The Northwestern Community Ensemble Performance Group sings Sunday at Alice Millar Chapel.
Members of the Theta Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Sorority, Inc. and others blow out candles at the end of a vigil commemorating lost black lives.
Soul4Real, Northwestern's premiere African American a cappella group, performs at a candlelight vigil for lost black lives Sunday.
On Sunday night, about thirty Northwestern students attended a candlelight vigil for lost Black lives in Alice Millar Chapel. The Theta Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Sorority, Inc. hosted the event as part of Northwestern’s two-week long Black Lives Matter initiative and to get people thinking about race-based violence.
“We’ve always had a passion for social justice and we’ve tried to align ourselves with social justice movements, specifically with the black community,” Theta Alpha member Danielle Harris said, “so we thought maybe the vigil would be a good way to honor black lives and give people a moment to reflect.”
The vigil featured performances from the Northwestern Community Ensemble Performance Group and Soul4Real, NU’s African American a cappella group. In between Theta Alpha members reading the names of those lost to race-based, gender-based, or sexuality-based violence in the last six months and the performances, members also read various poems relating to the subject.
“I thought the performances were great,” Communications sophomore Sydney Joseph said. “I have plenty of friends that were in the groups and I think they did an awesome job. They were very moving and very powerful.”
After reading all of the names, Theta in the audience lit their candles by passing along the flame to their neighbors. A moment of silence followed, and then everyone blew out their candles and the sorority president finished the ceremony by encouraging everyone to take their passion for the cause out past the night’s event and into the broader community.
“I’m grateful that Northwestern as a whole has started to acknowledge that the black students on this campus are hurting,” Weinberg sophomore Kali Williams said, “and I think it’s important to show up for programming like this so Northwestern knows we want this to continue to happen.”