I owe a BHM post for yesterday. I invite you to take a virtual tour of the Black Cultural Center at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
In a sense, I grew up in the BCC. Long before the Center moved into its wonderful new building it was housed in a simple house on campus. My father was a grad student at Purdue; My mother taught music in one of the public elementary schools in town. From 1st grade through 4th grade the BCC was a source of wonder to me. The art on the walls in the lounge. The tools and farm equipment that African American slaves and sharecroppers used to use on display in the basement. The comfortable, home-like atmosphere every time I stomped up the front steps and walked through the front door.
When I returned to Purdue--this time as a graduate student myself--the first place I visited was the BCC. It was like a pilgrimage. As a masters student I spent many many hours studying in the BCC library, meeting upstairs as part of the Haraka Writers--one of the BCC's four performing arts ensembles, participating in poetry slams in the basement, or just hanging out in the lounge--surrounded by the same magical art that intrigued me so much as a child.
When I heard the news of Ossie Davis's death, I immediately thought of the time I met his wife and life partner, Ruby Dee. I was in charge of writing and delivering her introduction during her BCC-sponsored appearance at Purdue. As an award for my duties (as if I needed an award for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to introduce Ms. Dee), I attended lunch with her--along with a bunch of BCC and university dignitaries. I got the sense during that lunch that she was just as honored and pleased to be part of a BCC event as members of the BCC were in having her.
And no wonder.
How great must it have been for artists and civil rights workers of her era to see this institution--born of struggle and protest--still thriving in the middle of the Indiana cornfields? I never looked at the photographs on the walls of the BCC library, pictures of all the greats who had appeared at Purdue thanks to the BCC...all the greats who had also made pilgrimages to the BCC---I never looked at these pictures the same way again.
Last summer I visted the BCC again--this time in its new home. Brand spanking new, but still that same familiar home-like feeling. Still the cultural center of the Purdue universe. Still the intellectual center of my gravity.
It's nice to see that even in evolution and change, some things stay the same.
Posted by perry032 at February 7, 2005 10:16 AM | TrackBack