UCLA.

UCLA’s annual Black Convocation, coordinated by organizations including the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and the Black Bruin Resource Center, featured speeches, presentations and performances highlighting Black Bruins’ accomplishments.

At the event, leaders from campus organizations, including the Afrikan Student Union, Black Graduate Students Association, UCLA Black Alumni Association, and Black Staff & Faculty Association also welcomed new UCLA admits and returning community members.

Paris Tesfu, a first-year pre-public affairs student, said she felt the sense of belonging the convocation provided to Black students, especially as a new Bruin exploring a new college environment.

“At such a big school, it’s easy to feel lost, … but this event felt like home,” Tesfu said. “This event reminded me that there is a community here, and there’s space for me and everyone.”

Mike Brown, the interim director of the BBRC, said the event’s theme, “Celebrating Black Joy,” was a reminder to find positivity in the face of personal and societal struggles.

“It was easy to come to Black Joy, especially with everything that’s gone on in the world over the past year,” Brown said. “Let’s take a little joy and meet some people and build some new friendships and relationships.”

The event featured performances by the Children of Production Los Angeles’ drumline and the Elegant Bruinettes, a campus danceline team. Following the performances, keynote speaker Bryonn Bain – a professor of African American Studies, dance, law and world arts and cultures, as well as founder of the Prison Education Program – gave a spoken word performance on the importance of defining one’s own identity and finding pride in Black culture.

Bain said UCLA offers opportunities for attendees to spark change through engaging with PEP, which offers young people and women who are incarcerated with educational opportunities to take classes alongside students as well as engage in theater and arts performances.

[Related: ‘Art changes lives’: Prison Education Program at UCLA hosts poetry recital]

Bain also encouraged students to enroll in the PEP’s quarterly courses, as the organization has been hosting field trips to prisons since 2015 to broaden incarcerated individuals’ perceptions of the power of higher education.

Chris Spencer – a UCLA alumnus and an actor, writer and director said in a speech that there is a need to foster community among Black students. Spencer also said aspiring students should engage in collaboration and take initiative within their local communities to achieve their dreams in the entertainment industry.

Yayabell Debay, a graduate student, said she felt reassured when she learned Black alumni including Spencer found their footing in the competitive film industry. She added that she often felt overlooked as a graduate student. However, the event provided her a helpful career network.

“It’s through these events that we can meet people and learn who we want to collaborate with in the future,” Debay said.

Cicely Bingener, a UCLA alumnus, said she felt out of place as a person of color on campus in the late ’90s. She added that witnessing a 1996 proposition banning affirmative action in California higher education made her feel disheartened during her graduate studies.

However, upon Bingener’s return for her doctorate, she was pleasantly surprised with the creation of events that promoted equity and inclusivity such as the Black Convocation. Bingener added that encountering faculty committed to social justice and multiracial democracy made UCLA, as a public institution, feel more like the people’s university.

“You are not just a stakeholder, but a shareholder,” Bingener said. “So walk on this campus, come to this campus, claim this campus – even if you’re not a student at this campus yet, or you weren’t, or whatever – it’s your university.”