To finish off the week of Valentine’s Day, SAC put on an event called The Skin I’m In. The main purpose of the event was to answer the audience’s burning questions about love, while also allowing them to feel good in their own skin and increase the love they give themselves.
Before the event started, there was a buzz of chatter outside the doors to the North Cafeteria. The advertisements for the event promised the first 75 people a free t-shirt, and it definitely seemed to increase the turnout. I was one of the people who showed up a little early to secure my shirt (who wouldn’t?). While everyone was in line, papers and pens were passed out so that attendees could write down questions that they wanted to ask the panel. These were collected as people were allowed inside and seated in the north half of the cafeteria.
The chatter was broken by two spoken word poems, one after the other. The second was delivered by Latesia McDaniels-Bailey, who was also the leader of the panel. The panel was composed of five other people from various organizations: Anika Williams, Ina Hodge, Romelo Styles, Markell Hill, and Anthony Taylor. Questions were read aloud and answered one by one, with many of the responses evoking laughter or cheers from the audience. The atmosphere was intense and electric, everything you would want a panel to be.
The audience participated in the conversation just as much as the panel. Some examples of questions were, “Do looks matter?”, “How do you tell your crush you like them?” and “Why do males and females always get mad when you don’t want to have a relationship with them after you’ve had relations with them?”.
The panel members also confessed a juicy secret: their skincare routines. Ina and Anika both stressed the importance of moisturizer, while the guys were a little more coy (cue more audience laughter).
After the first round of questions, guests were directed toward the rows of tables adorned with ingredients and recipes for homemade face scrubs, along with tables allotted for painting. There were six types of face scrubs: sugar, brown sugar, brown sugar vanilla, honey cinnamon, coffee, and almond oil. Each was meant for a specific purpose such as moisturizing or clearing up the skin. I ended up making the honey cinnamon mask because it was targeted to clearing skin. The night concluded with some calming painting. SAC members walked around and made sure that everyone had a canvas and a brush. During this time you could hear people mingling, meeting for the first time, or laughing at the panel’s responses as they painted away. The panel would occasionally reconvene for more questions, which gave the room even more energy. The room seemed brighter than it already was.
Unfortunately, the end of the night came, but well over a hundred people will have some free stuff and will have gained new insights on relationship love, self-love, and self-care.