To celebrate culture and diversity, three student organizations under the Black and African Coalition at ASU will join forces in hosting their annual fashion show April 22.
With a goal to collaborate more within BAC, Students Taking Action to Reach Success, Black Artists and Designers and Zaria have teamed up to host their annual fashion show. Through displaying local artists' designs and businesses, the show will aim to put emphasis on culture to bring awareness to the local artists within Arizona and promote their clothing.
“We do like to have ethnic and cultural pieces as well. We add African clothing, or we’ll have Ethiopian clothing,” sociology junior and BAD president Jasmine Baker said. “It’s to bring awareness to different cultures within the community and to kind of see, ‘Oh, we have these types of individuals here.’”
Though the three student organizations under BAC have a predominantly black and African-American attendance, their organizations and the show are open to anyone.
Interdisciplinary junior and STARS co-president Allyson Caballero said they work to give their events a purpose. Fashion, she said, is one art form that people use to express themselves.
For Caballero, being able to participate in planning the fashion show and putting outfits together is a form of expression she enjoys partaking in.
“It’s an outlet for everybody,” Caballero said. “To have some type of outlet of expression, self-expression, I’d say do it. It’s hard to live in this world and not have an outlet for how you feel.”
Film junior and Zaria president Tayelor Turner said the show is a way to bring the cultures of ASU into the cultures of Arizona. Most importantly, Turner said, the goal of the show is to be able to create a general sense of community to form friendships and bonds.
“It’s a blend of everything,” Turner said. “A community between students, designers and the overall community of Arizona … that’s the main goal and that’s what it does. Just to know that there’s a group of people that may look like you, or may not look like you that care about your well-being is very important.”
In the past, the show has featured a variety of clothing items such as streetwear, casual or formal, all showcased by volunteer models.
Intermedia art sophomore Michael Satterwhite is participating as a model in the show.
Satterwhite said he immersed himself into being involved with BAC, BAD and the fashion show in an effort to connect more with the black community at ASU.
“I think black culture is really rich,” Satterwhite said. “(The show) introduces a different aspect of it to the community.”
He said the opportunity has allowed him to grow along with them as he gains more confidence in himself. Intertwining each organizations’ individual purposes with fashion as an expression is also a way to bring the cultural community together.
“As African-Americans, there have been so many issues within our community and a lot of ways that people express themselves is through art and design,” Baker said.
BAD focuses on art and design, encouraging African-Americans who enjoy any type of art. It aims to bring people together for opportunities in networking and sharing ideas for an overall support system.
STARS provides academic and social support for first-year students as it aims to help them develop professional and leadership skills. Zaria is an organization for multicultural women that serves as an open-forum and safe place to get together and express oneself through discussion of their surroundings and the issues around them.
Turner said the show is also a way for participants to gain professional experience to open doors for networking opportunities.
The show will take place outside on the lawn of the Student Services Building. Baker and Turner said it will be casual as it is meant to be fun and light-hearted.
Reach the reporter at tespana@asu.edu and follow @thaliamespana on Twitter.
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